CHINESE-ITALIAN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING MOD.1

The course aims to develop students’ simultaneous interpreting techniques, with particular attention to fluency and consistency of performance. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to a wide variety of speech genres and speaker profiles, including topics related to economics, politics, international organisations, and both Chinese and Italian institutions. Special focus will be placed on the specific challenges of interpreting from Chinese, such as handling numbers, proverbs, and culturally bound expressions.

1. Knowledge and understanding: by the end of the course, students will be able to understand complex oral texts or speeches in Chinese and will have developed techniques and strategies for simultaneous interpreting.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding: students will enhance their comparative awareness of Italian and Chinese cultures, and will learn to interpret while keeping in mind the needs and expectations of their target audience.
3. Autonomy of judgement: through class preparation and independent study, students will develop critical thinking skills. They will also be asked to work in pairs or groups, providing feedback to their peers on various aspects of the interpreting process.
4. Communication skills: students will refine their advanced oral communication skills by focusing on the communicative aspects of interpreting, with particular attention to public speaking.
5. Learning skills: students will acquire the core skills of a professional interpreter, including simultaneous strategies and glossary preparation, which will be useful for their future professional development.

To access the course, students must have a Chinese language proficiency (both written and oral) of at least HSK4 (equivalent to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - CEFR). A very high command of the Italian language is also required, with a rich vocabulary and strong oral and written communication skills.

The course is designed to strengthen students’ linguistic, expressive, and communicative abilities in both Chinese and Italian, while enabling them to reach a good level of competence in simultaneous interpreting from Chinese into Italian. Building on the knowledge acquired during the first year, the course will focus on refining interpreting techniques through the analysis, preparation, and in-class interpretation of increasingly complex Chinese texts and speeches. The course provides students with the necessary foundation to face professional interpreting contexts with confidence.

Teaching materials will be provided throughout the course primarily in digital format, in order to minimise the use of paper.

Recommended texts:
- Roderick Jones, Conference Interpreting Explained, Routledge, Second Edition, 2014.
An introductory yet practical handbook, widely used in conference interpreting training worldwide. It covers the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of simultaneous interpreting.
- Caterina Falbo, Mariachiara Russo, Francesco Straniero Sergio, Interpretazione simultanea e consecutiva: problemi teorici e metodologie didattiche, Hoepli, Milano, 1999.

Supplementary materials (texts, glossaries, speeches, exercises) will be uploaded to the Moodle platform.

The final exam will consist of a simultaneous interpreting test from Chinese into Italian. Students will be required to demonstrate their ability to adequately prepare for a simulated short conference, during which they will interpret a speech (read or recorded by a native speaker lecturer), using the techniques developed during the course.

Students will be assessed based on the following criteria:
- accuracy in content delivery (25%);
- appropriate use of language (25%);
- ability to apply interpreting strategies learned (25%);
- fluent and dynamic delivery (25%).

Detailed evaluation criteria will be made available via the Moodle platform.

oral

Final grades will be expressed on a scale of 30 points, according to the following indicative scale:

- 30 cum laude: outstanding interpretation, complete, fluent, and highly professional.
- 30–28: very good interpretation, with only minor, non-critical inaccuracies.
- 27–24: good interpretation, though with some omissions or errors.
- 23–21: satisfactory interpretation, but with evident weaknesses in delivery.
- 20–18: barely sufficient interpretation, with serious limitations.
- Below 18: insufficient, the performance does not meet the minimum criteria for passing.

The course will mainly consist of practical exercises in simultaneous interpreting based on real political, economic, general and specialist speeches. Materials will include audio/video recordings of conferences or public events selected by the lecturer.
Students will engage in exercises aimed at improving their performance, with special attention given to feedback from both the lecturer and peers on communicative features (register, style, prosody, disfluencies, etc.). Real-life interpreting settings will be simulated through mock conferences, including bi-directional interpreting tasks, to enhance professional readiness.

All the course related materials such as presentations, texts, audio and video files or links will be available on the Moodle platform in the dedicated area.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development