Teaching and Learning Simultaneous Interpreting at Kurdistan Region Universities: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

Simultaneous Interpreting (SI henceforth) is a mode of oral translation which plays an important role in the realm of translation. SI is unlike written translation where the prior is more difficult when it comes to practice in the field. Moreover, SI is an exclusive skill which requires more than an ability to speak many languages. It is a process that leads people to communicate directly across cultural boundaries. The key problem is how to mitigate or overcome SI obstacles. This problematic area is going to be investigated in this study. The main aim of this study is to highlight the key challenges and problems facing the process of teaching and learning SI, then to find out strategies to address all the challenges of teaching and learning SI that instructors and students are currently facing. This study hypothesizes that having neither facilities nor well-trained teachers pose problems for teaching and learning SI at the Departments of Translation; students are troubled by learning SI at translation departments since there are many obstacles; and teachers struggling with having no equipment, deficiency in student’s level, and many other problems. The findings of this study revealed a number of obstacles that are addressed by students and instructors. Then some suitable solutions are raised to either mitigate or overcome them. The conclusions verified the validity of the hypotheses of the present study and ended up with a number of conclusions and recommendations.