Lectures on Interpreting Theory for CNU Students and Teachers

As part of the ongoing development of conference interpreter training at Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University (CNU), a series of six lectures on interpreting theory was delivered by Dr. Oleksandra Litvinyak, Associate Professor at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, on October 14-21. The lectures brought together master’s students from the Department of English philology, as well as the Departments of French and German Philology, and university teaching staff, providing an opportunity to explore the theoretical foundations of interpreting and their relevance to professional practice.
The lecture series covered major developments in the history and theory of interpreting, tracing the evolution of the profession and the emergence of Interpreting Studies as an independent academic discipline. Participants explored key theoretical approaches to interpreting, their historical development, and the contributions of leading scholars to our understanding of the cognitive, linguistic, and communicative processes involved in interpreting.
Particular attention was given to the Interpretive Theory of Translation, developed by Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer. The lectures examined its three central processes — comprehension, deverbalization, and reformulation — and the distinction between interpreting meaning and simply transcoding linguistic forms. Seleskovitch’s triangular model provided a framework for discussing how interpreters construct meaning and subsequently express it in the target language.
Another important component of the programme was Daniel Gile’s Effort Models, which explain the cognitive demands of simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. Students explored how listening and analysis, memory, speech production, and coordination compete for limited processing capacity, and how these constraints influence interpreting performance. The theoretical discussion was complemented by examples illustrating the challenges interpreters face when managing several cognitive tasks simultaneously.
Further sessions addressed models of interpreting proposed by scholars such as Franz Pöchhacker, R. Bruce W. Anderson, Sylvia Kalina, Robin Setton, and others. The lectures also introduced participants to psycholinguistic and cognitive perspectives on interpreting, including the relationship between language comprehension, memory, attention, and the processing of meaning in multilingual communication.
An additional practical dimension was provided by second-year master’s students of conference interpreting, who delivered simultaneous interpretation of the lectures from English into Ukrainian. This gave them an opportunity to apply their interpreting skills in an authentic academic setting, working with specialised terminology and complex theoretical content while ensuring multilingual access to the sessions.
The lecture series was organised within the framework of the project “Consolidating and Sustaining Conference Interpreter Training in Ukrainian at CNU – 2026–2027”, implemented by CNU and funded by the European Parliament. The initiative reflects the University’s continued commitment to strengthening conference interpreter training through the integration of theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and academic cooperation.