Academia´s thoughts and graduates’ opinions of education at university degree for translators and interpreters: is there a need for revisiting both concept and practice?

Abstract

The reason for the present study topic is rooted in a thorny situation. On the one hand, there are centuries-long traditions and prolific research in the area of Translator and Interpreter education, both practice and research lay grounds for the stable training of the mentioned specialists. On the other hand, the third millennium has brought to smart life societies, intensive collaborations, harsh contradictions and ideological tensions into the multilingual and multicultural world. The changing and emerging contexts of interpreter and translator's professional activities challenge the current vision of the mentioned specialists' training background and skills, put on the agenda new requirements for those who are expected to act properly to respond to newly diversified societal needs. The research goal is to explore the aspects that might be subject matter for the anticipated revision of T/Is university-based education. The research methodology integrates qualitative and quantitate analysis and rests on theoretical and empirical activities. Materials for theoretical analysis involve publications on the issues under study. The research includes cluster and factor types of analysis to identify gaps between Academia, Industry, and Research regarding the quality of translating and interpreting in socially-focused settings. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to process data. The research findings allow for drafting preliminary recommendations regarding revisiting T&Is' training in the era of globalization.

English-to-Russian interpreting course in distance mode: Methodological issues and curriculum implementation challenges

“…Two more curriculum modifications implemented under the new training conditionsexposition to industry professionals and working with digital toolsalso turned out to be advantages in terms of content modernization and student motivation. A strong demand for both was reported in previous research (Atabekova et al, 2018), however, university curricula are not always flexible when it comes to rapid change, so an emergency shift to a certain extent could be seen as a positive impetus. Another positive aftereffect of transition to online mode could be seen in developing professional competences as well as soft skills required for off-site remote interpreting, which has recently become a trend in delivering interpreting services as suggested by Nimdzi Insights' market research (Nimdzi, Insights, 2020), and, according to Spinolo and Amato (2020), has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Meeting International Law Students’ Demands for Their Professional Foreign Language Learning

“…Although the actual topics of many scientific publications are an analysis of the quality of higher education (Strijbos et al 2015, Strielkovski et al 2018, Ramsden 1991, Fensham and Cumming 2013, Aitenova et al 2020, Aleynikova 2021, Niyazova et al 2018, Atabekova et al 2018, Chigasheva et al 2021, various approaches to competence-based vocational education (Kuijpers and Meijers 2012, Goźdź-Roszkowski 2016, Miloradova and Ishkov 2018, Krylov et al 2021, Bylieva and Moccozet 2021, Chirkova et al 2021, Schlabach and Hufeisen 2021, Arkhipova et al 2017, Kalugina 2016, Polushkina and Tareva 2021, standardization of language education (Jerabkova 2021), or improving the quality of undergraduate education (Chocholouskova et al 2018, Germuskova 2018), they do not address the problems associated with the quality of teaching a foreign language in a specialty, which are directly related to the competencies acquired and their relevance to the students' future professional activities. Meyer (2017) analyses the experience of teaching a foreign language at the Faculty of Law of the University of Turku (Finland), and notes that the formulation of the goals of teaching a foreign language in a specialty, which are quite general, lead to their independent development by teachers, who also choose the methods for achieving them (Meyer 2017).…”

A pilot study of language and culture mediation in medical interpreting at border crossing points in Moscow, Russia

“…There are researches (Davidson, 2000) the results of which indicate that due to the influence of institutional contexts interpreters tend more to take sides with medical professionals, rather than advocate for patients' rights. In this connection, mention should be made of the works that underline the need to recognize the official status of an intercultural mediator and to consolidate its role at the legislative level (Sales, 2005; Abril Marti and Martin, 2011; Atabekova et al., 2018). Castiglioni pointed out that linguacultural mediation is aimed at preventing possible conflicts and this important work must have clear legal frameworks (Castiglioni, 1997).…”