Article published In: Teaching and Practice of Distant Interpreting in the Pandemic Era
Guest-edited by Andrew K.F. Cheung
[InContext 2:2] 2022
► pp. 92–111
So far away and yet so close
A study of remote interpretation in the classroom
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Published online: 30 August 2022
https://doi.org/10.54754/incontext.v2i2.25
https://doi.org/10.54754/incontext.v2i2.25
Abstract
There were no educational institutions in the world which predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic would force them to go completely online. Unlike the more conventional courses which involve the instructor giving a lecture and students asking questions, for interpretation classes, especially simultaneous interpretation, there are more than two people talking at the same time, thereby complicating the technical aspect by several fold. Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19 and the spread of remote interpretation, however, in the future, remote oral language mediation could become the new norm and “the new situation will thoroughly rearrange the market for language service providers as well as interpreter training” (Eszenyi, 2021, p. 112). In view of recent trends, it was felt that educational institutions of interpretation and translation should also engage in a constructive dialogue regarding effective ways to provide remote interpretation instruction. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to analyze online interpretation classes from the point of view of the ‘social presence theory’ which has already been proven to be an effective analytical tool in research regarding online mediated learning environments. To this end, we conducted a survey of instructors and interpreting students at interpretation institutions in Korea. The analysis shows that both instructors and students experienced a low level of social presence in terms of its three dimensions: co-presence, psychological involvement, and behavioral engagement due to 100% online interpretation classes. Based on the findings, we suggest that interpretation and translation institutions offer classes in an online and offline hybrid format with more opportunities for offline interaction outside of class. In addition, we emphasize the need for technical support at the school level because the technical aspects are important in learning efficieny in the computer mediated communication (CMC) environment. Unlike previous remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) studies, this study holds significance in that it explored the issue of remote interpretation education using the social presence theory.
논문초록
전 세계 어떤 교육기관도 코로나19 팬데믹으로 인해 100% 온라인 교육을 진행하 는 상황에 처하게 될 것이라고 예측하지 못했다. 통역 수업은 교수자가 강의하고 학생들이 질 문하는 방식으로 진행되는 기존의 수업방식과 달리, 특히 동시통역 수업의 경우, 2명 이상이 동시에 발화하는 등 온라인 수업의 기술적인 측면이 일반 수업보다 몇 배로 복잡하다고 할 수 있다. 그러나 세계적으로 발생한 팬데믹과 이로 인한 원격통역의 확산으로 향후 원격 구술언 어 중재가 새로운 표준이 될 수 있으며, “이 새로운 상황은 통역교육 뿐만 아니라 언어서비스 제공 시장을 완전히 재편할 것이다” (Eszenyi, 2021, p. 112). 이러한 최근의 추세를 감안하여, 통번역 교육기관들 또한 효과적인 원격통역 교육방법에 대한 건설적인 대화를 시작해야 한다 는 인식이 나타났다. 본 연구는 이미 온라인 매개 학습환경에 관한 연구에서 효과적인 분석 도 구로 입증된 ‘사회적 존재감 이론’의 관점에서 온라인 통역수업에 대해 분석하고자 한다. 이를 위해 국내 통번역 교육기관의 교수자 및 통역 전공 학생들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시했다. 분석 결과, 교수자와 학생 모두 100% 온라인 통역수업으로 공존감(co-presence), 심리적 몰 입(psychological involvement), 행동적 의도(behavioral engagement) 세 가지 측면에서 낮은 수준의 사회적 존재감을 경험했다는 점을 확인할 수 있었다. 연구 결과를 바탕으로 통번 역 교육기관들이 수업 외 오프라인 상호작용 기회를 더 많이 제공할 수 있도록 온·오프라인 하 이브리드 형식으로 수업을 제공할 것을 제안했다. 또한 컴퓨터 매개 커뮤니케이션(CMC) 환 경에서 학습 효율성 향상을 위해 기술적인 측면이 중요하기 때문에 학교 차원의 기술적 지원 이 필요하다는 점을 강조했다. 본 연구는 원격 동시통역에 관한 기존 연구와 달리 사회적 존재 감 이론을 적용하여 원격통역 교육 문제를 고찰했다는 점에서 의의가 있다고 하겠다.
핵심어: 원격동시통역, 사회적 존재감 이론, 공존감, 심리적 몰입, 행동적 의도
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