TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES FOR INTERPRETATION

The focus of this study is the adaptation of English language course curricula for Translation and Interpretation students at the University of Alicante. Students in the first two years of the degree have one general English language course each year which has to be adapted both to the European Space for Higher Education and to the demands placed on the students in their future professional lives. Students are expected to have high levels in both their native language and their second language to perform cross-cultural and interlanguage communication tasks. Therefore, new methodologies which work on both language and cognitive skills have to be implemented in the courses to develop competencies which can later be applied professionally.This paper deals with the adaptation of the traditional four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing to the new needs of the courses. In the specific case of interpreting, this meant extending the learning process from language skills to cognitive skills. Consequently, this led to the need for students to become more aware of the learning process and direct their thinking which was done through self assessment and self monitoring. Current surveys on the courses will also be used to assess and modify the course content for the next academic year