The effect of ‘deliberate practice’ of learners in simultaneous interpreting training.

Simultaneous interpreting is recognized as one of the most demanding activities in the linguistic field, necessitating rapid judgment and decision-making regarding both linguistic and non-linguistic variables. Extensive and repetitive training is necessary to become a conference interpreter, with professional institutions employing various educational methods to develop these skills. The acquisition and improvement of simultaneous interpreting skills rely on identifying individual learners’ issues and engaging in learner-led deliberate practice. This study aims to apply the theory of deliberate practice to simultaneous interpreting education, examining learners’ practice processes and verifying the method’s effectiveness. The study involved ten learners studying Russian-Korean simultaneous interpreting at a graduate school of interpreting and translation. The instructor, who is also the researcher of this study, explained the concept of deliberate practice to students and encouraged its implementation during class sessions. Subsequently, a brief survey and interviews were conducted with learners who engaged in deliberate practice. The findings of this study partially verified the effectiveness of the deliberate practice method in interpreting education.