A Report On Practice Of Interpreting Online MBA Courses From The Perspective Of “Role Space” Theory

In the context of lasting COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control,remote education for international courses is becoming more and more popular.Although many studies have been conducted on classroom interpreting,there are few specific studies on online course interpreting;in particular,there is insufficient research on the applicable role that an online course interpreter may take.This report is based on the author’s practice as an interpreter for an online MBA course offered for Class 2021 by Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi of Thailand.The author refers to the theory of “role space” proposed by Peter LlewellynJones and Robert G.Lee to analyze the interaction of three parties(the author as an interpreter,the teacher and the students)at different stages of the course under discussion from the perspectives of the interpreter’s “presentation of self”,“participant alignment” and “interaction management”,and to build corresponding role space accordingly with an aim to provide online course interpreters,especially inexperienced interpreters with reference regarding to the role of interpreters.The author also hopes to make contribution to future studies on online course interpreting.Through analysis,three major role spaces for an online course interpreter can be summarized: First,at the beginning of the class,the interpreter performs high“presentation of self” but relatively low interaction management and participant alignment.Second,during the main part of the class,when the teacher dominates most of the interlocution,the interpreter may choose to align with the students,putting himself/herself into the students’ shoes to ensure they can better understand the knowledge points,and s/he seldom needs to perform presentation of self or interaction management.Third,during the interaction of the class,the interpreter may actively take the role of a class “coordinator”,which means a high degree of interaction management and low presentation of self and participant alignment,reminding the students to participate in class interaction in a timely manner,and paying attention to the network environment of the class,so as to help the teacher achieve better teaching effect.Considering that the feedback he received for his interpreting service for the course discussed was fine,this report can,to some extent,serve as a reference for interpreting in an online course setting.