Technical and Scientific Translation Portuguese-Italian

Code:

MTSL060

Acronym:

TTCPIT

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Language Sciences - Translation

Instance: 2017/2018 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://web.letras.up.pt/egalvao
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Course/CS Responsible:	Master of Arts in Translation and Language Services

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MTSL	7	MTSL - Study Plan	2	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Italiano e Português

Objectives

The main objective of this class is to enable students to complete all the phases of a translation project in a specific scientific and/or technical domain. The emphasis is on team work and networking with other students, teachers and professionals to achieve good quality translation solutions and a good overall product that satisfies the requirements specified in translation briefs. The general focus is therefore on helping students develop the skills and use the tools that will enable them to specialize in different areas.

Learning outcomes and competences

Students who successfully complete this class will:

• be able to analyse scientific and technical texts of various types paying special attention to terminology, phraseology, information structure, register and style;

• be able to carefully select and make effective use of multiple online resources: databases, CAT tools, electronic corpora, Machine Translation;

• be autonomous learners of specialized languages, with emphasis on personal preferences and interests in a specific scientific and/or technical field;

• be familiar with all the different phases of a professional translation project;

• be able to adapt their translations to the specific needs and objectives of the target audience;

• be able to select the appropriate translation strategy at macro level and the most adequate translation solution at micro level and to justify these choices using suitable metalanguage;

• work in a team and be aware of the need to implement a quality assurance plan adapted to each translation project.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Excellent knowledge of working languages and their cultures. 

Good knowledge of CAT tools.

Program

Given that the expression “scientific and technical translation" covers an extremely vast range of text types and areas of knowledge, the focus of this class will be on helping students acquire and develop the skills that will enable them to specialize in one or more areas of their own choice. In-class work will be based on different text types (e.g., academic articles, abstracts, reports, user manuals, etc.) relating to the same topic, such as, for instance, renewable energy. The guided discovery on how to deal with these translation projects, from the pre-translation and research phase to the production and post-translation phase, will then serve as a model for students' own projects in other fields. Students’ projects will comprise an extended translation assignment on a specialized topic of their own choice as well as the making of specialized comparable corpora and a glossaries.

Mandatory literature

Scarpa, Federica; La Traduzione Specializzata. Lingue speciali e mediazione linguistica, Milano:Hoepli, 2001
GOUADEC, Daniel. ; Translation as a Profession, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007
NORD, Christiane; Translating as a Purposeful Activity, Manchester: St.Jerome Publishing, 1997
Olohan, Maeve; Scientific and Technical Translation, Routledge, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-909485-00-6
Byrne, Jody; Scientific and Technical Translation Explained: A Nuts and Bolts Guide for Beginners (Translation Practices Explained), Routledge, 2012

Complementary Bibliography

Ulrych, Margarita (Ed.); Tradurre. Un approccio multidisciplinare, Libreria UTET Torino, 1997. ISBN: 88-7750-489-7

Teaching methods and learning activities

The number of students with Italian in their language combination is usually very limited. For this reason, classes are best described as practical translation seminars or tutorial sessions where the teacher and students analyse and discuss requests for translation/revision services, translation briefs and the texts to be translated/revised. Students work on translation projects as freelance translators and they are responsible for overall project management, translation, revision, quality control, etc. They have to manage each translation job in a professional manner (from answering requests for quotation and planning the project to delivering the final product and invoicing the client). Feedback will be provided on each job, which will have to be revised following the comments and suggestions received.

Software

Memo Q
Recursos online para tradutores
SDL TRADOS 2014
Matecat

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	0,00
Teste	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de projeto	30,00
Estudo autónomo	0,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Trabalho de investigação	21,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Students are expected to attend 75% of classes, except for worker students 

Calculation formula of final grade

Formative assessment: translation projects (50%)

Summative assessment: final translation test (50%)

 

Final test: translation from Portuguese into Italian of a scientific or technical text of about 400 words.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Internship work/project

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

To be agreed upon with between teacher and students at the beginning of the semester.

Classification improvement

Students wishing to improve their final grade will have to repeat the final test.

Observations

Languages of instruction: Italian and Portuguese