The course aims to practice all four macro skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. The objective is to reach a C2 level (CEFR) by the end of the second year program.
The first-year course focuses on:
- An introduction to English phonetics, phonology and lexis;
- Articulation of sounds and groups of sounds;
- Word stress, sentence stress, pitch and intonation;
- Parts of the speech;
- English lexicon: characteristics and training processes;
- Elements of lexical semantics;
- The structures of English language (collocations, etc.);
- English grammar B2/-B2+ level (tenses, voice, modals, etc.)
- Listening: info transfer, comprehension
- Translation EN > IT & writing exercises

Legal and Business Translation Workshop
The first-year workshop is designed to introduce students to the key features of the legal & business language and the practical/professional application of legal & business translation methods and techniques.
Therefore, the first semester of the course will focus on essential language concepts, sources for legal & business translations and translation processes students need to be familiar with in order to tackle legal translation challenges successfully. Furthermore, at this stage of the course, basic guidelines as to the practical application of this field of expertise will be provided, focusing on common types of clients and assignments, as well as on the specific requirements legal translators need to meet.

The second semester of the course will focus on contracts, in order to identify the optimal linguistic formulas for each type of contract to be translated. Circumstances leading to the so-called “discharge” and “breach of contract” will also be examined, as well as the use of alternative dispute resolution methods or civil proceeding documents. The Workshop will also include a linguistic and terminological reflection on the main forms and documents used in civil proceeding, on the sworn procedure of legal documents necessary at a judicial level, and on the forms of representation in judicial and extra-judicial venues.

During the course, paper and online resources currently used in this field will be illustrated through English to Italian translation assignments of short excerpts from real-life contracts and company documents. Lectures at this stage of the course will be held in a translation workshop mode, offering students practical in-class translation training. Finally, the lecturer will provide students with a detailed marked-up revision of their translations.

Linguistic, Cultural and Legal Mediation
The course aims to enable students to develop basic mediation and interpreting skills both from English into Italian and from Italian into English. Students will learn the fundamentals of mediation in the following subject areas: corporate/business and medical. Particular focus will be put on language styles, registers, cultural contexts and domain-specific vocabulary.
Activities will include memorizing, summarizing, analysing discourse and rephrasing in both languages as well as sight translation and dialogue interpreting. Specific practice is designed to improve accuracy and fluency focusing on pronunciation, intonation and prosody.
Course materials will feature a range of British, American and other international native and non-native speakers, helping students familiarize with different accents, vocabulary and cultures.

Requirement for both workshops:
As classes are fully taught in Italian and English, students will be expected to be oral and written proficient in Italian (CEFR C1) and in English (CEFR B2), showing accurate and articulate oral and written skills.