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Introduction
In response to evolving technologies and learners’ growing needs for course accessibility, language interpreting (hereafter referred to as interpreting) educators have been integrating advanced technologies into course delivery since the late 1990s (Ko & Chen, 2011). This transition has been substantially accelerated by the global COVID-19 outbreak, when universities worldwide were prompted to look for ways to train interpreters via the virtual environment (Hubscher-Davidson et al., 2021). Within such an unprecedented shift, issues related to online teaching have become a central focus of discussion in interpreting studies.
Online teaching refers to the delivery of educational content and instruction through internet-based technologies (Marcu, 2021). Online interpreting teaching, as defined by Liu and Cheung (2022), specifically involves teaching interpreting-related knowledge, skills, and competencies via digital platforms and online tools. It includes both live virtual classes and out-of-class activities such as tutoring, assignments, and other online engagements. By using search terms like “online teaching + interpreting,” “virtual learning + interpreting,” “e-learning + interpreting,” and “digital learning + interpreting” in databases such as Google Scholar and Web of Science, we found that existing studies on this topic fall into two main categories: in-class and out-of-class online interpreting teaching. Accordingly, a conceptual map of research have been drawn as follows.
Online interpreting teaching in class refers to live, scheduled instructional sessions conducted through internet-based or digital platforms (Liu & Cheung, 2022). As seen in Fig. 1, this line of inquiry has already been investigated in some depth. Researchers in this strand have not solely focused on bridging the technological gap, for example, building virtual classrooms (Mayor & Ivars, 2007; Sachtleben & Crezee, 2015, and others) or developing technology-infused tools (Napier et al., 2013; Napier & Ehrlich, 2015; Orlando, 2010, 2015). They have also incorporated pedagogical ideas of social constructivism and situated learning, for instance, simulating virtual professional scenarios (Braun et al., 2015; Gerber et al., 2021) or innovating and assessing teaching towards a more student-centered and collaborative mode (Davitti & Braun, 2020; Lightfoot, 2015, and so on).
Fig. 1 [Images not available. See PDF.]
A conceptual map of research on online interpreting teaching.
Online interpreting teaching out of class involves delivering educational activities and support through internet-based or digital platforms beyond scheduled sessions (Liu & Cheung, 2022). It includes providing additional online resources, assignments, and collaborative activities...