Cover not available
Part of
The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter and Translator Education: Stakeholder perspectives and voices
Edited by David B. Sawyer, Frank Austermühl and Vanessa Enríquez Raído
[American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series XIX] 2019
► pp. 259–268

Technology literacy for the interpreter

According to the European Commission’s “Digital Skills Indicator 2014,” 39% of the EU workforce has insufficient digital skills and 23% has none at all (DG Connect 2014). But some estimates predict that, in the future, up to 90% of jobs will require digital skills. Technology literacy is rapidly becoming a key asset for anyone on the labor market, including interpreters. Some may have to catch up (cf. Rosado, 2013) if they want to be able to compete. While there is no reason for doom and gloom, interpreters have to up the game in terms of technology literacy. This article discusses the various aspects of technology literacy in the field of interpretation and makes suggestions for interpreter training.

Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress. John Muir

John Muir
Article outline
  • Looking back, looking forward
  • Digital citizenship
  • Information literacy
  • Remote interpreting
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Whither interpreting?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ata.xix.12dre
References
Allen, K.
(2015, August 18). Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, says 140 years of data. The Guardian. Retrieved from [URL]
Autor, D. H., & Dorn, D.
(2013, August 24). How technology wrecks the middle class. The New York Times. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar
Bakhshi, H., Benedikt Frey, C., & Osborne, M.
(2015) Creativity vs. robots: The creative economy and the future of employment. Retrieved from [URL]
Binder, T., & Christensen, B.
(2015) Erneuter Wandel Im Konferenzdolmetschen: Überlegungen zum Ferndolmetschen[Renewed change in conference interpreting: Reflections on remote interpreting. VKD-Kurier, 3.Google Scholar
Bowman, N.
(2014, September 4). Current trends in the high-end conference interpreting market. Retrieved from [URL]
Braun, S.
(2015a) Remote interpreting. In H. Mikkelson & R. Jourdenais (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of interpreting (pp. 253–267). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2015b) Videoconference Interpreting. In F. Pöchhacker (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of interpreting studies (pp. 437–439). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clifford, A.
(2013a, August 9). Why train interpreters online? Retrieved from [URL]
(2013b, December 1). Is the future of interpreting remote? Retrieved from [URL]
(2014, November 29). Can you adapt to a changing landscape?” Retrieved from [URL]
DG Connect
(2014, May 28). Digital inclusion and skills: Digital agenda scoreboard 2014. Retrieved from [URL]
Drechsel, A.
(Producer) (2015, October 21). Geneva calling: Ewandro Magalhaes [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from [URL]
(2004)  Computereinsatz beim Dolmetschen in Ausbildung und Praxis: Ein Beitrag zur Dolmetschdidaktik [ Computer use in interpreting training and practice: A contribution to interpreter pedagogy ] (Unpublished thesis). Leipzig University, Germany.
(2013) Translation versus Technik? [Translation versus technology?] In A.-K. Ende, S. Herold, & A. Weilandt (Eds.), Alles hängt mit allem zusammen: Translatologische Interdependenzen. Festschrift für Peter A. Schmitt [All is interrelated: Translatalogical interdependencies. Festschrift for Peter A. Schmitt] (pp. 123–136). Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar
(2013, December 13). Interpreters versus technology – Reflections on a difficult relationship: Part 2. Retrieved from [URL]
Fox, J.
(2014, June 26). Why so many translators love translation technology. Retrieved from [URL]
Grey, C. G. P.
(Producer) (2014, August 13). Humans need not apply. Available from [URL]Google Scholar
Heick, T.
(2013, May 2). Definition of digital citizenship. Retrieved from [URL]
Hegde, V.
(2017, July 10). Speech-to-speech translation: Its present and future. Retrieved from [URL]
Kalina, S., & Ziegler, K.
(2015) Technology. In F. Pöchhacker (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of interpreting studies (pp. 410–412). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kelly, N.
(2014, June 19). Why so many translators hate translation technology. Retrieved from [URL]
Konnikova, M.
(2014, July 16). Being a better online reader. The New Yorker. Retrieved from [URL]
Leonhard, G.
(2015, January 24). Some illustrations on what I recently started to call ‘Humarithms’. Retrieved from [URL]
Maniar, A.
(2015, May 7). The Ongoing Fiasco of Privatised Court Interpreting Services. Retrieved from [URL]
Meadows, M. S.
(2015, September 22). Virtual assistants are the testbeds for tomorrow’s personal robots. Retrieved from [URL]
Metz, C.
(2014, September 12). Facebook envisions AI that keeps you from uploading embarrassing pics. Wired. Retrieved from [URL]
(2015, June 24). AI’s next frontier: Machines that understand language. Wired. Retrieved from [URL]
Mordvintsev, A., Olah, C., & Tyka, M.
(2015, June 17). Inceptionism: Going deeper into neural networks. Retrieved from [URL]
Moser-Mercer, B.
(2015a) Pedagogy. In F. Pöchhacker (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of interpreting studies (pp. 303–307). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2015b, September 10). Technology and interpreting: New opportunities raise new questions. Retrieved from [URL]
Olmstead, K.
(2017, December 12). Nearly half of Americans use digital voice assistants, mostly on their smartphones. Retrieved from [URL]
P21
(2016, September 26). Information literacy – P21. Retrieved from [URL]
Pym, A.
(2013) Translation skill-sets in a machine-translation age. Meta: Journal Des Traducteurs, 58(3), 487–503. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosado, T.
(2013, August 26). The new world of interpreting: Are some staying behind? Retrieved from [URL]
(2015, October 12). A lesson to all interpreters. Retrieved from [URL]
Triggs, R.
(2018, January 30). Artificial intelligence vs machine learning: What’s the difference? Retrieved from [URL]
Various
(2012, March 29). How do you deal with paperless conferences? Retrieved from [URL]
Vereycken, H.
(2012, March). Remote interpreting: The Council experience. Paper presented at the 16th Joint Conference DG Interpretation – Universities. Retrieved from [URL]
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Goldsmith, Joshua
2023. Chapter 2. Tablet interpreting. In Interpreting Technologies – Current and Future Trends [IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 37], ► pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
Olalla-Soler, Christian
2024. A bibliometric investigation on didactic proposals in interpreter training (2001-2020). The Interpreter and Translator Trainer ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.