Do authentic data mean authentic learning? On the use of authentic samples and (in)authentic activities in teaching and learning dialogue interpreting

For some time now, research on Dialogue Interpreting (DI) has relied on data collected in real life situations, recorded and transcribed in order to analyse their discoursal and interactional features. A number of studies (e.g. Wadensjo 1998; Davidson 2000, 2002; Mason 1999, 2006) have highlighted that interpreting in interactions does not necessarily occur turn by turn, may include sequences involving the interpreter and only one of the interlocutors, may take forms different from the turns it refers to, by e.g. expanding or reducing their content. These findings have recently been taken up in DI teaching and training, in which authentic data - recorded and transcribed - are being increasingly used with learners or trainees to highlight relevant interactional features or for the students to engage in similar situations. The debate on the use of authentic data in teaching and learning is however not new and raises a series of problems which need to be considered when engaging in DI teaching. In what follows, I summarize the debate on the relationship between authentic data and authentic learning (section 2), and then illustrate some issues deriving from analysis of authentic DI interaction which may be relevant in DI learning and training (section 3). Through the observation of a roleplay activity, I then show that translating these insights into learning tasks is not easy and needs ad hoc research (section 4). Section 5 offers some concluding thoughts.