Combining Theory and Practice in Interpreter Training

Author: Magnus Dahnberg, Ph.D Affiliation: Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden Abstract: This paper is a reflective case-study, describing how a combination of theoretical and practical issues can contribute to public service interpreter training. It describes the theoretical and practical elements of public service interpreter training at Stockholm University, and reports on how these are increasingly linked to each other. The spoken language public service interpreter training, presently being carried out at Stockholm University, was launched in January 2017 as a 30 + 30 credits training course. It offers interpreter training with Swedish as one of the working languages and either Arabic, Dari, Mongolian, Persian, Somali, or Tigrinya as the other (Stockholm University 2019). The training programme consists of both theoretical aspects of interpreting, such as Translation Studies orientation, including among other things Skopos theory, interpretive theory, and interactional theory, of reflective exercise, and of practical exercise such as role-playing and writing your own glossaries. In order to get this combination of theoretical, research-oriented moments and practical exercise as fruitful as possible, work has been carried out on both syllabus and teaching aids, both student-oriented and teacher-oriented measures have been taken. Different aspects of students’ background and previous experience have been taken into account, as well as the teachers’ different both hiring conditions and research experience. A preliminary conclusion is that the professionalization (e.g. Saks 2016) of interpreting benefits by a high degree of connection between research and practice in interpreter training, by including research-related theory in practical exercise and relating theoretical lectures to practical issues. References: Saks, M. 2016. “A review of theories of professions, organizations, and society: The case for neo-Weberianism, neo-institutionalism and eclecticism”. In Journal of Professions and Organization, 2016, 0, 1–18. Stockholm University. 2019. https://www.tolk.su.se/english/education 2019-09-16