Educational simultaneous interpreting as tool to stimulate reflection on multilingualism in mathematics teacher education programmes

Abstract

Simultaneous interpreting from English into Setswana as target language in the training of mathematics teachers was launched in a Mathematics Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) programme in 2009. This was introduced in two didactics topics included in the first year geometry course. This experiment was aimed at assisting teachers who found that English as Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) contributed to the difficulties they experienced with these topics. Users were shown the new interpreting technique where the headphone is placed into only one ear, leaving the other earpiece unused, so they could hear both source and target languages simultaneously. In 2010 and 2011, the interpreting was extended to include mathematical transformation and Euclidean geometry. The aim was to investigate how teachers as end-users would experience simultaneous interpreting into an indigenous language in a teaching and learning situation. Although the Setswana mother- tongue speakers were in the minority, the qualitative study yielded significant data pertaining to multilingual educational settings. Future research will look into developing terminology for Euclidean geometry.