Chapter 16

“That we all behave like professionals”

How may interpreting students acquire professional identity and knowledge online? The chapter explores knowledge building through the discourse analysis of students’ and facilitators’ interactions in real-time, text-only chats in a blended course. The university level course (30 ECTS) applies an experiential-dialogic approach to learning that sees the teacher as a facilitator. In the chat logs, the students discuss dilemmas of practice, while the facilitators reflect on the students’ ability to articulate knowledge through action in role-played exercises. The qualitative analysis shows how the didactic approach allows for professional identity and knowledge to develop. The data are derived from multiple year classes, each with up to eighty students from eight to ten working languages (WLs). To enter the course, students pass an admittance test that evaluates their listening and speaking skills in both WLs, one of which is always Norwegian. An exam testing practical interpreting skills completes the course.