From the Stinking Bishop to the Abbucciato Aretino (and back): Using corpora in the translation classroom

The present paper illustrates a short module of corpus-assisted translation conducted at the University of Siena for undergraduates attending the BA in Languages and Intercultural Communication. Students were shown how to design and compile their own specialized comparable corpora, which they then used to produce a) translations into Italian of an English text on the traditional “Stinking Bishop” cheese; b) translations into one of their foreign languages (English, French, German or Spanish) of a similar Italian text on the typical “Abbucciato Aretino” cheese; and c) presentations on relevant issues of corpus compilation and consultation. The projects thus obtained show a strong linguistic-translational competence and considerable metalinguistic-metatranslational awareness, characteristics which support the case for data-driven activities as a powerful tool enhancing translation students’ observation and reflection skills and encouraging their learning autonomy.