Teaching Translation in Non-Specialised University Courses at the University of Turin

A modest proposal

by Paola Brusasco, M. Cristina Caimotto, Aurelia Martelli

This article considers the possibility of a mutually beneficial interface between translation theory and pedagogy. The authors, who teach English language and translation courses at the University of Turin, analyse their methodologies against the backdrop of learners’ needs and problematic areas such as: rendering lexically dense noun phrases, weighing synonyms, identifying and reproducing marked themes, reordering sentence structure in the TL Text analysis, a contrastive description of L1 and L2 structures along with the study of previous translations and parallel texts are here illustrated as useful methods for deepening linguistic knowledge and for raising students’ awareness of the complexities of translation.

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