BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
Instrumental Goals (linguistic and communicative skills / AAL Spanish C2):
By the end of the course, the student will have deepened and strengthened their competence in the four communicative skills at the C2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference. They will be able to understand texts of advanced difficulty and reformulate them using a register different from the original, modifying their textual structure.
Disciplinary Goals:
At a metalinguistic level, by the end of the first-semester module, the student will have developed an awareness of translation (from Spanish into Italian) as a communicative act that takes place within a context of social interaction. They will also have learned the analytical parameters of linguistic variation and register—foundational for translation—as well as the pragmatic organization of the source text (speech act theory and the communication of implicit meaning). Familiarity with these concepts will enable the student to negotiate translation solutions that ensure communicative and pragmatic equivalence in the target text.
Both the instrumental and disciplinary objectives contribute to the achievement of the following learning outcomes, structured according to the Dublin Descriptors:
1. Knowledge and understanding (D1):
- Understand complex, advanced-level (C2) texts, recognizing their structure, register, implicit meaning, intertextual references, and cultural/discursive connotations.
- Demonstrate knowledge of linguistic variation (diatopic, diastratic, diamesic) and its impact on meaning and interpretation.
- Understand translation as a pragmatic and interactional act of communication.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding (D2):
- Reformulate complex written texts by changing register and reorganizing textual structure, while maintaining meaning and cohesion.
- Apply metalinguistic tools to analyse and translate authentic texts with attention to variation and communicative context.
- Translate opinion journalism texts from Spanish into Italian, critically justifying choices made to ensure communicative and pragmatic equivalence.
3. Making judgements (D3):
- Critically evaluate translation strategies in relation to the communicative goals of the source and target texts.
- Identify and analyse cultural, ideological, and linguistic implicatures in the texts.
- Develop awareness of the translator's role as an intercultural mediator.
4. Communication skills (D4):
- Communicate proficiently in both Spanish and Italian in academic and professional contexts.
- Clearly and coherently justify translation choices in oral and written form.
- Use registers and discursive strategies appropriately according to communicative intent and context.
5. Learning skills (D5):
- Develop autonomous strategies for improving language and translation skills.
- Integrate theoretical and practical knowledge in the translation of complex texts.
- Cultivate a critical and reflective approach to translation as a cultural practice.
Course Prerequisites
Knowledge of Spanish at level C1 or higher.
Prerequisites: Passing the exam Spanish Language LMI – Linguistics and Translation is mandatory before taking this exam.
Teaching Methods
1) Regarding disciplinary competences (official course taught by the professor):
Lectures will be held in Spanish, supported by PowerPoint presentations and authentic Spanish-language texts. The texts provided by the professor will be analyzed during the lessons to exemplify the methodology of textual analysis for translation, which is the focus of the course.
Translated texts will be corrected in class, and students will present their translation proposals, which will be discussed using the analytical framework taught in the course.
All PowerPoint presentations, texts, and materials used during the course will be progressively made available on the e-learning platform (Moodle).
2) Regarding instrumental competences (practical sessions/AAL):
Please consult the section of the university website dedicated to the University Language Centre by selecting Spanish – LLCS ("AAL Spanish language C2"):
https://www.unibg.it/studiare/frequentare/apprendimento-linguistico/spagnolo/spagnolo-llcs
Please note that the practical sessions are an integral part of the course and are essential for achieving the C2-level instrumental competence required to take the exam covering the two modules of the official course.
Assessment Methods
The exam consists of two phases:
a) the assessment of linguistic and communicative skills, and
b) the assessment of disciplinary content.
