Consecutive Interpreting: A Practice Book (original) (raw)

The present textbook is the outcome of several years of practical experience in interpreter training in Iranian academic environments, intertwined with a number of relevant research projects. It adopts a ‘cognitive’ approach to interpreting and interpreting competence, and by taking recourse to a special version of task-based learning, which rests on communicative and social constructivist approaches to education, presents and works within a specific ‘model for interpreter training’ to develop the trainees’ consecutive interpreting competence. The theoretical underpinnings of this approach may be best summarized in the following statement: interpreting competence is translation competence plus a cognitive competence, i.e. a set of cognitive sub-competences, unique to interpreting (Mousavi Razavi, 2015). Despite the fact that there have been a number of efforts aimed at preparing material for interpreting classes, one can dare say that this is one of the first attempts in the local environment, systematically and specifically devised to be used as a ‘textbook’ on consecutive interpreting in Iran. There is undoubtedly plenty of space for improvement after it gets tested and tried in the classroom. As stated before and within the cognitive framework adopted, the exercises are designed to develop the trainees’ interpreting competence, and not their linguistic competence-which is only one of the sub-competences of the translation competence. This, most probably, is the major difference between this book and its few predecessors in Iran, which were mostly geared toward developing the trainees’ mastery of English language (as their L2), perhaps as a prerequisite to the practice of interpreting. The fact that mastery over L2 has not received attention here, does not meanthat linguistic competence is not of significance; rather, the idea we are trying to advocate within this cognitive framework is that although linguistic competence, both L1 and L2, plays a vital role in interpreting, it by no means suffices to turn a trainee into an interpreter. Linguistic competence, when combined with other sub-competences, such as cultural, textual, subject matter, and transfer, makes for translation competence. Translation competence, when combined with certain cognitive competences, such as stress management, makes for interpreting competence. Indeed, language proficiency is seen here as a necessary prerequisite to starting an interpreting course, not as its aim. In other words, trainees are expected to have a reasonable mastery over both English and Persian. So the present textbook does not attempt to teach the students words, expressions, and structures in English or Persian although this may come as a natural result of all language-related learning experiences. At the same time, the trainees are expected to develop their linguistic competence by resorting to numerous other sources available to them, such as textbooks, dictionaries, glossaries, etc. What we ultimately expect the present textbook, and in fact the approach on which it is based, to be able to achieve is to fill the existing gap in the Iranian academia between the objectives of interpreting courses and the actual performance of interpreting trainers. In other words, it seeks to develop the ‘cognitive competence’ necessary to turn a competent translator into a competent interpreter. This ‘mental preparedness’ can hopefully be brought about through application of the techniques and exercises introduced here. The present textbook comprises two main chapters: 1. Theoretical Considerations, and 2. Consecutive Interpreting, which are further divided into separate lessons to suit class sessions. Chapter one, as the title suggests, deals with certain theoretical information and discussions and provides a brief theoretical background for the trainees. It contains three lessons, each presenting some interpreting concepts, the knowledge of which is indispensable for any interpreting student. Chapter two is itself divided into two separate sections: 1. Preparatory Exercises, 2. CI Exercises. Preparatory exercises are not necessarily concerned with translation; rather they are designed to ‘train the brain’ and prepare it for the task of interpreting. The lessons in the second section contain exercises that require the trainees to perform the task of consecutive interpreting in a real-life-like situation. The exercises will involve English and Persian in both directions. The book is accompanied by a DVD containing all the audio and video files pertaining to the exercises. A final note to make is that although this book is written in English and deals with a specific language pair (English-Persian) when it comes to the exercises devised, it may, of course with certain modifications, be of use to students of interpreting working with other language pairs as well. The macro-structure of the book needs no change; the instructor, however, will need to be reasonably familiar with the English language and will have to replace the audio and video files in the second chapter of the book with corresponding files in the languages concerned. Ideally, it is hoped that similar textbooks and teaching materials within the same approach will be written to suit the needs of trainee interpreters with different language pairs.