Discourse in translator and interpreter training has frequently focussed on the contexts of tertiary education in which this training takes place. With universities remaining the centres for language mediation training in most societies, discussions have often highlighted the sometimes awkward relationship between the implicitly vocational nature of such training and the belletristic environment of academic language departments. Yet in recent years a reassessment of the competencies which translator and interpreter training should develop may to some extent reconcile the market-orientation of such training with more traditionally Humboldtian notions of the role played by the university in the holistic development of the individual. Alongside awareness of the increasing professionalisation of language mediation industries, there has also been a growing awareness of the highly transferable nature of skills taught on T&I courses, particularly in the light of technological developments in the field.

Following on from the very successful panels devoted to translator and interpreter training at the IATIS conference in Seoul in 2004, the organisers of the IATIS conference in Western Cape will again encourage submissions on training and education in language mediation. This year we would be particularly interested in papers which examine the vision which those of us in the Translation Studies community have of graduates of T&I programmes and how this vision influences aspects of training such as course design, teaching methodology, assessment and evaluation, and the role played by Translation Studies as an academic discipline in the training process. We would welcome papers on all aspects of training, both in traditionally established areas such as interpreting and translation, and in developing fields such as training in localisation and audio-visual translation.

LAST  IATIS CONFERENCE
Cape Town 2006

In July 2006, IATIS held its 2nd Conference at The University of the Western Cape, in Cape Town (South Africa). The Theme of the conference was Intervention in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Encounters.

Want to know more?

Visit the Cape Town 2006 site.

To see the photographs taken during the event, click here.

Read the conference closing address available here.
 

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