TECHNOLOGY FOR TRANSLATION: APPROACHES AND TOOLS (SPANISH)

The course ‘Translation Technologies: Tools and Methods (Spanish)’ is offered in the third year of the Linguistic and Cultural Mediation programme and aims to provide students with a systematic overview of the main technologies and IT resources used in the professional translation sector.

The course aims to introduce students to the informed use of digital tools that support the translation process, providing the basic skills needed to navigate the current technological landscape of translation. In particular, the course aims to present the main translation support technologies (Computer-Assisted Translation – CAT tools), the terminological and documentary resources available online, as well as the digital platforms and work environments used in a professional context.

Among the course’s main objectives is the development of methodological and practical awareness in the use of technologies applied to translation, in order to enable students to understand how such tools can contribute to improving the efficiency, quality and consistency of the translation process. Particular attention will also be paid to analysing the changes that have affected the translation market in recent decades, particularly in light of technological advances and the growing prevalence of computer-assisted and machine translation.

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EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course "Technologies for Translation: Tools and Methods (Spanish)" aims to progressively introduce students to the practice of translation between Spanish and Italian, placing particular emphasis on aspects relating to the use of ICT in translation. Nowadays, the professional activity of translation is increasingly facilitated by the presence of IT tools. However, their use is not always taken for granted and these resources may also cause some problems if not used correctly. The expected learning outcomes are the following:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- To know the possibilities related to the use of ICT in translation, with a special focus on CAT tools
- To know the main aspects of machine translation
- To know the main aspects of the use of corpora in translation
- To know the basic aspects of translation memories
- To understand the fundamental aspects of terminological databases

ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- To recognise the difficulties associated with the use of ICT in relation to translation
- To internalise the strategies and methodological principles of machine translation
- To carry out the pre-editing activity
- To carry out the post-editing activity
- To identify and solve translation problems between Spanish and Italian through the use of IT resources
- To know how to manage ICT in translation activities

JUDGEMENT SKILLS
- To be able to reflect on the role of ICT in relation to translation activity in the Spanish-Italian language pair.
- To be able to reflect on the role of specialised languages in translation between Spanish and Italian.

COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
- To be able to tackle a translation project using ICT.

LEARNING SKILLS
- To be able to consult the main ICT in the field of translation in an appropriate and relevant manner

Students should have a linguistic-communicative competence in Spanish equal to level B2/C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Foreign Languages and have possibly passed the exam on the introduction to editorial, specialised translation and the exam on spanish language and translation 2.

CONTENTS
- A general framework of the theory and the techniques of translation
- IT tools applied to translation (CAT Tools Trados)
- Machine translation
- Pre-editing e post-editing
- Corpora and translation
- Translation memories
- Termbase
- Porject management

Compulsory texts

- Sánchez Ramos, M. M. & Rico Pérez, C. (2020). Traducción Automática. Conceptos clave, procesos de evaluación y técnicas de posedición. Editorial Comares, Granada.

- Conde Noguerol M. E. (2018) “Los traductores automáticos en línea como recurso metodológico en el aula de Español como lengua Extranjera”. En López García, C. y Manso, J. (eds.), Transforming education for a changing world. Eindhoven, NL, Adaya Press, pp. 304-312.

- Monti J. (2019) Dalla Zairja alla traduzione automatica. Riflessioni sulla traduzione nell’era digitale, Napoli, Paolo Loffredo Editore Srl.

Assessment of learning takes the form of a structured written examination, lasting a total of 90 minutes, designed to assess students’ grasp of the theoretical and methodological content covered during the course. The exam may include various types of questions, including multiple-choice questions, true/false questions, practical questions regarding the interface of the CAT tools used and open-ended questions requiring argumentation, designed to assess understanding of the main concepts relating to translation technologies and the IT resources analysed during the lectures.

The minimum pass mark for the written examination is set at 18/30.

written

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

The final mark will follow the following pattern:

INSUFFICIENT
≤17 - Inadequate, fragmentary and deficient knowledge of content, which is not understood or is understood and reworked only partially. Inappropriate thinking skills and exposition.

SUFFICIENT
18 - Very uncertain knowledge of content, which is necessarily to be consolidated, and which is confusedly understood and reworked. Ability to reflect and expound.
19 - Confused knowledge of content, which needs to be consolidated, and which is understood and reworked in a confused manner. Sufficient reflection and exposition skills.
20 - Sufficient content knowledge, which still needs to be partially consolidated, and which is understood and reworked in a manner that is not always entirely adequate. Sufficient reflection and exposition skills.

DISCRETE
21 - More than sufficient knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked albeit with some uncertainties. Fair reflection and exposition skills.
22 - Fair knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked with some uncertainties. Fair reflection and exposition skills.
23 - More than fair knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked with some uncertainties. Fair reflection and exposition skills.

GOOD
24 - Correct knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked albeit with some uncertainty. Good reflective and expository skills.
25 - Correct knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked fairly confidently and coherently. Fair reflection and exposition skills.
26 - Complete knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in a fairly confident and coherent manner. Fair reflection and exposition skills.

VERY GOOD
27 - Complete knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in a confident, cohesive and coherent manner. Remarkable reflective and expository skills.
28 - Complete and thorough knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in a confident, cohesive and coherent manner. Remarkable reflective and expository skills.

EXCELLENT
29 - Comprehensive and thorough knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in a confident, cohesive and coherent manner with full autonomy and personal insights. Excellent reflective and expository skills, albeit with minor imperfections.
30 - Extensive and thorough knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in a secure, cohesive and coherent manner with full autonomy and personal insights. Excellent reflective and expository skills.

30 e Lode (with high praise) - Extremely thorough and cross-cutting knowledge of content, which is understood and reworked in total autonomy and with personal contribution, with full command of specialized language and excellent ability to make interdisciplinary connections.Full capacity for reflection and exposition.

The lectures, held entirely in Spanish, will be mainly seminar-based, with the aid of power points for the presentation of issues related to IT in translation. Student participation and involvement will be encouraged through practical tests and translation projects aimed at simulating the professional practice of translation. Students will present their translation proposals in the classroom, which will then be discussed in plenary.

Lessons will be in Spanish and students must attend the 75% of the course.

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