Studies On The Past And The Present Of MTI Interpretation Education

Ever since reform and opening up, the translating and interpreting industry in China has been booming. As China’s engagement with the world continues to deepen, interpreters also become more than active in various conferences and seminars. Their importance can never be overlooked as they facilitate communication with their swiftness, accurateness and flexibility in conversion of languages and serve as a bridge between different language speakers. In order to meet the rising demand for competent interpreters in the market, universities all across emerge as training bases as they set up schools of translation and interpretation. After the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council approved of the setting up of MTI, interpretation becomes ever more popular. By July,2014, altogether206universities have been authorized to offer degree of MTI. However, in such rapid development, the newly emerged MTI training institutions should think more about how to produce highly competent interpreters to rise to the challenges of this globalized world.This paper is to explore the history of interpreting education in both China and western countries, analyze lessons learned over the years of practice. A survey is carried out among teachers from different universities offering MTI training to look into the current interpreting education sector, find the weaknesses or drawbacks in current practice and put forward suggestions for further improvement. Constructivism is especially highlighted to serve as the founding theory of future training.