Interactive didactics of translation and interpreting: emotive approach applied to migrant care in German, Spanish, Arabic and Russian languages

Abstract

Introduction: The current political situation and the increasing global migration movement put a lot of psychological pressure on migrant and refugee professionals. The contexts of today's migration care discourse are emotionally charged. In situations of social emergency, the role of the interpreter becomes an active part of the care team. Given the dramatic experiences, migrants and refugees represent a socially vulnerable community, and communication with them requires the special use of empathy to best serve the communicative purpose. This paper aims to show the important role of the interpreter in dealing with the current humanitarian crisis and the need for early practical training of future professionals in interlanguage mediation, especially in German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Methodology: Early interactive training according to the advances in Cognitive Sciences and the maximum approximation of the practical learning situation to the real environment (Barsalou, 2020; Shapiro & Stolz, 2019) contribute to the activation of cognitive mechanisms. Results: The present research presents the improvement of the teaching of interpreting techniques and strategies and proposes to include in the didactic units’ cases and discourses closer to the real ones in human emergency situations. Discussions: This approach focus on helping to meet the challenges of today's Translation and Interpreting labour market and contributes to the migrant´s integration and the peaceful coexistence within today's multilingual and multicultural society. Conclusions: The emotive and proactive didactic represents an effective method of turning the teaching of translation and interpreting into an interactive, holistic, ecological and sustainable educational process.