danielle D'HAYER

Biography

I am the course leader of the MA Conference Interpreting at London Metropolitan University. I am also in charge of our short courses and CPD (Continuous Professional Development) portfolio and public service interpreting (PSI) studies. I set up the Public Service Interpreting Network group in the UK from 2008 to 2016.This was a group based on a community of practice model. I taght PSI from 1997 to now and conference interpreting from 2004 to now. My research interests are strongly connected to collaborative learning. I am a PhD student in the last phase of my thesis called “To what extent and in what ways do Communities of Practice facilitate learning in the context of professional development for interpreting students and practitioners.” I use quite a lot of collaborative tools on line when teaching, such as Google Community, Google drive, Twitter, VScene and Zoom. We have replaced the traditional white board in class with a shared Google doc so we can all contribute as we reflect in class. Teaching is a passion and a privilege. You gain and earn the trust of students. This comes with responsibilities and accountability. As such, I try to create learning spaces that foster trust and a constructive learning experience for all, including me. I feel that this offers a learning opportunity that interpreting graduates then take away with them, especially when having to work as interpreters in teams of colleagues they do not know, or simply interacting with the profession formally in informally. In my mind, informal learning is on the increase and needs to be captured and valued during formal studies. My languages are French and English. I also have Spanish and Italian even though I have never used the two languages in an interpreting setting.