module specification

Conference Interpreting 2 reinforces the skills acquired in Conference interpreting 1. It offers students an opportunity to put their knowledge into practice, using their language pairs, interpreting in different fields such as diplomacy, politics, law, health, education, business and the environment. Source materials will also be more complex at this stage. In addition, students will add a language pair at this stage.

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1. Build on existing conference interpreting skills acquired in TR7070 and develop skills further to cope with more complex source materials;
2. Provide students with an opportunity to practice simultaneous interpreting , paired with English, in a variety of fields (such as diplomacy, politics, law, health, education, business and the environment) and ensure that students have developed the ability to carry out simultaneous interpreting in their two language combinations;
3. Develop the students' awareness of the problems likely to arise  when interpreting simultaneously and provide them with the opportunity to deploy their skills making appropriate use of interpreting strategies and procedures to solve them.

In this module, students are able to develop interpreting knowledge and skills acquired in Conference Interpreting 1 (TR7070). During these practical sessions, students continue to focus on applying the different techniques used in simultaneous interpreting. Students will exercise skills specific to simultaneous interpreting in different fields in simulated contexts (4 mock conferences). Mock conferences will be followed by language specific tutorials.

The interpreting suite is accessible to interpreting students who will be invited to organise independent events using their own speeches. Students are able to attend additional language specific tutorials for the languages that differ from their formal language combination on the course.

In addition, interpreting alumni enrolled on the Ambassadors Scheme organise a two hour session for interpreting students every two weeks. The sessions follow the topics of the mock conferences and reinforce the opportunity to implement new strategies to their interpreting performance.

Interpreting students will be able to practise interpreting during diverse opportunities offered by the European Commission, The United Nations, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the International Maritime Organisation. These are possible thanks to our special agreements such as MoU with international organisations. Finally, students will be offered a series of placements which will be validated in module TR7051.

A detailed timetable of mock conferences and topics are available in the module booklet.

This is a practical module with an opportunity to experience conference interpreting applied to a multilingual and multicultural context. Students will be given an agenda for a mock conference every two weeks. They will have to prepare for the interpreting assignment (glossaries, speeches, research) and perform in a professional setting, working in pairs, understanding the booth identity and team work involved.

Each mock conference will be followed by a language specific tutorial on the following week which will focus on the same topic as the mock conference. This is an opportunity to follow up feedback given during the mock conferences, enhancing skills and use of terminology in a language specific context.
Students will be required to identify their personal objectives at the beginning of each session. A review of these objectives will take place at the end of the sessions.

The interpreting suite will be open to interpreting students at dedicated time for their independent studies where they will be expected to prepare their own speeches and organise practice.
Students are also able to practice using various speech repositories (including speech repository from the European Commission as well as other universities working in partnership). They will be able to meet alumni who have joined the Ambassadors Scheme to help students on the course with additional practice, using new technologies such as Skype or Google Hangout. Students are able to use the IREC software developed by the European Commission SCIC.

Students will be able to experience conference interpreting in real setting thanks to visits and dummy booth practice at the United Nations in Geneva, at the European Commission in Brussels, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg and the International Maritime Organisation in London. Additional partnerships are continuously being developed; students will be updated with progress during the year.

For independent studies, students will be guided to use archived speeches from the plenary sessions of the European Parliament and debates from the United Nations.

By the end of this module, students will have developed an ability to:

Students' competence to interpret simultaneously in the agreed language combinations using more complex source materials will be assessed during two practical exams in week 14.

Gile, Daniel (1995) Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training Amsterdam: John Benjamins (revised 2009 edition available as E-Book)

Gillies, Andrew (2004) Conference Interpreting - A New Students' Companion: Tertium Cracow

Gillies, Andrew (2013) Conference Interpreting: A Student’s Practice Book: Routledge - London

Hale, Sandra Beatriz (2007) Community Interpreting Basingstoke: Palgrave (available as E-Book)

Lederer, Marianne (1981) La traduction simultanée : expérience et théorie Paris : Lettres modernes

Phelan, Mary (2001) The Interpreter's Resource Clevedon: Multilingual Matters (available as E-Book)

Pöchhacker, Franz & Shlesinger, Miriam (eds) (2002) The Interpreting Studies Reader London: Routledge

Pöchhacker, Franz (2004) Introducing Interpreting Studies London: Routledge (available as E-Book)

Roziner, Ilan & Shlesinger, Miriam (2010) “Much Ado About Something Remote – Stress and Performance in Remote Interpreting” in Interpreting 12 (2): 214-247