What is Interpretation and How Can I Perform it? A Case Study of Assessing Interpreter Training in Japan

Abstract

Interpretation is a communication approach for facilitating personal meaning making and developing connections with things, places, people, and concepts and typically occurs in recreational or informal learning settings, such as heritage sites, museums, zoos, and protected areas. Interpretation helps audience to better understand and appreciate the object being interpreted, which can increase appropriate resource management behaviors. Interpretation is an essential element in resource conservation. Interpreter training is considered to be one of the most influential mechanisms for the improvement of the quality of interpretation. The purpose of the research was to obtain insight into the design of interpreter training in Japan. Questionnaires with open-ended questions were administered with 18 training participants before, during, and after a four-day training program in Japan in order to uncover the impact of the training program on the participants’ understanding of interpretation and their perception of interpreter training needs. The important learning most frequently reported by participants concerned the principles of interpretation. This was followed by the theme of interpretation, the diversity of interpretation applications, and aspects of the experiential format used in interpretation. In contrast, the most prominent difficulty for the trainees was developing a theme/goal/objective of interpretation and designing interpretation. They comprehended the key elements of interpretation, while they perceived a difficulty in performing them. The trainees regarded interpretation as both an opportunity for information transmission and primary experience. The trainees were interested in developing their communication skills further. These findings suggest areas where a future training program focus.

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Author Information
Naoko Yamada, Antalya International University, Turkey
Koji Furuse, Teikyo University of Science, Japan
Jackson Wilson, San Francisco State University, United States
Aiko Yoshino, San Francisco State University, United States

• Category: Hawaii Conference Series 2017, Hawaii Conference Series 2017 1, Hawaii Conference Series 2017 1 - Posters, IICSSHawaii2017, Poster Presentation
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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