SHIFT- SHIFT in Orality: Shaping Interpreters for the Future (and for Today). Developing Teaching Theoretical Framework and Materials for Remote Interpreter-mediated Speech Events

A novel approach to the study of Orality could help update traditional models for the teaching of foreign languages and interpreting with the support of ICTs. To this end, investigating a new research paradigm aimed at producing a language- independent workable methodology and language-pair dependent relevant deliverables is the main goal of the present Project. The SHIFT Project envisages the setting up of an international network consisting of Interpreter Training Universities and Interpreting Service Providers to carry out an in-depth study of orality also from a contrastive perspective (Italian<->Spanish, English<->Spanish, Italian<->English) and to apply the results of the project to devise a suitable virtual environment to train interpreters for remote dialogue interpreting and ad hoc working practices. Indeed, the interlinguistic nature of the present research easily finds a multimodal field of analysis in the domain of language mediation, with the support of ICTs. The SHIFT Project can be relevant for many academic and professional institutions in the field of language and interpreter training, since it provides an overview of situated orality phenomena through the new media and, in general, in the various fields of interpreting (public service, health, legal and court, business). Against this backdrop, the SHIFT Project will pursue the following two main lines of research and action whose main results and products will help improve interpreter training at University level and in LifeLong Learning : 1. Developing a Theoretical Framework for the analysis of orality and of discourse features especially relevant for L2 learning/teaching and language mediation. In particular: a new methodological approach will be applied to investigate and describe how orality features are presented in L2 didactic materials for Italian/Spanish and English speakers, by focusing on issues introduced by novel linguistic analyses which include less studied but extremely interesting phenomena such as morphosyntactic and discourse features like deictics, ellipse, focalization, reiteration, connectors or discoursive strategies typical of dialogic interactions.. 2. Developing a Workable Methodology to describe remote dialogic interactions and produce relevant ICTs-assited training material. On the one hand, considering the current globalizing socioeconomic context and, on the other, the continuous development and improvement of ICTs, it can be observed how spoken language often travels through new devices and means. The same phenomenon is observed in the field of interpreting where, alongside the traditional “face-to-face” interpreting mode (i.e., where the interpreter and the speakers share the same space), remote interpreting is spreading, through videoconference systems or, even, through less “technologically advanced means”, i.e. over the phone (telephone interpreting). In this framework, the strong need for integrating and updating interpreter training including remote interpreting techniques and materials becomes evident, especially considering the calls made at European level in this respect (cf. European Digital Agenda). The SHIFT Project will: a. Based on data collected during a market survey of interpreting services at regional level (Emilia-Romagna) in the year 2014, which showed a growing use of remote interpreting and a demand for specific training by Interpreting Service Providers , deepen and extend the market survey at national level and in partner countries; b. Starting from the analysis of existing and ad hoc corpora, such as a corpus of teaching simulations of dialogue interpreting (Italian/Spanish) which is currently being built, and topic-specific forums, blogs and chats, detect the main discourse and dialogical traits in the communicative interaction. c. Produce a theoretical-practical didactic output for the training of remote interpreters at University level and in Life-Long Learning, accompanied by methodological guidelines, codes of conduct, simulations, exercises, documentation, glossaries, guidelines for the use of CAT tools and term banks related to one or more strategic fields of interest that will be detected through the survey mentioned above. All the materials thus produced shall be included in a distance-training software & virtual learning platform. d. Test the transferability of the methodology used of the project outputs on various language pairs (ES>IT/IT>ES; EN>ES/ES>EN; EN>IT/IT>EN) in collaboration with our partner Universities. e. Test the materials on a group of Conference Interpreting Students (e.g. Summer School or ad-hoc training module) and evaluate student preparation after attending the distance-training module through short internships with remote interpreting providers. Potential partners and main roles - University of Bologna (Forlì), Italy– Dipartimento di Interpretazione e Traduzione: coordination; linguistic analysis (point 1); market analysis (point a.); corpus analysis (point b.); preparation of domain specific terminology (Italian / English / Spanish) and production of teaching materials (point c.), testing of materials (point e.). - University of Surrey, UK: market analysis (point a.); production of teaching materials (point c.); testing transferability to other language pairs (point d.); testing of materials (point e.) - Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain: linguistic analysis (point 1); market analysis (point a.) (????); preparation of domain specific terminology (Italian / English / Spanish) and of research methods for didactic materials (point c.) - University of Granada, Spain: market analysis (point a.) (????); preparation of didactic materials and identification of increasing levels of difficulty in the materials proposed (point c.) - Dualia SL (Mondragón, Spain; telephone interpreting provider): testing of materials: internships (point e.) - VeasyT (Venice, Italy; videoconference interpreting provider): testing of materials: internships (point e.)