simultaneous interpreting competence: a case study

The concept of competence in translation studies came to the fore in the 1990s although the first proposals were put forward in early 1970s.this term became so important that many universities around the world offering translation/interpreting programs tried to develop their curricula accordingly, a move forward that is still going on globally. however, what has been rather under-researched is the concept of simultaneous interpreting competence. as a narrow part of a doctoral dissertation, the present study tried to develop an interpreting competence model and apply it to professional simultaneous interpreters in iran. to this end, the study included a conceptual and an empirical phase. in the conceptual phase, different translation competence models from the 1970s up to the present were compared and a translation competence model was designed. similarly, different interpreting competence models from 1930 up to the present were analyzed and an interpreting competence model was developed. the conceptual phase concluded with the common and distinct competences required for professional translators and interpreters. in the empirical phase, the simultaneous interpreting competence model developed in the conceptual phase was applied to professional interpreters. the case study included simultaneous interpreters from two iranian news channels, press tv and irinn. the findings indicated that iranian interpreters were lagging behind in certain sub-competences.