Un’esperienza di insegnamento tra plain language e traduzione

This paper illustrates a teaching method used during an Italian to English translation course at the University of Udine, Italy, in 2018, involving BA Public Relations students. During the course, both theoretical classes and exercises were aimed at developing translation skills; however, the main goal was to teach students how to rewrite texts in plain Italian before actually translating them into English. While practicing, students were asked to tackle an intermediate step before translating, i.e. an intralinguistic translation from a more difficult version to a plain Italian version of the source text. The course was not originally meant as an experiment; however, it proved to be a useful testing ground for didactic purposes.