| Author(s) | Saadia Elamin |
| Affiliation | Assistant Professor College of Languages and Translation. King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Title | Reflections on the Teaching of Interpreting |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Languages & Translation. Volume 16, No 1. (2004/1424) |
| Abstract | The importance of interpreting, as an act of oral interlingual communication, is increasing steadily in our world of today, characterized by the fast unprecedented progress in the field of information and communication. Because it responds immediately to the needs of speakers and listeners using different languages to understand and address each other, interpreting is perhaps the most suitable kind of translation for the “global village”, whose inhabitants have so far succeeded to break almost all barriers, except that of languages. Interpreting sections have been opened in universities in order to cater for the growing demand on qualified interpreters who can enable participants at international multilingual gatherings to exchange views and ideas. The principles underlying the practice and the teaching of interpreting are usually laid down at major international universities in the United States and Western European countries. Since these universities have features which are not shared by colleges in other parts of the world, interpreting principles need to be adapted to the situation in each country. This paper focuses on the ways interpreting can be taught at national universities in such a way that the principles of the profession are adhered to, while taking into consideration the needs and linguistic settings of each country. Interpreting is first defined and its types are introduced. It is then examined as a process consisting of three closely linked phases: auditory perception of an utterance in the source language, dissociating its meaning from the linguistic form of the SL, and finally expressing the meaning of the utterance into the target language. Each one of these phases has its requirements, principles and techniques which will be dealt with here, illustrated with examples taken from the actual experience of learning interpreting at an international university, practicing the profession, then teaching it at King Saud University. |
