The course concurs to the achievement of the academic goals of the BA in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at both cultural and professional levels. Students will acquire knowledge of the main
translation theories and the current debate on issues like translation and
ideology, translation and foreign language teaching, AI, ethics, environment, and refine their meaning-making process; moreover, the translation of literary and pragmatic texts will enhance the students’ linguistic and professional competencies. Students will familiarize themselves with computer-assisted and machine translation, thereby developing awareness of its limitations and ethical issues.
A module will focus on the teaching of English, also via literary texts, and on the recent reintroduction of translation within a holistic approach to foreign language teaching; students will be guided towards planning language activities for secondary school pupils.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge and understanding –
Applying knowledge and understanding:

By the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge and understanding of
- the main translation theories
- the cultural debate around translation
- translation-oriented text analysis
- online resources and translation software
- issues of adaptation, functional equivalence, context-dependent rendering
- English language teaching and the controversial use of translation

and will be able to

- analyze a text highlighting its linguistic, textual and socio-cultural properties
- translate a text without misinterpretations or L1 mistakes, using language and style that are suitable to the text type and its function
- work at collaborative translations by carrying out different tasks and being in charge of various stages in the translation workflow
- plan secondary school language activities

Making judgements:

By the end of the course, students will be able to
- identify the text type and select adequate target language text-type
conventions
- adopt the most suitable translation strategy/ies
- reflect on the translation equivalents chosen
- consider the L2 class situation and the learning objective/s in order to propose a language activity and evaluate its efficacy.

Communication skills:

By the end of the course, students will be able to
- discuss translation in its various dimensions using the relevant terminology and language competence at CEFR level C1
- collaboratively relate to the other group members while working at a translation project
- interact with learners and explain a language activity