Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Costanza Peverati

Costanza Peverati is a teacher of English in the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore at Brescia, Italy. Her research interests lie primarily in the field of ELT,  Translation in Language Teaching, and ESP, in particular the language of tourism.

Translation in University Foreign-Language Curricula: An Analysis of Teachers' Attitudes with Reference to Vocational and Transferability Criteria

Supervisors: John Kearns and Anthony Pym

Research Summary

This study analyzes translation pedagogy in the context of foreign-language degree courses and discusses, with particular reference to the Italian context, a perceived polarization between philological and vocational orientations. It investigates possible ways around the dysfunctions associated with such a polarized scenario. These fundamentally originate from the mainstreaming of broader conceptions of translation and its role in Foreign Language Teaching: on the one hand, translation as a dynamic exercise in authentic communication, and on the other, translation as an activity that provides access to a wide range of transferable generic skills. The empirical part of the study examines the findings of a large-scale study on translation in language learning with a view to identifying prevailing understandings of translation among instructors, reasons for resistance, and evidence about awareness of, or actual work with, the transferable generic dimension of translation learning.

Research design
 

Conference Presentations

2013. "Translation in modern language curricula. A focus on communication and transferable generic skills", poster presented at the 7th EST Congress Translation Studies: Centres and Peripheries. Johannes Gutenberg University, Germersheim, 29-31 August 2013.

2013. "Translation as transferable generic learning. A strand of empirical research?", paper presented at the Conference New research in Translation and Interpreting Studies 5. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, 1-2- July 2013.

2010. "Unità lessicali complesse nel discorso turistico. Una proposta di registrazione terminografica", paper presented with Alessandra Lombardi at the Conference Confini mobili - Lingua e cultura nel discorso del turismo. Università degli Studi di Milano, 10-12 November 2010.

2010. "TouriTerm: un database terminologico-testuale per la traduzione e redazione di testi turistici", paper presented with Alessandra Lombardi at the Conference Emerging Topics in Translation and Interpreting. Università di Trieste, 16-18 June 2010.

2009. "TouriTerm: un database multilingue per la traduzione e la redazione di testi turistici", paper presented with Alessandra Lombardi and Irmgard Soukup-Unterweger at the Conference Il turismo culturale a Brescia in una prospettiva inter/nazionale. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia, 19-20 November 2009.

2009. "Intercultural and interlinguistic mediation skills in the tourist sector. Educational needs and (some) proposals", paper delivered to the conference Higher Tourism Education: Issues and Practices, University of Bologna at Rimini, 16-17 October 2009.

2009. "TouriTerm: A multilingual database for the translation and production of quality tourist texts", paper delivered to the XVII European Symposium on Languages for Specific Purposes, Ǻarhus School of Business, 17-21 August 2009, with Alessandra Lombardi and Irmgard Soukup-Unterweger.

2007. "Professionally-oriented translation teaching in a foreign language faculty", paper delivered at the conference New Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies 2, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona.

2006. "Introduzione ai lavori. Prospettive linguistiche e traduttologiche negli studi sul turismo", paper delivered at the conference "Travelling texts -­ reisende Texte, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia, 21 December 2006.

Publications

2014. "Translation in university foreign-language curricula as transferable generic learning. Challenges for pedagogy and research", in E. Torres-Simon and D. Orrego-Carmona (eds.) Translation Research Project 5. Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group. 13-24.

2013. Review of Translation as a human skill. From predisposition to expertise. Boguslawa Whyatt. 2012. L'Analisi Linguistica e Letteraria, 21 (1): 35.

2013. Review of Translation in Second Language Learning and Teaching. Arnd Witte, Theo Harden, Alessandra Ramos de Oliveira Harden (eds). 2009. Translation Ireland, 19 (1): 182-189.

2013. "Translation in Modern Language Degree Courses. A Focus on Transferable Generic Skills", inTRAlinea. Online Translation Journal, 15.

2012. "TouriTerm: un database terminologico per la traduzione e redazione di testi turistici", Rivista Internazionale di Tecnica della Traduzione 14: 47-158. (with Alessandra Lombardi)

2012. "La ricerca linguistica negli Studi sul Turismo. Un repertorio bibliografico", in M. Agorni (ed). Prospettive Linguistiche e Traduttologiche negli Studi sul Turismo. Milan: Franco Angeli. 115-149.

2012. "TouriTerm: una banca dati multilingue per la traduzione e la redazione di testi turistici", in M. Agorni (ed). Comunicare la città. Turismo culturale e comunicazione. Il caso di Brescia. Milan: Franco Angeli. 143-150. (with Alessandra Lombardi and Irmgard Soukup-Unterweger).

2010. "TouriTerm: Eine mehrsprachige Datenbank für die qualitative Erstellung und Übersetzung von Tourismustexten", Online Proceedings of the XVII European Symposium on LSP. Available at http://www.asb.dk/lsp2009 (with Alessandra Lombardi and Irmgard Soukup-Unterweger).

2009. "Professionally oriented translation teaching in a modern-language faculty. An exploratory case-study", in A. Pym and A. Perekrestenko (eds). Translation Research Project 2. Universitat Rovira i Virgili: Intercultural Studies Group, 173-189. 

2009. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lovere, il luogo più romantico che abbia mai visto in vita mia. Lettere da Lovere e dintorni 1749-1755. Translation, preface and notes by Costanza Peverati. I Quaderni del Centro Civico Culturale di Lovere 1.

2008. "Oltre le mura del Castello. Esperienze di traduzione turistica attiva in un contesto didattico professionalizzante". Rivista Internazionale di Tecnica della Traduzione, 10: 13-31, with Alessandra Lombardi.

2008. Review of Translation Teaching. From Research to the Classroom. A Handbook for Teachers. Sonia Colina. 2003. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 2 (2): 253-261. 

2006. Review of Translation in a Postcolonial Context. Early Irish Literature in English Translation. Maria Tymoczko. 1999. The Translator, 12 (2): 392-397.

2005. Translation and commentary of "History, Translation, Postcolonialism". Michael Cronin. 2000; "Storia, Traduzione, Postcolonialismo", in M. Agorni (ed). La Traduzione. Teorie e Metodologie a Confronto. Milan: Led Edizioni Universitarie. 259-274 e 346-348.

Viva: July 7, 2014

Examining committee :
Dr. Dorothy Kellly (Universidad de Granada)
Dr. Catherine Way (Universidad de Granada)
Dr. Bogusia Whyatt (Adam Mickiewicz University)

External evaluators
Dr. Natasa Pavlovic (UZ)
Dr. Kirsten Malmjkaer (University of Leeds)