A bibliometric investigation on didactic proposals in interpreter training (2001-2020)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of didactic proposals in interpreter training from 2001 to 2020 based on the results of a pre-registered, bibliometric study. The specific aims are: (1) to characterise bibliometric patterns of publications containing didactic proposals in interpreter training both synchronically (for the whole period) and diachronically (in five-year periods); (2) to characterise these proposals both synchronically and diachronically, and (3) to describe synchronically how the aspects being trained and/or assessed in such proposals have been operationalised. The corpus of publication records was extracted from BITRA, and TSB was consulted to expand it. The final database contained 668 documents, and 351 of them included an abstract. Keywords were extracted from the abstracts to characterise didactic proposals. Keywords were analysed using keyword analysis and graphically represented with keyword network visualisations generated with VOSviewer. Results show a tendency to bring interpreter training closer to technological and professional changes over time and a clear use of socioconstructivist methods with a particular interest in developing students’ metacognition. The paper concludes with a discussion of its limitations and possible ways to provide more nuanced overviews of didactic proposals in interpreter training.