The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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22 The Linguist Vol/58 No/3 2019 ciol.org.uk/tl FEATURES setting even before the course begins, as we connect and initiate conversations online. A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE My main objective for this virtual space is to bring participants together to shape a Community of Practice (CoP) mindset. CoP is a term that comes under the umbrella of Social Learning theory, 1 coined by anthropologist Jean Lave and education theorist Étienne Wenger. 2 Wenger-Trayner defines CoP as "groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better". 3 A community of practice is a unique combination of three fundamental elements: a domain of knowledge which defines a set of issues; a community of people who care about this domain; and the shared practice that they are developing to be effective in this domain. 4 The CoP mindset allows the group to interact, push boundaries, embrace new experience and grow. We have the same purpose, which is a passion for teaching interpreting. This is illustrated by the different roles participants adopt during the course. At times, they will have to teach the group and demonstrate their approach to giving feedback, preparing a tutorial and giving clear instructions to set up a pre-interpreting task; at others, those same participants could step into the shoes of students and challenge the teaching and learning approach. In order to evolve, one needs to venture out of one's comfort zone and embrace every opportunity. This also applies to me as the course organiser. During the week, I wear different hats: the person in charge, who guides and facilitates the group to learn, reflect and practise; the colleague listening to her peers and learning from their experiences; the teaching peer sharing insights on the strategies I use to teach the group. This is a horizontal approach based on mutual trust. Each decision I make when designing the course, organising an activity or thinking of the learning outcome is based on nurturing this learning space with trust. Colleagues can then think out loud together, reflect, ask questions and express their frustrations with honesty. The course is different every year, even though the programme remains the same: Day 1: 'My students and I'. Day 2: Preparing an interpreting tutorial. Day 3: Creating teaching and learning materials. Day 4: Formative assessment. Day 5: Summative Danielle D'Hayer advocates for a community of practice mindset when training the trainers of Interpreting Studies J uly is approaching and it will soon be time to teach my favourite course of the year: a whole week of training for trainers of Interpreting Studies. You may think I'm mad to look forward to such intensive work. What is this special teaching week all about? Why do people from within and outside of Europe come all the way to join us? What is the rationale behind it? And is it worth it? The Training of Trainers (ToT) for Interpreting Studies at London Met is open to staff at the university teaching either on the Conference Interpreting MA programmes or on the Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI) course, and to external applicants who teach or are about to teach interpreting. It is an opportunity for the group of 10-12 participants to collaborate, debrief and review their teaching approaches. The mix of conference interpreting and public service interpreting experience ensures a rich and inspiring environment, while the international dimension adds value to the experience of participants. In the past, attendees have come from places as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Spain, the USA and Germany. Every education system is different and this diversity opens our minds to new ideas as we come together to share our teaching experience in a non-threatening setting. The diversity of the group, the willingness to share, and the strong interest in teaching and interpreting enable us to create a dedicated space to discuss, reflect and create new knowledge. I start to create this collaborative TRAINING TOGETHER