This multilingual course introduces students to the basic theories and practices of interpretation in general, and consecutive interpretation in particular. It lays a foundation for the development of professional skills in consecutive interpretation, emphasizing the ability to understand and analyze a message in the source language (SL) and convey it in the target language (TL) in a straightforward and clear manner. Students will hone their public-speaking skills by developing and delivering speeches, and will practice listening to and interpreting the content of passages of increasing length and difficulty as they develop the ability to identify, analyze, and paraphrase the meaning of an oral source text and establish logical relations between its components. Content is interpreted on topics from daily life, current events and the media, and general areas of personal interest to students.

Activities will include discussions and readings to build related knowledge, and practical hands-on exercises to build interpretation skills and to explore the purposes of interpretation and decisions made when approaching an interpretation assignment, including protocol, context, speaker intention, audience needs, public speaking, delivery, rhetorical style, deverbalization, equivalency, definitions of accuracy and faithful conveyance of the message, and the use of tools and resources to support interpretation.

Course assignments include readings and research on class topics, presentations, practice, graded exercises, and peer and self-assessment. The frequency, nature, and structure of course assignments and examinations are at the discretion of the instructor(s) of record.

This course is complementary to language-specific Introduction to Interpretation courses 8501 and 8502.