Optimizing Interpreting Education in the Chinese Context: Principles, Curriculum and Pedagogy

Abstract

As discussed in previous chapters, interpreting courses have seen unprecedented growth in China’s tertiary institutions since the 1990s. Several training models have been developed to cater to the realities of higher education requirements. However, the previous discussion has also highlighted the fact that interpreting teaching ‘context’ has been a neglected area and deserving of greater attention for course designers and interpreting teachers. The current Chinese university-level interpreting courses have found it increasingly difficult to meet the quality required for nurturing ‘middle-layer’ consecutive interpreters. The major argument put forward in this chapter is that in order to optimize and enhance the overall quality of teaching, a curriculum reform must be carried out catering to the teaching context. In order to build this argument, this chapter begins with a discussion on mentality change within educational philosophy: first, the notion of ‘interpreting education’ is brought into the spotlight. Dewey’s democratic educational philosophy is introduced to show the positive link between democracy and education outcomes, highlighting its value and relevance for educating well-rounded professionals. Under the general framework of interpreting education, a greater and more nuanced reconstruction of the teaching ‘contexts’ is imperative in order to achieve better educational results in China.