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
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/691128
The April meeting of Council is always a time for new beginnings. This year was no exception, as we marked the end of Keith Moffitt's term of office as Chair. We were delighted to present Keith with Fellowship of the Institute in recognition of his longstanding commitment to furthering its aims (see page 31 for more details). It is an honour to be taking over as Chair of an organisation that has played a huge part in my professional life. I joined the Institute in 2001, having studied French and German at Balliol College, Oxford and after working for a number of years – first in the food industry and later as a business language trainer and Further Education teacher in French. The Institute was instrumental – through IoLET and the Diploma in Translation – in helping me to launch my career as a translator and in supporting me as I moved from Associate to Member and, later, Fellow. I have enjoyed playing an active part from the outset, initially working with colleagues in the Industry and Commerce (now BPG) and Translating divisions. I served as a member and then Chair of the Editorial Board of The Linguist and have been closely involved with the development of the Chartered Linguist register. I was first elected to Council in 2013 and, since then, have worked with colleagues on projects including the governance review, the development of our new website and, most recently, our new membership pathway. Outside the Institute, I am a full- time, hands-on translator, working from French to English in business, law and international development, with clients in Europe and the UK. I feel privileged to be stepping into the role as we look to build on the tremendous efforts made in recent years to ensure that the Institute is well equipped to achieve the strategic objectives set by Council. Our members – not least those of you who give so generously of your time in our divisions and societies, and on our committees and boards – have an important role to play, as we work not only to expand our membership but also to support our existing members, regardless of grade, discipline, language or location. With that in mind, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during my term of office, be it virtually or at Institute or other events: please do come and say hello! Karen Stokes Last year, in an attempt to support my German studies, I attended a lively language exchange session in Brick Lane, East London. With flags representing my languages stuck to my top in order of fluency (English, Spanish and, somewhat fraudulently, German), I mingled with a crowd eager to speak to people in their 'other' languages. As it turned out, my German was not (yet) up to the challenge, but the Mundo Lingo franchise is a good example of an innovative, entrepreneurial initiative supporting language learning – the perfect subject for our new Q&A series, 'The Big Idea' (p.24). Launched last issue, our series on field linguistics continues with a look at how the attitude, focus and working methods of researchers has changed, with a growing responsibility to the communities involved (p.20). Also in this issue, we look at the specific challenges for languages within the wider teaching crisis in England (p.8); whether interpreters receive enough support on matters of confidentiality (p.12); and the complexities of providing speech and language therapy for children whose mother tongue isn't English in the UK and US (p.18). I read with interest about new research from the universities of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin, which found that bilingual people are not as good at judging their own performance as monolingual people. In simple terms, this means they may not have been as successful at a particular task as they think – or that they may have done much better. For those who are overly critical of themselves, particularly in a work environment, it may be helpful to learn that there is a possible metacognitive reason for this, associated with bilingualism itself. Miranda Moore 4 The Linguist Vol/55 No/3 2016 www.ciol.org.uk NEWS & EDITORIAL EDITOR'S LETTER CHAIR OF COUNCIL'S NOTES I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during my term of office