Access to part b) is only granted after passing part a).
a) Assessment of linguistic and communicative skills (AAL Spanish C2):
- Grammar and vocabulary test: A written test aimed at verifying mastery of Spanish grammatical structures and vocabulary. Use of dictionaries is not allowed. (90 minutes)
- "Destrezas" test – reading and writing skills: An integrated test consisting of one reading comprehension exercise and one written production task. (90 minutes)
- Pedagogical translation test IT>ES: Translation into Spanish of a text of approximately 230–250 words. Only monolingual paper dictionaries (including those of synonyms, antonyms, and collocations) and glossaries compiled by students during the year are allowed. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted. (60 minutes)
All three tests must be taken and passed in the same exam session. The grade is valid for 18 months; after this period, in order to access the disciplinary content assessment (part b), all tests must be repeated.
As these are partial tests, grades cannot be declined. All tests must be passed with a minimum score of 18/30. The final grade for the instrumental part is the arithmetic average of the scores obtained.
Once all tests are passed, students may access the official course exam. The language skills assessment (part a) may only be taken starting from the first exam session following the end of all lessons from both modules (i.e., the May session).
b) Assessment of Disciplinary Content (official course)
The assessment of Module A of the official course consists of:
a) Translation from Spanish into Italian of an opinion-based journalistic text of approximately 150 words. (60 minutes) Only monolingual dictionaries and printed glossaries may be used during this test.
b) Oral examination in Spanish on the disciplinary content of Module A. The oral exam will begin with a textual analysis of the excerpt translated in Test 1. The student will explain the main translation challenges encountered, analyze them using the methodology learned during the course, and describe the strategies employed to resolve them.
During the oral exam, both disciplinary knowledge (course content) and tC2-level oral communicative competence will be assessed.
Final Assessment
- 1/3 of the final grade: AAL test (average of the three written tasks)
- 2/3 of the final grade: Official course exam (oral exam on module A + B)
All components must be passed in order to obtain a final grade.
Assessment Scale (out of 30 points)
- Excellent (30 cum laude): Complete knowledge, applied with precision and autonomy. No errors.
- Very good (30–27): Solid knowledge, correctly applied. Minor and infrequent errors.
- Good (26–24): Adequate knowledge, with some inaccuracies. No serious or systematic errors.
- Sufficient (23–18): Basic knowledge, with evident errors but overall sufficient understanding.
- Failing grade (<18): Incomplete knowledge, numerous errors that compromise exam performance.
Contents
The course is structured around a model of textual analysis aimed at supporting the translation from Spanish of opinion journalism texts (editorials and columnas). Starting from general concepts of textuality and translation competence, it explores the act of translation as the result of a negotiation of meaning within a specific communicative and socio-cultural context. From a systemic-functional perspective, this context is analyzed across three key dimensions:
- Communicative dimension (linguistic variation, analysis and selection of the appropriate register for the translation task);
- Pragmatic dimension (speech acts present in the text, application of Grice’s Cooperative Principle, and analysis of presuppositions and implicatures conveyed by the source and target texts);
- Semiotic dimension (the notion of text genre as an interface between source and target texts; intertextuality, metadiscourse, discourse, and ideology).
- Theoretical reflection will be supported by the analysis of authentic Spanish-language texts from the journalistic field.
Specifically, during the first semester, the course will cover chapters 1–2–3–4 of the textbook, and the translation exercises will focus on the Spanish-to-Italian direction, with the support of the main Spanish corpora, both comparable and parallel, available online (CORPES XXI, CREA, corpora in Sketch Engine).
Online Resources
More information
Classes are taught in Spanish. The official course reading lists (available via the LEGANTO application) are final and include the titles that all students—whether attending or not—are required to study in preparation for the exam.
All students are also required to study the supplementary materials and texts that the instructor will upload to the course’s e-learning platform during the semester.
The DELE Spanish Diploma at level C2 or the SIELE GLOBAL Diploma at level C2 will be accepted as a substitute for the language skills assessment tests, with the exception of the translation test (see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/185_Z9S87doGYWIyzm7hU5ZaXkJVWhfuQYHCNaaUSXoI/edit?tab=t.0).
Should the course be delivered in a blended or remote format, changes may be made to the syllabus to ensure that both the course and exams remain accessible in these formats.
PLEASE NOTE: Course syllabi are valid for two academic years.