Training Museum Translators through Linguistics Theory, Practical Experience and Civic Engagement: A Case-study

This paper, situated at the intersection of Translation Studies, translator education and linguistics, aims to present a didactic project on interlingual museum translation conducted by the author at the University of Bologna, Italy, over the past three years. The project-based methodology draws its data from a qualitative case-study reporting on the so-called “Museum Project”, carried out with postgraduate students in a Translation Studies course within the international second cycle degree program in Language, Society and Communication of the Department of Modern languages, Literatures and Cultures. The project involved three cohorts of students, who were tasked with producing target texts (translated from Italian into English), for the Civic Archaeological Museum in Bologna, immersing them in a ‘situated learning’ context. Following an overview of the linguistics framework underlying the project – i.e., Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday 1994) as applied to museum texts by Ravelli (1996, 2006) – the paper focuses on the background, context and methodology. It details the setting and participants, materials and resources, and elaborates on the details of design and procedures, all underpinned by a student-centered approach. Preliminary findings from the ongoing project are provided, with a goal to show the potentials of such a project-based method in translator education. It is argued that task-based activities for the real world not only enhance students’ motivation and engagement, but also raise self-awareness of their learning processes, thanks to the acquisition of a broad range of skills and competences. The study aspires to stimulate similar projects in different museum contexts, with other language combinations, other students and new researchers.hopes to stimulate similar projects in different museum contexts, with other language combinations, other students and new researchers.