Conference Interpreting – A Complete Course and Trainer's Guide: (120-121 Benjamins Translation Library)

The fruit of eight years’ work by two lifelong practitioners and trainers, these books contain the most complete description to date of a training course for professional conference interpreters. After an overview of the diverse profession of interpreting, the successive chapters of the Complete Course take students and their instructors in carefully designed stages from admission through initiation into the main modes of consecutive, simultaneous and more complex or hybrid variants, to exposure to real situations and the practical challenges and professional and ethical judgments they may entail. Detailed exercises presenting incremental and increasingly realistic challenges are provided at each stage, with theoretical underpinnings. The Trainer’s Guide parallels the progression with in-depth guidance for instructors, fuller reference to the literature and chapters on curriculum design, the place of theory and research, institutional and course management issues and further and teacher training. These books propose a significant update of the traditional training paradigm in response to changing trends in pedagogy, regulatory reform and new conditions and demands on interpreters, notably in the areas of language enhancement, student-focused learning and assessment and certification.

Review :
The groundbreaking two-volume work, Conference Interpreting: A Complete Course (CC) and A Trainer’s Guide (TG), is one of the latest contributions to the field of interpreter training pedagogy. [...] Conference Interpreting: A Complete Course and A Trainer's Guide provide useful insights into the processes, methods and theoretical models of interpreter training. Both authors are seasoned practitioners and instructors who practice what they preach, bringing academic and practical experience to the table. The work serves as a powerful tour de force and a must-read for students,
instructors and researchers of interpreting the world over. The volumes stem from a more intercultural perspective of training than most prior works we can find, which is an excellent asset in today’s globalized world. [...] What is indisputable about A Complete Course and A Trainer’s Guide is that together, these comprise one of the most formidable resources on conference interpreter training so far, with over 1100 total pages. [...] Setton and Dawrant’s Conference Interpreting: A Trainer’s Guide and A Complete Course offer an enjoyable, agile read that can, at the same time, be highly fruitful for interpreter trainers who are passionate about their jobs and always willing to enlarge and enhance their pedagogical set of tools, techniques, and resources. The many examples, exercises, and materials that can be either directly used in class or easily customized for the particularities of a group of students already make these books worth reading. For those of us always seeking to make our classes more interesting, motivating and engaging for our students, these two volumes will surely be one of those few priceless reference books that are more often found on our desks, always open and filled with note-riddled post-its, rather than on our office bookshelves as a purely decorative element.