TRANSMAG 2013: EDITORIAL

Teaching Interpretation

As an interpreter, a teacher and a researcher in the field of interpretation, I think that the task of determining the skills required for an interpreter is rather difficult. However, there are some general standards that are agreed upon: Having mastery of the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) as well as both cultures and being educated and having up-to-date information in different fields of knowledge.

Interpreters, especially simultaneous interpreters, should have the ability to perform the tasks of perception and production of speech in two different languages at the same time. They should also have a selective attention to what they hear so that they can omit any redundant information. Interpreters should be capable of performing the complicated operations of monitoring, storing and decoding while engaged in encoding into the target language. For difficult texts, I believe that interpreters have to pinpoint difficulties; whether linguistic (lexical, syntactic, stylistic, etc.) or extra-linguistic (information overload, high speech delivery rates, very low or rather loud voice of the speaker, limitations of time, or even the atmosphere in which the interpretation is taking place).

Each of the aforementioned difficulties affects interpreters overall performance and demands a specific way of handling.
But, generally speaking, interpreters should:

1-    Segment the original message into smaller units.

2-    Make use of pauses in speech to grasp as much of the output as possible.

Among the three types of interpretation: sight, consecutive, and simultaneous, I think consecutive interpretation is the most difficult because, apart from taking notes for some limited information, it depends mostly on memory techniques to render passages as long as nearly 6-8 minutes accurately and the personal touch is highly required. Of course, one year of studying cannot make a student an interpreter. I have always supported the idea that Translation students should concentrate either on translation or interpretation, this could take place from their very beginnings in the department - at least from the third year. I think that each student inside the class should have the chance to practice Interpretation with a notable focus on weak students so that they might be able to gain the necessary training and acquire the skills required to be an interpreter.

Lecturer Atheel Khaleel

Prepared by: Saleem D. Butti