Chapter published in:
Teaching Dialogue Interpreting: Research-based proposals for higher education
Edited by Letizia Cirillo and Natacha Niemants
[Benjamins Translation Library 138] 2017
► pp. 217–238

Chapter 11
Training legal interpreters in an imperfect world

The European Union adopted Directive 64/2010/EU in order to create certain minimum standards in the provision of legal interpreting. The Building Mutual Trust report provides guidelines to help Member States develop training courses to achieve these minimum standards. Italy has failed to introduce a system of accreditation or certification and set up the necessary training courses. The authors propose a minimum course, adopting a learner-centred approach with a strong theoretical underpinning, to enable Italyʹs untrained legal interpreters to achieve a discernible improvement in their performances while awaiting the effective implementation of the Directive.
Keywords: legal interpreting, interpreter training, course design, learner-centred, non-language specific
Article outline
  • 1.Legal interpreter training
    • 1.1Trainee selection
    • 1.2Course format
    • 1.3Course content
    • 1.4Qualified trainers
  • 2.Legal interpreting in Italy
    • 2.1Demographic changes in Italy
    • 2.2Migrants in the criminal justice system
    • 2.3Legal interpreting services
  • 3.An LI training course in an imperfect world
    • 3.1Trainee selection
    • 3.2Course format
    • 3.3Course content
    • 3.4Qualified trainers
    • 3.5Course methodology
      • 3.5.1Theory-based approach
      • 3.5.2Learner-centred approach
  • 4.Suggested activities
    • 4.1Back translation
    • 4.2Memorisation and note-taking
    • 4.3Multitasking activity
    • 4.4Role-play
  • 5.Conclusions
Published online: 19 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.138.11pre