Turn the Vicious Cycle into the Virtuous Cycle: Theme-based Mock-conference + Internet-based Interaction Approach for Interpreting Courses

Abstract

The traditional approach in interpreting training is featured by teacher-centered lecturing with paramount preparation work by the teacher himself/herself before class, while students listen, most of the time passively, to the lecture with some hands-on exercises. Without much preparation, students feel anxious and pressured throughout the exercises and expectedly their performance is not satisfactory most of the time. The teacher serves the role of problem solving by pointing out students' mistakes. The vicious cycle goes on: students are more nervous with next exercise, and their performance is disappointing as expected. Without confidence, students lose interest in the learning process. According to Lin et all (2005), mock conference is an efficient way of involving students in the exercise with different training purposes, by introducing theme-based mock-conference module and internet-based interaction teaching approach in the interpreting classes, this innovative training methodology tries to turn the abovementioned vicious cycle into the virtuous cycle of "students' full preparation --- motivated exercises with remarkable improvement in classroom --- willingness for further exercises to discover more after class".