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2020/2021

Foreign language B for translators and interpreters 4 (French)

Code: 101508 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500249 Translation and Interpreting OB 2 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Eric Jean-Michel Martin
Email:
EricJeanMichel.Martin@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
(fre)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

To take this subject students must be able to:

-          understand somewhat complex written texts about personal and general topics from different areas. CE5, MECR FTI B.2.4

-          produce written texts about general topics from familiar areas. CE6, MECR FTI B2.2 and B2.3

-          understand somewhat complex oral texts about personal and general topics from familiar areas. CE7 MECR FTI B2.2

-          produce somewhat complex oral texts about general topics from familiar areas. CE8 MECR FTI B2.1 and B2.2

 

Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of the subject is to develop students' communication skills in French and strengthen the textual comprehension skills they require for direct and inverse translation.

 On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to:

-      Understand different types of complex written texts from a wide range of fields, perceiving stylistic and geographical differences. (MCRE-FTI C1.2.)

-          Produce different types of somewhat complex written texts on general subjects from a wide range of fields and in the most common registers. (MCRE-FTI B2.4.)

-      Understand different types of somewhat complex oral texts on general subjects from a wide range of fields and in the most common registers. (MCRE-FTI B)

-      Produce different types of oral texts about general topics from different fields. (MCRE-FTI B2.3)

 

Competences

  • Producing oral texts in a foreign language in order to interpret.
  • Producing written texts in a foreign language in order to translate.
  • Understanding written texts in a foreign language in order to translate.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Applying lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge: Applying graphical, lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge.
  2. Applying lexical, morphosyntactic, textual, rhetorical and linguistic variation related knowledge: Applying phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic and textual related knowledge.
  3. Comprehending the communicative purpose and sense of written texts of several fields: Comprehending the communicative purpose and sense of a diverse typology of written texts about general topics from a wide variety of fields and registers.
  4. Implementing strategies in order to produce verbal texts from different fields and with specific communicative purposes: Implementing strategies in order to produce a diverse typology of oral texts about general topics of several fields.
  5. Implementing strategies in order to understand written texts from different fields: Implementing strategies in order to comprehend a diverse typology of complex written texts from a wide variety of fields, detecting the stylistic and geographical differences.
  6. Producing verbal texts from different fields and with specific communicative purposes: Producing verbal texts with specific communicative purposes, following standard models of discourse.
  7. Producing verbal texts that are appropriate to their context and possess linguistic correctness: Producing a diverse typology of oral texts of a certain complexity of general topics from different fields, that are appropriate to their context and possess a high level of linguistic correctness.
  8. Producing written texts from different fields and with specific communicative purposes: Producing simple academic texts, following standard models of discourse.

Content

CONTENTS

COMMUNICATION GOALS

Written comprehension

Understanding press articles, short stories, novels

Written production

Summaries and reviews of written texts

Narratives and essays

Monitoring coherence and cohesion

Oral comprehension and expression

Understanding French news, talks, debates, chats and reports on general topics from familiar fields

Small group discussions

Oral presentations

Summaries and reviews of oral texts

II TOPICS

- Current events in France and other French-speaking countries

- Some French-speaking countries

- The consumer society, fashion

- The mind in all its states: sanity, madness, dreams, emotions

- Work / parties

- The gender war

III LINGUISTIC OBJECTIVES

PHONETICS

Introduction to the accents of France (Midi accent) and other French-speaking countries (Quebec, Belgium, African countries)

GRAMMAR

Verbal tense and modes

Further study of past tenses (e.g. passé surcomposé)

Understanding some uses of the imperfect subjunctive

Expressing nuances with the help of verbal modes

Nominal syntagmas and pronouns

The relative pronouns lequel - qui / duquel - dont; qui in proverbs and sayings

Quiconque, toute personne qui

Use of toute personne (qui...) ≠ n'importe quelle personne

Unusual indefinite adjectives: bien des, maintes, autrui, nul

Double pronominalisation : l'en, l'y, lui en, etc.

