Development of Interpretation Exercises with the Help of a Corpus of Political Speeches

Using the Example of German Adjectives Formed According to the 'Numeral + Superlative' Pattern (e.g., zweitgrößter)

Abstract

The article demonstrates a way to prepare exercises in simultaneous interpreting (SI) with the help of online language corpora. The introduction focuses on the relevance of part-task training. The second part briefly describes the format of the proposed training, and the automation of sub-skills as one of the goals in SI pedagogy. The third part is a step-by-step guide for using language corpora in SI training based on the following practice example: to tackle difficulties with interpreting German compound adjectives like zweitgrößter (pattern ‘numeral plus superlative’) into Russian. The necessary exercises were created using political speech corpora available online. Using a corpus simplifies the search for examples and provides a large amount of training material for independent practice. Moreover, examples from the political speech corpora show appropriate stylistic quality, discourse, and vocabulary, which makes them especially valuable for training future SI professionals. The final part describes the didactic adaptation of the corpus-based materials and the potential role of the suggested method in the differentiation and individualization of SI training.