The challenges of teaching simultaneous interpreting skills using distance learning methods
The challenges of teaching simultaneous interpreting skills using distance learning methods

Author(s): Marcin Szwed
Subject(s): Education, Foreign languages learning, Language acquisition, Distance learning / e-learning
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: remote simultaneous interpreting; distance interpreting; distance learning; infrastructure; hub
Summary/Abstract: Teaching simultaneous interpreting has proven to be an extremely important component of any degree course in translation studies. However, it is also one that poses some major technological requirements, not the least of which is possessing the necessary infrastructure including interpreting booths, consoles and infrared relays. Just as the onset of the recent coronavirus pandemic has brought the interpreting market to an almost complete standstill, so have interpreting courses in higher education institutions been rendered practically impossible to continue. The aim of the article is to discuss the ramifications of teaching simultaneous interpreting using distance learning methods and to outline a proposed methodology which could be implemented in a virtual classroom. The proposal is evaluated against the backdrop of the existing professional standards in interpreting, including the norms developed following the widespread adoption of remote simultaneous interpreting on the market, the requirements of the translation industry and the precepts of teaching translation competence. The author points to a number of fundamental challenges associated with remote simultaneous interpreting and proposes ways of addressing them within the framework of teaching interpreting in a distance learning setting.

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