Simulated On-Site Interpreting in Situated Learnin...
Daniel Gile，an internationally renowned expert in interpreting，believes that interpreting skills are most effectively taught when students are practicing interpreting，whilst under the teachers’correction(Gile，1995).Therefore，it is very important for teachers to provide feedback and evaluation to create a realistic interpreting scenario within the classroom.Situational teaching is one of the four elements of constructivism，emphasizing the important role of“situation”in the construction of its meaning.Designing learning tasks with“problem scenarios”and creating realistic scenarios can be achieved through classroom organization and the selection of teaching resources.However，traditional interpreting teaching is a static process carried out in a physical environment，and the perfect scenario design can only be realized by students using their imagination through a description of the task.The use of the dynamic and virtual effects of the Internet can eliminate environmental barriers to interpreting teaching.
In an MBL environment，the combination of various digital media types such as text，image，sound and video into an integrated multisensory interactive applications and multimode activities，allowing students play“a leading role in the learning process，encouraging the teacher to take on the role of a learning facilitator”(Paulsen，2014:231).Playing such materials through SmartClass+creates an authentic interpreting environment that allows students to train their interpreting skills in a way that simulates authentic interpreting，so that students develop a sense of on-the-spot pressure.Classes can be divided into multiple color groups to perform different activities，assign interpreting tasks，assign students to role-playing roles，and to initiate practice sessions.SmartClass+therefore not only encourages students to carry out tasks to their own initiative and enthusiasm in the learning process，but also pay attention to the collaborative association between learners and the guiding role of scholars.“Collaborative learning”allows for the supplementation，modification，and deepening of each student’s understanding of the current interpreting tasks and problems through a confrontation of different views.For example，“random matching(partnering)”or a group of 2，3 or 4 teachers designated for roleplaying“consecutive interpreting”exercises are assigned to students of the same color group for teacher-designated activities.Students then become familiar with the characteristics and skills of different language styles，including paralanguage and extralinguistic information，and information pertaining to the actual interpreting operating environment.Additionally，expressing one’s opinions naturally in an atmosphere of equality maximizes the level of listening，speaking and expression.Therefore，through collaborative learning in this situated environment，a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the current interpreting skills and concepts is achieved on the basis of sharing the collective thinking achievements，which is understood as the final construction of the meaning of the knowledge learned.By conducting class discussions，implementing instances of dynamic communication，and creating and increasing opportunities for human-to-machine or human-to-human communication.
The application of MBL environment has created a dynamic environment for the three-part process of language input-transcoding-output，where students choose authentic tasks that involve comprehensive language activities which cover speaking，writing，and reading，allowing them to enrich their knowledge of interpreting encyclopedias，and helping them to deal with various topics they may encounter.The authentic situated environment and rich language materials can vividly demonstrate the real-time and on-site nature of interpreting for students，and establishing a listening training mode that combines audio-visual material with the purpose of improving the students’listening skills.
Table 13.1 details an extract taken from the external study referenced earlier，and utilises the findings which established the beneficial impact that learning interpreting in SmartClass+ MBL environment had on the students’interpreting performance.The interpreting test data analysis shows that participants have significantly improved their interpreting test performance.There was a mean increase of 8.84 to the participants’interpreting score between the pre and post-tests.
Table 13.1 Interpreting test performance data finding
Table 13.1 shows the number of participants，mean，and standard deviation of the interpreting scores in the pre-test and post-test.As displayed，the participants obtained higher scores in the post-test than they did in the pre-test，suggesting that participants made a significant improvement in their academic performance over the unit of a semester of interpreting learning in the SmartClass+ MBL environment.