Training Language Mediators and Interpreters through Embodied Cognition, Immersive Learning and Virtual Reality: Didactic, Organizational and Cost Benefits

Abstract

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) for training purposes has expanded exponentially in the last decade. This paper specifically examines the use of VR in the training of language mediators and interpreters. By way of exemplification, the paper describes a training project at the University of Palermo, the “Coopera” project. The physically-cognitively immersive ‘learning by doing’ factor that characterizes a VR educational experience is particularly well-suited to skill- based activities. The paper explains how the immersive nature of VR and the notion of ‘embodied cognition’ is particularly suited to mediator/interpreter training by plausibly reproducing daily life situations and providing a ‘risk- free’ environment in which students can safely practice (and make mistakes) without causing harm to themselves and others, and also to contain the high costs of mediator/interpreter training. We hope the Coopera project will help foster further research into new technologies in immersive language-mediation pedagogy.