FR1004: Skills and Techniques for Translation
Terms 1 and 2
This course is compulsory for French Single Honours and Majors; optional for Joint Honours
Course tutor: Anne Pauline Crepet
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- Extract meaning from a range of texts (written texts and recordings) using a range of strategies
- use dictionaries and other resources and efficiently to develop your vocabulary
- translate into English simple texts and recordings
- recognise the potential of written material as a linguistic teaching and learning resource and how to use this material to develop your knowledge of French
- highlight and re-use new grammatical structures and vocabulary
- Present material orally and in writing, in French.
The course will be based on written and recorded material, selected principally from the French press (newspapers, magazines, specialist journals, web-based material, etc...) and the French radio. Extracts of literary texts and films may be used as appropriate. Weekly exercises will include:
- Vocabulary work
- Comprehension exercises
- Rewriting exercises
- Translation exercises
- Summary exercises
- Grammar work
An important feature of the course is that it helps you develop an autonomous approach to learning languages by giving you the tools they need to work on a wide range of material to develop your knowledge of French grammar, vocabulary and culture.
The course is taught weekly (1 hour a week), and you are expected to spend 6 hours a week on personal work (guidance will be given).
Bibliography:
Core material will be on Moodle.
You need to buy:
Petit Robert (French Monolingual Dictionary)
Collins-Robert (Bilingual Dictionary)
Margaret Jubb and Annie Rouxeville, French Grammar in Context, Routledge, latest edition.
Assessment:
50% coursework : oral presentation (10%), Practical skill exercises (20%) and Listening exercises (20%).
50% portfolio to be handed in at the beginning of term 3.