Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2020

Research in Community/Public-Service Interpreting, also referred to as Dialogic Interpreting, has been growing at a steadily pace in the last two decades. Developments in technology enabling remote access to services, as well as increasing immigration waves, and people’s mobility are all factors that contribute to the growth of interactions requiring interpreting, and, consequently, the resulting studies about them. Interestingly, however, the results of empirical research have barely begun to permeate practice, specifically the teaching and learning of community/public-service interpreting. A look at the professional development opportunities offered by community agencies, some educational programs, as well as some statements in codes of ethics or standards of practice of interpreting associations, reveals little dialogue between practice and theory/research. In this paper I explore this disconnect and suggest areas that could benefit from a deeper dialogue among stakeholders to enhance the education of current and future interpreters.

El presente trabajo se inscribe en la senda marcada por varios estudios de lingüística forense (Ehrlich 2001; Matoesian 2001; Cotterill 2003, 2007; Berk-Seligson 2007) y aborda el tema de la reconstrucción lingüística de la violencia de género durante el debate oral y público de un juicio del Tribunal del Jurado, en el cual se acusaba a un joven varón de haber asesinado con alevosía a su excompañera sentimental. En concreto, se investigan las estructuras sintácticas del español empleadas en la sala por el acusado para declinar las responsabilidades penales derivadas de la comisión del delito. De hecho, el escenario de eventos que el acusado intenta construir a lo largo del interrogatorio directo y del contrainterrogatorio estriba en un conjunto de rutinas lingüísticas encaminadas a atenuar, difuminar, oscurecer o borrar totalmente las huellas de su agentividad de la reconstrucción verbal de la dinámica del asesinato (Berk-Selingson 2007). Tras evidenciar la relación entre no agentividad y reticencia en las respuestas del acusado a las preguntas de la acusación y de la defensa, se barajan las posibles razones de la conducta verbal del procesado, aparentemente ilógica, no cooperativa e improductiva, que, al negar lo obvio, produjo una sentencia de condena a la pena máxima prevista por el ordenamiento penal español.

The motivation for the project was the necessity of finding solutions to situations characterized by difficulty in communication, such as trading between different countries, immigrants unable to speak the language, or between hearing and deaf people who use sign language. These and other cases can be solved thanks to interpreting services. Yet because of educational commitments of professionals, organizational time, budget, and locations, it is not always possible to avail of an on-site interpreter. In this context, technology offers a solution through remote interpretation.

The present draws inspiration from the research project “VEASYT Live! for conference: linguistic and technological solutions for the supply of video remote interpreting services in conference settings”. The work was financed by the European Social Fund and took place between 2016 and 2017 in the Linguistic and Cultural Compared Studies Department of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in partnership with VEASYT srl, a company that developed a video remote interpreting (VRI) service in both vocal languages and Italian Sign Language. The aim of the research is to develop VRI for conference situations such as seminars, conferences and academic lectures.

According to EU guidelines, oral expression is one of the key competences students ought to master during their university training. The Spanish educational system, however, has paid little attention to the development of oratory skills and most students fear speaking in public. In the case of those who study interpreting, where speaking in public is, obviously, an essential tool to carry out their task, this lack of training can negatively affect their own learning process. Hence, solving this issue will be key to better acquire the technical skills needed.

In order to study the abovementioned shortcoming, this paper will present a study carried out at the University of Salamanca with Consecutive Interpreting undergraduate students. Their experience speaking in public – or lack thereof – has been analyzed through questionnaires and students’ diaries were used as pedagogical introspection and retrospection tools. The usefulness of diaries in educational contexts has already been demonstrated as a valuable didactic strategy, as they foster critical self-analysis and reflection, making students question their vision of the world (Hiemstra 2001) and helping them manage frustration better.

As trainers, the students’ diaries had a twofold objective: they offered initial data on the pupils’ experiences and their attitude towards oral presentations, while at the same time allowing teachers to monitor their reactions to the training actions implemented in the classroom to combat the students’ fear of speaking in public.

At a time when the advances in information and communication technologies meant that new approaches to virtual teaching and learning could be proposed, the teaching staff on the degree in Translation and Interpreting at UVic decided to offer part of the degree in distance learning mode. This learning mode was launched in the 2001–2002 academic year, with optional face-to-face teaching sessions some Saturdays and coexisted with the traditional face-to-face courses.

During the first years, the fourth-year interpreting specialisation subjects were not taught online for technical and pedagogical reasons. Since the 2014-2015 academic year, we also teach these subjects online.

The challenge that we face starting the 2017-2018 academic year is twofold:

1. To adapt the online teaching of interpreting subjects to groups with a high number of students in the new Inter-university Degree in Translation, Interpreting and Applied Languages jointly offered by the University of Vic and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

2. To adapt the contents and methodology of interpreting subjects to changes in professional practice: telephone and videoconference interpreting, especially in liaison interpreting.

In our paper, we will show some online teaching resources, as well as several online tools which we use in our courses.

In this article we present the results of the implementation of a MOOC providing an introduction in Public Service Interpreting and Translation (PSIT) for a variety of backgrounds and profiles, from people working with foreign population, to people who have no formal training and are ad-hoc interpreters, as well as people interested in learning about PSIT. The ultimate goal of the MOOC is to provide general information and to raise awareness about the complexity of the field, as well as to offer the possibility of learning and practicing some of the principles and strategies presented so that those interested in deepening their knowledge and skills may do so with more formal training. It is in this context that the article presents some of the findings obtained since its implementation given the variety of personal profiles and student backgrounds registered in the course as well as the evaluation of aspects related to its design such as duration, access to information, difficulties and, in general, aspects that enabled us to identify students’ perceptions on the usefulness, effectiveness and applicability of the course.