Interpreter education in Australia : community settings, generic skills

This chapter examines the evolution of interpreter education in Australia since the 1970s, a significant development in that it instituted a field of education"”community or liaison interpreting"”which at the time existed nowhere else in the world. Since it was distinct from established programmes for conference interpreting, education for community interpreters required a new pedagogy and innovative curricula, and it had to deal with an ever increasing variety of languages and communities needing language services and qualified interpreters. Importantly, the field has also developed a still small but robust research culture, which has had international influence. We look first at the history of the development of interpreter education in Australia, then examine in more detail particular practices and ongoing challenges for interpreter education, utilising recent research on interpreting pedagogy.