Didactic Approaches to Interpreter Training: Contexts, Approaches and Coping Tactics

Abstract

Following previous discussions on major European and Chinese training models, we find that the AIIC/ESIT model for the training of conference interpreters has been highly influential in the Western world. The European Masters in Conference Interpreting (EMCI), a consortium of leading European interpreting schools, has these frameworks to thank for their success. In face of new and diverse market demands for interpreting services in emerging countries and thus has impacted upon interpreter training practices in these countries. Rather than assuming the validity of a one-size-fits-all framework, it may be that interpreting models influenced by the likes of the Paris School require reconsideration or a more nuanced reappraisal of context. The reappraisal is performed in this chapter by honing in on contextual conditions in China—one of the biggest developing economies in the world. The major argument put forward here is that good interpreter training practices are shaped by both demand for skills (in turn informed by the organization of the economy and the opportunities it provides) and the supply of skills available at the local level.

An expanded version of this chapter has been published in 2014 at FORUM vol. 12 (1), an international journal of interpretation and translation.