Browsing by Author "Staflund, Jeffrey Glen Patrick"

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    The Influence of Adult Education Principles on Canadian Spoken-Language Interpreter Training Programs: A Case Study
    (2019-12) Staflund, Jeffrey Glen Patrick; Roy, Sylvie; Bhowmik, Subrata Kumar; Eaton, Sarah Elaine
    This thesis reports on a one-year, multi-site case study aimed at characterizing current approaches to interpreter training in Canada and determining the influence of adult education principles on that training. The theoretical framework utilized was Malcolm Knowles’ (Knowles, Holton III, & Swanson, 2015) six assumptions about adult learners and eight andragogical design elements. Data collection was carried out in two stages: a recruitment survey sent to all Canadian interpreter training programs known to the research, followed by an in-depth visit of four programs involving document review, 44 hours of observation and 29 interviews. Findings indicate that Canadian programs are primarily utilizing a master-apprenticeship approach to training, which seems to be working well. The programs observed also appear to be incorporating many adult education principles. Additional contributions from the field of adult education are discussed; it is argued that sharing research and expertise in areas such as confidence and motivation building, content and feedback delivery, facilitation techniques, characteristics of adult learners, the strengths and weaknesses of the apprenticeship model, and the role of learning styles, would be beneficial to interpreter trainers and trainees alike.