Perspectives on role play: analysis, training and assessments

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of simulated interpreter-mediated interaction for the purpose of training interpreter trainers to assess candidate interpreters’ performances. It is based on documentation from a project initiated in 2011, which was designed to use audio recordings combined with conversation analytical principles and practices, for the training of examination panel members. The objective of the project was to make examiners reflect on the function and the functionality of role play as an assessment instrument by looking at the turn-by-turn unfolding of talk in high-stake role play examination sessions. The project, which can be described as ‘interventionist conversation analysis’, modelled upon the ‘conversation-analytic role play method’, will eventually develop into a recurrent training feature in the training of interpreter teachers and assessors.</p