Search

The present contribution focuses on Benigni's auteur film "La vita è bella" (Italy, 1997) as a tool for the development of language competence in L2 English, Spanish and German, as well as of translation skills from Italian into these languages. The project, developed at the CLASS Language Centre at the University for Foreigners of Siena, Italy, is placed within the Centre's research activities on foreign language learning and audiovisual translation. More specifically, it addresses Italian-speaking students from the degree course in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation at advanced proficiency level in the three target languages. The study will examine the English, Spanish and German subtitles of the film (taken from the respective DVD versions), focusing on sequences which result in different translation outcomes in the three languages and specifically relate to the following aspects: culture-bound language, verbal and non-verbal humour, sociolinguistic variation and multilingualism (standard and regional Italian, German). Based mainly on Gottlieb's (1992) model of subtitling strategies, the research aims at promoting classroom reflection on translation creativity and potential inaccuracies in the reversed subtitles. The analysis ultimately suggests teaching activities which, moving from cross-linguistic comparison and the linguistic inventiveness that characterize the film, promote the development of students' metacompetences and integrated skills, as well as their critical abilities.

Within the thriving area of research on informal access to English, the present paper focuses on the methodology and design of valid, reliable and effective instruments for data collection. Studies on informal language learning have addressed different target populations, with a preference for teenagers and young adults, and have mainly used questionnaires and users' reports to gather large amounts of information. Methodological reflections on questionnaire design, however, are not always in the foreground - while sharing methodology choices is crucial for the comparability and replicability of findings. Moving from these premises, the current study describes a new instrument to investigate the experiencing and learning of English outside the classroom through multiple media. It includes a newly-developed questionnaire (the Informal English Contact and Learning questionnaire, IECoL; see Appendix) and a receptive vocabulary test adapted from Nation (1990). The tool was designed as part of an ongoing large-scale national (PRIN) project on the informalisation of English language learning among university students in Italy. Both components are described in detail, focusing on the rationale, the innovative aspects, the development and piloting phases, and the final structure and layout. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was calculated on the 4,000 valid questionnaires, showing the reliability and internal consistency of the instrument as a whole. We conclude by outlining the innovativeness of the instrument and by underlining the paramount importance of data collection methods and tools in a field where users' reports and recall are the main sources of information about respondents' behaviour and private worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, audiences worldwide are increasingly accessing audiovisuals in languages different from their own, even in world areas that do not traditionally use subtitling as the mainstream audiovisual translation (AVT) mode. The trend is linked to the rise of new media and viewing platforms, where users are offered multiple and more flexible viewing options. Systematic research on viewers' consumption of different translation modes is scant. The current study follows up on Pavesi and Ghia (2020) and reports on a questionnaire-based investigation conducted among 305 postgraduate students in several disciplines at a middle-sized university in Italy - a traditionally dubbing country. The study focuses on participants' choice of languages and AVT modes, namely subtitling and dubbing, when watching foreign language films and TVseries. Viewers' reasons for their choices are investigated, and different viewer profiles are outlined crossing participants' preferences with data on their academic and L2 learning background. The emerging picture is quite diversified: while many participants show a strong orientation to subtitled media, some still opt for dubbing. Viewers' choices are not primarily driven by (un)availability or an unfavourable evaluation of AVT modes, but mainly result from an orientation to the foreign language or from sociability and watching dynamics. Choices also associate with different viewer profiles, where students' L2 background plays a relevant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the assessment of the dome of the Basilica of S. Maria of Carignano in Genoa, designed by Galeazzo Alessi in the 16th century. The access to the private archive of the Sauli Family allowed a detailed history of the Basilica to be reconstructed clarifying several crucial aspects of the structure: the actual depth of the foundation system, the materials of the load bearing structure, mainly of the dome and of the drum, and the actual building sequence. The restoration works (steel hoop) carried out in the past decades, discovered by means of the historical research, are related to the severe crack pattern of the dome, which today necessitates a detailed insight into its mechanical response. It is showed that historical information is the key for understanding several issues that a “technological” engineering approach would leave unsolved. In addition, historical data are used to setup a non-linear incremental finite element model (FEM) procedure, referred to a slice (a ratio of 1/16) of the structure due to symmetry conditions, which is able, in spite of its reduced computational demand, to show that the dome response is strictly related also to the drum features, thus explaining cracking and the role of hooping stresses (and ties) in the global equilibrium. Some issues for the retrofitting of dome-like structures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This is a study of movements and artificial shelters use by a 3-year established population of Austropotamobius pallipes complex, in a lentic environment in the Parco Lombardo della Valle del Ticino (NW Italy). Home-checking and mark-recapture methods were used to investigate movements of 178 crayfish and shelter use by 389 crayfish in summer and in autumn. Most crayfish (97.2%) moved but the movement was highly variable. The greater part of the distances moved was less than 10 m day-1. Multi-hole bricks with one opening have been mostly selected, and the lower level was preferentially occupied; frequently a single crayfish per brick was found. The animal's size affected the majority of the analysed variables: mean daily distance, area fidelity, level of shelter; on the other hand no case was significant for sex. The results highlight that this species is fairly mobile and could colonize waterbodies with similar features even rather rapidly. Mobility does not appear to affect the endangered status of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northern Apennine is a moderate relief thrust–fold belt (maximum elevation of less than 2000 m above sea level) lying in an area of temperate climate, drained by short (mean 50 km) transversal streams flowing northwards into the Po River main channel. The mountain range is mostly made-up of sedimentary rocks with minor ophiolite slices.The source rock types of nine contiguous watersheds, draining an overall area of more than 2800 km2, were quantitatively defined through a Geographical Information System (GIS). The bedrock lithology at the source area was compared with the composition of the medium-sized fluvial sand to evaluate how the various types of sedimentary source rocks are represented in the stream sand population.The sand provenance approach has two approximation levels; the first level distinguishes the source rock types and constrains some assumptions about the degree of recycling; the second level calculates the contribution of different source rock types according to the previous results.Provenance modelling obtained through this method fits well with the real geology of the eroded landscape. This provides an actualistic example that can be useful for a quantitative provenance approach to the study of ancient sediments fed by recycled sedimentary thrust–fold belts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we show the capabilities of the Large Volume Detector (INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory) to identify a neutrino burst associated with a supernova explosion, in the absence of an “external trigger”, e.g., an optical observation. We describe how the detector trigger and event selection have been optimized for this purpose, and we detail the algorithm used for the on-line burst recognition. The on-line sensitivity of the detector is defined and discussed in terms of supernova distance and intensity at the source. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]