Hyvät käytänteet tulkkauksen opetuksessa

Since the late 1980s, the cognitive process-oriented approach to interpreting has focused attention on such aspects of interpreter education as component skills, strategies, processing capacity management and the development of expertise. In addition to this approach, incentives to develop new teaching methods have also arisen from a student-oriented theory of education, as well as from the need to optimize the use of human and financial resources. In the workshop titled Good Practices in Interpreter Training, the participants exchanged experiences and ideas on didactics and pedagogy in interpreter education. The discussion served the purpose of distributing ideas, but it also reflected the possible impact interpreting-related research may have had on the teaching practice. Two small groups each dealt with a different theme, and reported the results of their discussion to all participants. As regards the use of authentic elements and interpreting situations simulating real-life tasks, there was a consensus that authenticity boosts the trainees’ motivation and is useful in all phases of interpreter training, but many real-life methods are best suited for the more advanced stages of learning. Concrete examples of methods for increasing authenticity in exercises included changing the learning environment, providing the student interpreters with a real audience and various holistic exercises simulating reallife situations. The second group discussed methods for activating the interpreter students. They suggested various ways of getting all students involved in an exercise, and described integrated learning processes, in which several subjects are taught simultaneously. The time available for the workshop was limited. More systematic study of interpreting didactics is called for, but the discussion suggested that the results of interpreting research have had an impact on interpreter didactics.