CI Mock Conference In Interpreter Education And Training

The interpreting research in the West began with the study of conferenceinterpreting and has undergone five decades of development. Interpreting research inChina, however, started in the1990s and has a shorter history. However, interpretingresearch has been through similar stages in the West as in China and there is anundeniable truth that no matter whether the research centers on interpreter’sexperience or the interdisciplinary study, the ultimate goal is to promote moderninterpreter education and training, provide more excellent interpreters for the societyand meet the increasing needs of international communication.Regarding interpreting teaching, many scholars engaged in interpreting studyadvocate mock conference in teaching activities, but few studies have probed into themock conference practice itself and its significance for interpreting teaching. Thispaper takes consecutive interpreting (CI) mock conference held at Ocean Universityof China (OUC) as its object of study, demonstrating the advantages of using mockconference in interpreter education and training and the existing problems in thecurrent mock conference practice, and further illustrates what we can learn from themock conference practice for further interpreter education and training. This study isbased on practice instead of mere theories, so it has great practical significance formodern interpreting teaching and training in other institutions of higher learning thatoffer interpreting courses in China.The structure of this thesis is divided into seven chapters and the content of eachchapter is as follows: the first chapter introduces the research background and thesignificance of the study. Chapter Two gives a brief introduction to situationalsimulation training, which can create authentic atmosphere for teaching ofinterpreting, stimulate the students’ interests in interpreting and increase learningefficiency; one mode of this kind of training is mock conference, thus layingfoundation for the later part of the thesis by introducing the object of study. ChapterThree offers the details of CI mock conference at OUC, which is conducted under the theory of cooperative learning and obeys the relevant principles and requirements ofcooperative learning. This leads to the conclusion that interpreting teaching activitiesshould be based on certain teaching theories, integrating theory with practice. Theintroduction of cooperative learning lays theoretical foundation for the application ofmock conference into interpreting teaching activities at OUC. Chapter Four lists theadvantages of using mock conference in interpreter education and training. Mockconference is the platform for training student’s comprehensive ability, illustrating thefeasibility of mock conference used in teaching activities of interpreting. Chapter Fiveproposes the existing problems of CI mock conference held at OUC andcorresponding suggestions, aiming to improve the teaching practice, teachingefficiency and teaching effects at this university, from which lessons and experienceare learned for other institutions of higher learning that have used mock conference ininterpreting teaching. Chapter Six talks about what we learn from the CI mockconference practice at OUC, offering reference to interpreter education and training inChina. Chapter Seven explains the limitations of this research after summarizing thewhole thesis and points out the direction for future study.