Quality Assessment of Simultaneous Interpreting: Teaching and Learning Perspective to English and Arabic Renditions

Abstract

Despite the unprecedented interest in interpreting teaching and training, there exists a gap in the knowledge of quality assessment of simultaneous interpreting (SI) in the academia. This study aims to investigate the assessment of the quality of SI from a teaching and learning perspective, in a new way especially of looking at holistic and subjective judgements. It raises three questions. How to make assessments? How to design a rubric? How to use assessments and rubrics to help teachers and learners get quality education? This multidisciplinary study derives its theoretical tenets from interpreting studies and interactive pedagogical assessment, employing case study and questionnaire methods. The data was collected from actual assessments of bi-directional English/Arabic renditions, given to final-year university learners of SI unit. Proper assessment and clear rubrics 'with some holistic and subjective' characteristics can help enhance teachers' assessment and learners' creative performance.