Intermodal Corpora and the Translation Classroom: What can Translation Trainers and Trainees Learn from Interpreting?

Abstract

This contribution focuses on didactic applications of intermodal corpora, i.e. corpora featuring interpreted and translated language. It relies on EPTIC, a multipletranslation and intermodal parallel corpus containing EU Parliament plenary speeches in Italian and English. The peculiar nature of EPTIC allows the investigation of a set of translational alternatives which are distinguished by modality- and task-based constraints (written vs. oral, translated vs. interpreted). To exemplify the potential of such corpus evidence, teaching activities focusing on collocations are proposed that encourage students to reflect on the decision-making processes involved in the slower-paced, reflective task of translation, vs. the faster, more automatic one of interpreting. A method is also described that can facilitate the selection of relevant didactic examples.

Keywords

• multiple translation corpora
• intermodal corpora
• collocations
• corpusbased teaching materials