This book provides a detailed introduction and guide to researching translator and interpreter education. Providing an overview of the main research topics, trends and methods, the book covers the following six areas: training effectiveness, learning and teaching practices, assessment, translation and interpreting processes, translated and interpreted texts, and professionals’ experiences and roles. The book focuses on explaining the issues and topics researched in each area, and showing how they have been researched. As the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of translator and interpreter education research, it has important implications to developing its areas at the theoretical and practical levels. In addition, it offers an invaluable guide for those interested in researching translator and interpreter education areas, and in educating translators and interpreters.

The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter and Translator Education: Stakeholder perspectives and voices examines forces driving curriculum design, implementation and reform in academic programs that prepare interpreters and translators for employment in the public and private sectors. The evolution of the translating and interpreting professions and changes in teaching practices in higher education have led to fundamental shifts in how translating and interpreting knowledge, skills and abilities are acquired in academic settings. Changing conceptualizations of curricula, processes of innovation and reform, technology, refinement of teaching methodologies specific to translating and interpreting, and the emergence of collaborative institutional networks are examples of developments shaping curricula. Written by noted stakeholders from both employer organizations and academic programs in many regions of the world, the timely and useful contributions in this comprehensive, international volume describe the impact of such forces on the conceptual foundations and frameworks of interpreter and translator education.

This book features invited contributions based on the presentations at the First World Interpreter and Translator Training Association (WITTA) Congress, held in Guangzhou, China, in November 2016. Covering a wide range of topics in translation education, it includes papers on the latest developments in the field, theoretical discussions, and the practical implementation of translation courses and programs. Given its scope, the book appeals to translation scholars and practitioners, education policymakers, and language and education service providers.

Topics included in this volume are centered around the politics of translator and interpreter education in higher education in the US as well as in Europe and the perceived image of elitism of these disciplines; other essays discuss the tension and disciplinary boundaries between foreign language training and translator and interpreter education. Topics dealing with specific quality control issues in the teaching of interpreting and translation, discussions of innovative approaches to research, e.g., isotopy and translation, and a review of teaching conference interpreting complete this volume.

Analyzes topics and issues in translator and interpreter training, focussing on areas that are new and underexplored, yet crucial for translator/interpreter practice.

As a research area, education in the fields of translation and interpreting has received growing attention in recent years, with the increasing professionalization of the language-mediation sector demanding ever more highly trained employees with broader repertoires. This trend is evidenced in the present collection, which addresses issues in pedagogy in a variety of translation and interpreting domains. A global range of contributors discuss teaching, evaluation, professionalization and competence as they apply to an array of educational and linguistic situations. Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods and Debates presents an in-depth consideration of the issues involved in this area of translation and interpreting studies, and will be of interest to all students and academics working and researching in the field.

This book focuses on new perspectives on assessment in translator and interpreting education and suggests that assessment is not only a measure of learning (i.e. assessment ‘of’ learning) but also part of the learning process (i.e. assessment ‘for’ learning and assessment ‘as’ learning). To this end, the book explores the current and changing practices of the role and nature of assessment not only in terms of the products but also the processes of translation. It includes empirical studies which examine competence-based assessment and quality in translation and interpreting education both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. This includes studies and proposals on formative and summative assessment in a wide range of educational contexts, as well as contributions about relatively unexplored research areas such as quality assurance and assessment in subtitling for the D/deaf and the hard of hearing, and how closely translation programmes fit the reality of professional practice. The findings of this book lend support to existing theoretical frameworks and inform course planning and design in translation education. As such, it will be a valuable resource for translation educators, trainers and researchers, translation and interpreting practitioners and associated professionals. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Interpreter and Translator Trainer.

Situated Learning is generally understood as a context-dependent approach to translator and interpreter training under which learners are exposed to real-life and/or highly simulated collaborative work environments and tasks, both inside and outside the classroom. Ultimately, Situated Learning seeks to enhance learners’ capacity to think and act like professionals. This book sets out to gauge the extent to which different factors influence the implementation of Situated Learning models in various teaching and learning contexts. It presents an understanding of Situated Learning that goes beyond previous interpretations of this notion, traditionally dominated by the discussion of pedagogical practices in authentic, i.e. real-world, or semi-authentic professional settings. This wider remit of Situated Learning encompasses previously underrepresented contextual factors pertaining to translation traditions, historical trends, community beliefs and customs, socio-economic constraints, market conditions, institutional practices, budgetary issues, or resource availability. The pedagogical considerations of these key aspects make this book particularly useful for both novice and seasoned teachers of translation and interpreting with an interest in informed practical advice on how to implement the principles of Situated Learning in collaborative teaching and learning environments that seek to promote translators’ and/or interpreters’ professional competence. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Interpreter and Translator Trainer.

The author offers an overview of the Interpreting Studies literature on curriculum and assessment. A discussion of curriculum definitions, foundations, and guidelines suggests a framework based upon scientific and humanistic approaches-curriculum as process and as interaction. Language testing concepts are introduced and related to interpreting. By exploring means of integrating valid and reliable assessment into the curriculum, the author breaks new ground in this under-researched area. Case studies of degree examinations provide sample data on pass/fail rates, test criteria, and text selection. A curriculum model is outlined as a practical example of synthesis, flexibility, and streamlining. This volume will appeal to interpretation and translation instructors, program administrators, and language industry professionals seeking a discussion of the theoretical and practical aspects of curriculum and assessment theory. This book also presents a new area of application for curriculum and language testing specialists.

This is the first handbook to provide a comprehensive coverage of the main approaches that theorize translation and globalization, offering a wide-ranging selection of chapters dealing with substantive areas of research. The handbook investigates the many ways in which translation both enables globalization and is inevitably transformed by it. Taking a genuinely interdisciplinary approach, the authors are leading researchers drawn from the social sciences, as well as from translation studies. The chapters cover major areas of current interdisciplinary interest, including climate change, migration, borders, democracy and human rights, as well as key topics in the discipline of translation studies. This handbook also highlights the increasing significance of translation in the most pressing social, economic and political issues of our time, while accounting for the new technologies and practices that are currently deployed to cope with growing translation demands. With five sections covering key concepts, people, culture, economics and politics, and a substantial introduction and conclusion, this handbook is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of translation and globalization within translation and interpreting studies, comparative literature, sociology, global studies, cultural studies and related areas.