Time and logical relationships

Revision of logical adverbs of formal discourse: or, certes, néanmoins

Revision of the proposition participe: une fois la fête terminée

Use of tant que, d'autant plus que, d'autant moins que, etc.

consequence and comparison: si, tant…que / aussi, autant…que…

tellement, tant with a causal value: on ne l'a pas reconnu tellement il a changé

Revision of the concessional tours

Understanding a formal conditional: s'il eût accepté, la population lui en aurait / eût été fort reconnaissante

Unusual prepositive and adverbial phrases

Pragmatemes: Pas question / Ça alors / Tu parles ! etc.

TEXTUAL LINGUISTICS

Revision of certain aspects of textual linguistics: anaphora, coherence, thematic progression, etc. (continued)

Anaphora such as ce dernier, le premier / le second, celui-ci, celui-là / ceci, cela

Lexical anaphora

Modalisation and subjectivity

Language registers

MORPHOLOGY

Nominalisation and double nominalisation

suffixes

Homonymy / polysemy

Onomatopoeia

PHRASEOLOGY

collocations

Metaphorical expressions / semantic labels

pragmatic phrases

proverbs

PLAYS ON WORDS

in newspaper headlines

Palimpsests

French comedians' humour

Methodology

Teaching Methodology

The competencies in French as a foreign language will be broadened and strengthened and the specific skills required for translation will be developed: on the one hand, general and communicative skills in the foreign language, on the other hand, linguistic skills in French used as a working language for translation, with special emphasis on those that have a pragmatic, intercultural and contrastive (B-A) relevance for translation, or play a heuristic or instrumental role in language learning.

 

Activities

-          Tasks aimed at developing strategies and methods for reading and understanding a text.

-          Tasks aimed at promoting strategies and methods for speech analysis.

-          Analysis of frequent linguistic and intercultural (B-A) problems in current texts, followed by grammar drills, performative tasks or exercises aimed at detecting such problems.

-          Introduction to textual synthesis and the basics of linguistic mediation by means of periphrases, reformulation or explanation of textual contents.

-          Improvement of textual production in French and revision of defective texts.

-          Oral and written communicative tasks of different types.

 

.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Occasional lectures involving oral comprehension and interaction activities 8h 8 0.32 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 8, 7, 6
Reading comprehension activities 10 0.4 2, 1, 5, 3
Written activities 10 0.4 2, 1, 5, 8
Type: Supervised      
Preparation, supervision and revision of oral and written activities 17 0.68 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 8, 7, 6
Type: Autonomous      
Preparing and performing oral comprehension and production activities 46 1.84 2, 1, 4, 3, 7, 6
Preparing and performing reading comprehension and written production activities 46 1.84 2, 1, 5, 8

Assessment

Assessment is continuous. Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing tasks and tests. Task deadlines will be indicated in the course schedule on the first day of class.

The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins.

Should face-to-face assessment prove impossible, the form of the exam will be adapted to available on-line tools in UAB without changing the assessment weighting.  Homework, activities and participation will be carried out on line, by way of forums, wikis and/or debates on Teams, making sure all students can access them. Besides, grammar and vocabulary tests will be included into expression and comprehension exams.

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.

Classification as "not assessable"

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting forjust 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of "0" for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of "0" for the subject.

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Listening exam and written synthesis 15% 2 0.08 2, 1, 5, 3, 8
Morphosyntactic and lexical exam 20% 2 0.08 2, 1
Oral presentation about a text 20% 1 0.04 1, 5, 4, 3, 7, 6
Out-of-class activities 15% 4 0.16 2, 1, 5, 3, 8
Reading comprehension exam and essay 15% 2 0.08 2, 1, 5, 3, 8
reading comprehension exam 15% 2 0.08 1, 5, 3

Bibliography

Edito C1 (éd. 2018) - Livre +DVD-rom (Éditions Didier)

ISBN : 9782278090969

Grammar book : Grammaire essentielle du français – B2 (Éditions Didier) (2017)

ISBN : 9782278087327

Additional reading materials and digital resources will be published on the Virtual Campus