MuTra Advanced Training & International PhD School
at Zurich University of Applied Sciences

Forms of Interpreting

2-4 May 2008
Follow-up

The seminar proceeded from a general introduction into the phenomena and problems of different forms of interpreting, accentuating the Zürcher ZHAW expertise in legal interpreting by our hosts,  Gertrud Hofer, head of the continuing education division and on simultaneous interpretation by Professor Claudia General. This was complemented by an overview of research questions and approaches in remote interpreting by Dr Sabine Braun (Surrey University) and by suggestions for LSP knowledge acquisition techniques in simultaneous interpreting by Martin Will (Saarbrücken/Luxembourg).

Professor Miriam Shlesinger’s (Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv) workshop discussed criteria for comparing  interpreting modes, offering insight into competency checklists for health care interpreting services and on-the-job reports by student interpreters focussing on the problems of (in)visibility and action latitude.

Friday night ended with a welcome tour of old town Winterthur organized by the Tourist Office of Winterthur.

Saturday morning was split up into consecutive and simultaneous interpreting hands-on-workshops by Professor Sylvia Kalina (Cologne University of Applied Sciences) and Professor Claudia General (Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur). Methodological issues relative to proposed PhD theses were problematized on Saturday afternoon by Professor Daniel Gile (ESIT, Paris) who generously offered to continue discussions of the PhD projects of Lihua Jiang on Discourse Interpreting and of Konstanze Plötz on Cognitive Efforts in Sight Translation on Sunday morning.

After Tobias Haug’s presentation on his doctoral project questiong the applicability of translation theories for language competence testing, the session was summed up by organizing parameters governing different forms of interpretation interpretation. The seminar ended at about 13:00.

Our thanks go to our host, Professor Urs Willi, Director of the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur, for making this possible, to all speakers who generously offered their time and expertise and to all participants for their interest and enthusiasm.

Materials:

(to be posted as they become available)

Gertrud Hofer
Claudia General
Sabine Braun presentation
Sabine Braun handout
Martin Will
Miriam Shlesinger
Sylvia Kalina
Daniel Gile

PhD presentations by

Lihua Jiang
Konstanze Plötz
Tobias Haug

Photos