Abstract:

This article introduces the experience of education junior students, intending interpreters, at Kazan Federal University (KFU), the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Particularly challenges as well as benefits of learning community interpreting (CI) and teaching it are highlighted and actualized by the authors.

The aim of the paper is to present community interpreting as an educational university course and study all the necessary aspects influencing the process of education. These are the importance and functions of CI in present day reality worldwide and students’ awareness of the necessity of mastering it; the ethical and psychological issues corresponding to the interpreting; linguoculturological background within the scope of crosscultural dialogue; development of students’ language proficiency via diversified methodological approaches, etc.

As a matter of CI skills promotion, the implementation of different classroom activities are considered to be no less important than individual home prepared tasks. In this work the authors try to analyse the range of teaching techniques necessary to advance students’ professional competencies, and as a result of it to emphasize the most productive and less effective ones.

The authors’ findings are supported by the opinion survey conducted among the KFU students doing a community interpreting course. Finally, the results of it can mostly affect both the process of education, in general, and motivation for the CI trainees.

Keywords:

Community interpreting, teaching interpreting, linguistics, intending interpreters, students, interpreting education, university education, CI trainee.