Working with Interpreters in Refugee Transit Zones: Capacity building and awareness-raising for higher education contexts

Interpreter training in European higher education has historically focused on conference interpreting, but in the past two decades, there has been a shift towards training interpreters for public ...

The principal aim of the ReTrans project was to raise awareness to the challenges of interpreting in a humanitarian and transborder migration context among students and teachers of higher education interpreter training facilities and to contribute to the diversification of didactic approaches and materials by developing a range of innovative educational resources. The project also sought to establish an exchange among higher education institutions and stakeholders in the field to allow them to jointly reflect on the challenges of interpreting in a transborder humanitarian context. The project partners sought to give a voice not only to the different stakeholders in the field (interpreters, institutional representatives) but also to those most in need of support (migrants and refugees). Their individual experience helped us to shed light on the most prominent issues pertaining to interpreting in humanitarian contexts and to develop a range of openly available and easily useable training materials. The training materials complement existing resources and can be utilised in a higher education context but also in other training environments. Students and teachers were involved throughout this process.

The project comprised different phases (4 work packages, WPs in total). Students and teachers of higher education institutions in the field of interpreting as a main target group were involved in different work packages of the project as well as stakeholders (institutional and NGO representatives, refugees) and interpreters working in the field. The work packages built upon each other as the results of work package 1 guided the development of the subsequent work packages and the results of work packages 1 to 3 influenced the outcomes of work package 4. WP1 comprised a survey on the current situation, including challenges and needs of communication in a transnational migration context (refugee reception and transit centres) in the project partners’ countries. The survey was sent to existing and new contacts and networks of the project partners. The survey was published in a report, which served as the basis for the subsequent work packages. WP2 included vod-/podcasts based on interviews held by all project partners with (professional and non-trained) interpreters, refugees and representatives of governmental organisations, such as public authorities and non-governmental organisations, such as NGOs. Students at the partner institutions were involved in conducting the interviews. At some partner institutions, students even planned and conducted the entire interviews and created the transcripts and (draft) translations into English in class or under the supervision of the teacher. Vod-/podcast-production, including the whole subtitling process (timing and synchronisation) was professionally accompanied by the Faculty of Dramatic Arts of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. WP3 comprised the production of user training videos, educasts and quizzes to make students, interpreters and stakeholders relying on interpreting services more aware of the dynamics of interpreter-mediated communication, issues of cooperation and the specific challenges arising in the field. Material from WP2 served as a basis for the development of WP3. Students at the partner institutions developed some of these materials completely on their own, including preparation, scripting, production and post-production. Audio descriptions and subtitles were mainly produced by students under supervision of teachers from the University of Maribor to make the videos more accessible (except for educasts with a special language combination of Macedonian, Farsi, and English). WP4: The survey data, the interview material, the vod-/podcasts and the user training material were used to produce the interactive stories of interpreting situations in WP4. As such, these interactive stories (relying on game-based design) are one of the first game-based approach in interpreter education in the field of migration and flight. Throughout an interactive and interdisciplinary university course held together by the University of Vienna and the University of Continuing Education Krems, students from the field of interpreting studies and game studies developed interactive stories together under the supervision of teachers from interpreting studies and game studies, which were then feedbacked by stakeholders and partners and further developed in the project. In WP4, a project platform in the form of a website (ReTrans website) and a community tool for interpreters (by means of Discord) were developed. On the ReTrans website, all the project results are available (also beyond the project’s duration) as open educational resources and can also be filtered and re-used for different purposes. On the community tool, which was promoted during different ReTrans events (such as the lecture series, university courses, multiplier events and conferences), students, researchers, lecturers and stakeholders could engage on exchange on the topic of the project and its results. Also the lecture series giving a voice to a wide range of stakeholders in the field presented their experiences, which served as a source of inspiration for the collective volume. Several of the WP2 interviewees and WP4 guest presenters were invited to contribute to the collective volume to present a wide range of perspectives and receive greater recognition for their work. This way, both research, education and practice of interpreting in transit zones and reception centres can benefit from each other. Multiplier events and dissemination activities promoted the project results.