Il ruolo del briefing nel contesto didattico: analisi di un’interpretazione simultanea dal russo in italiano

The object of this study is the impact of briefing on the renditions of interpreting students during a simultaneous interpretation from Russian into Italian. The study was conducted in an educational setting at the Department of Interpreting and Translation of Bologna University at Forlì Campus. To try and highlight the impact (or lack of it) of a briefing on students’ renditions, 8 students attending the final year of the MA Programme in Conference Interpreting were divided into two groups: one group received a general introduction and a briefing about the speech they were about to interpret while the second group was just given a general introduction. All the participants took part in a focus group after interpreting. The original speech and all the renditions were recorded and transcribed to be analysed and compared. Wadensjö’s classification of renditions (1998) was used to discuss some excerpts of the student’s renditions. Content analysis was used to report about the main topics and issues discussed during the focus group. The main findings of this study suggest that the briefing has a positive impact both on the renditions of students and on their perceptions. Therefore, interpreters’ trainers should devote more attention to the practice of briefing and more in general preparation when proposing activities to interpreting students.