Interpreter education

Interpreter education is the process through which interpreting students are guided towards the profession of interpreting by promoting their growth and developing the cognitive abilities, attitudes and behaviors that will allow them to navigate different professional situations and scenarios (see Bernardini 2004 on translation and Amato & Mack, forthcoming, on interpreting). All bilinguals can interpret naturally, but this does not mean that we naturally know how to do it professionally (Muñoz 2011): professional interpreters need to acquire specific skills and competences in order to work in specialised settings and meet quality and ethical standards. Interpreting is an ancient practice. It probably developed spontaneously in parallel with oral communication in points of contact between different languages and cultures. However, the formalization of interpreter education is recent. It started out as professional on-the-job training, and then it gradually moved into the academic arena, where it both grew stronger and gained recognition. As didactic practices became more consolidated, interesting debates have opened up in the academic community on aspects including skills to be developed, candidate aptitude and selection, pedagogical approaches, propaedeutic activities, didactic progression, evaluation and use and impact of technologies. The contribution of research to this field is paramount to evaluate and validate the effectiveness of teaching methods and practices, evaluation, selection and certification procedures, and to explore the interaction of teachers and students with technology, both in the classroom and in distance learning.