Professional Interpreting Programmes in China: Constructing a Curriculum Improvement Model

Wang presents the status quo of curriculum development in professional interpreting programmes in China and points to the urgency to devise a curriculum improvement model to ensure the relevance of such programmes against a changing reality. She covers the European experience in interpreter education that China can learn from and discusses opportunities arising from previous examples for China to iterate upon in the context of the broader and more diverse professional reality. The book puts the nature of professional interpreters and, in turn, interpreting programmes, under the concurring lens of curriculum studies and the sociology of professions. Wang identifies eight stakeholders which call for changes in interpreting programmes, and six categories of competence (or sub-competence) which see a progression from undergraduate to graduate and lifelong-learning stage. These serve as curriculum goals and encapsulate the recommended changes in institutional curricula. The conceptualised model is then described with a case study on Chinese-English retour training to show its applicability and relevance in interpreting programmes on the ground.

Offering insight for academics, practitioners and trainee interpreting students and of relevance to a broader interpreting community looking to set up or reform interpreting curricula, Wang’s book will help ensure curriculum improvement that is theoretically sound and practically viable.