Interpretazione e traduzione

Serena Cecco and Sabina Fata presented an engaging workshop at the 2020 VALBEC Conference in which they demonstrated a creative solution to the restrictions that the COVID pandemic forced upon face-to-face learning in 2020. While their project was designed for students learning to be interpreters at university level, the tools and processes involved can be adapted and the task modified for language classes at lower levels. There is potential for such a task to enable learners with English as an Additional Language to use their multilingual skills and recognise that they possess knowledge and skills that monolingual speakers do not

Working as a language mediator means being a communications expert with excellent linguistic skills and a great capacity for interacting well with others. To ensure a positive outcome for each interpreting assignment, the interpreter must be well-organised, thoroughly prepared and ready to deal with unforeseen events. Therefore, interpreting students need to experience real-life situations, such as those offered for example by a mock guided tour, which gives them the opportunity to put their language and interpreting skills, but also their enacting into practice.
Second year students at Campus CIELS, Italy – Bachelor’s Degree in Interpreting and Translation Studies – were invited to organise and participate in a tour of the city of Padua, where they acted as editors, guides, interpreters, terminologists, photographers, video editors, visitors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the mock guided tour had to be carried out online in a virtual setting, the students had to organise all necessary steps online: organisational tasks, preparation work, rehearsals, coordination, the tour itself, reflective tasks, and feedback from the lecturers.
This presentation will report on the different phases of the activity (preparation, enactment and feedback), the digital tools employed, and the possible application in language learning.