Translation Practice (Portuguese/English)

Objectives

1. To identify the key language function in a text and the target-audience it is addressed to.
2. To match translation strategies and types of text.
3. To understand and to be able to transfer connotative and denotative meaning, as well as style and rhythm.
4. To write in a grammatically correct, well-structured and coherent manner.
5. To look for specialized vocabulary in order to create glossaries.
6. To master different translation procedures and devices, including standard reference tools and electronic source
materials.
7. To understand the advantages and constraints of the above mentioned tools.
8. To meet deadlines.
9. To develop the ability to work individually and in a team.
10. To gain self-assessment skills as well as a critical stance when reviewing translations produced by other
translators.

Program

1. Introduction to translation practice: the stages in translation; defining the translated page; writing a service
agreement;
setting budgets, and solving translation problems caused by cultural differences.
2. Language conventions in Portuguese and in English, for different contexts. Interjections, idioms and proverbs.
3. Translation exercises:
a) The Translator's Note.
b) Translating informative texts for a non-specialized audience and rendering the message in a clear and precise
language.
c) The scientific text and the rendering of specialized vocabulary: forming a glossary.
d) Literary prose: creative meatphors, meaning and style.
e) The poem: meaning, rhythm and rhyme.

Teaching Methodologies

Classes will be oriented in order to confer relevance to practical translation exercises focusing on different types of
text, from informative to complex and literary language. When revising translations, comparison-based corrections
and commentary will guarantee group feedback and oral assessment of translation strategies. This approach
provides students with the largest possible degree and range of active engagement with both peers and lecturer,
and assures the delivery of effective oral feedback. The use of a classroom equipped with computers will prove
essential for translation practice to take place in an academic environment which offers students the opportunity to
use electronic resources.
Evaluation is based on a portfolio consisting of four translated texts: three of them are short translations focusing
on different types of language, one of which, the specialized text, includes a glossary. The fourth assessment is a
translation Project.

Bibliography

a) Diversos textos científicos, literários e jornalísticos.
b) Recursos em linha:
http://www.rhymer.com/RhymingDictionary/kind.html
http://www.linguee.pt/
http://www.wordwebonline.com/
http://www.linguateca.pt/COMPARA/processa_pesquisa.php
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
c) Dicionários:
ADAMS, Joel, HEWITT, Melanie, JENKINS, Susannah (coord.), Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners,
Oxford: Macmillan, 2002.
HORNBY, A S, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press, 2000.
LAPEDES, Daniel N., McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
WIMMER, Franz (dir.), The New Michaelis/Novo Michaelis, vol II Português-Inglês, Portuguese-English, Edições
Melhoramentos, 1986.