РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
New Development of T&I Education in China
Translator and interpreter (T&I) studies яourished in the past decade in China’s higher education, both at the postgraduate level and at the undergraduate level. The fast development was mainly driven by the following external and internal factors. Compared with more well-established disciplines, T&I studies is still at its яedgling stage in China’s higher education. There are a lot to be done in terms of promoting best practices of teaching, combining classroom training with more real-world professional practices, teacher training, application of new technologies and research input. Traditional foreign language teaching programs have fallen short of the societal demand for professional language service and new ways of teaching and learning foreign languages to make such efforts more effective and applicable must be encouraged. Introducing T&I studies at the undergraduate level represents such a move in the right direction. Moreover, T&I training opens up the possibility of making the teaching and learning activities more content-rich and more relevant to what people are most concerned about in contemporary society. To make the teaching effective and yielding the expected learning outcomes, a well-balanced curriculum needs to be put in place, combining liberal education, English language enhancement and core courses for translation and interpreting studies including the knowledge and skills for carrying out translation and interpreting assignments. Like any other scientiёc discipline, constant research input is needed for the healthy development of T&I studies. To make the T&I program successful, one needs to strike a balance between practice and research.