Chapter 9
Teaching interpreters and translators to work in educational settings
A Chinese-Spanish case study
This chapter deals with educating dialogue interpreters working between languages/cultures that are linguistically and culturally distant to successfully deal with cultural issues when mediating in educational settings. The specific focus is on the Chinese community in Spanish schools. The objective of the article is twofold: firstly, to highlight the particular challenges of working as a linguistic and cultural intermediary in such settings, and secondly, to propose resources and activities that can serve as teaching tools. In order to achieve this goal, some key principles in designing a context-sensitive educational curriculum for dialogue interpreters are presented, followed by a description of the main characteristics of the Chinese population in the Spanish education system and of how Chinese students appear to experience Spanish classrooms. We finally illustrate a series of activities and materials that have been successfully utilised in teaching dialogue interpreters to work with the Chinese community in educational settings.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Theoretical background and syllabus design
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2.Dialogue interpreting and the Chinese community
- 3.Challenges faced by translators and interpreters in the school setting
- 4.Studies in intercultural communication as a valuable teaching resource
- 5.Some proposals and resources for educating translators and interpreters
- Activity 1 – Vocabulary building
- Activity 2 – Linking vocabulary to culture-specific knowledge: Eating habits and lifestyle
- Activity 3 – Interpreting in the school setting: Personal information
- Role-play 1 – Personal information. Teacher-student interview
- Activity 4 – Interpreting in the school setting: I wouldn’t understand anything
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Role-play 2 – Meeting between the teacher and the student’s father: I wouldn’t understand anything
- Activity 5 – Interpreting in the school setting: Schedules and meals
- Role-play 3 – Meeting between the teacher and the student’s father: Schedules and meals
- 6.Conclusion
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Notes