Developing an eLearning resource for Chinese-English healthcare interpreters

Australia is a multicultural society where interpreters play an important role in enabling effective communication for people with limited English proficiency, especially in healthcare settings. In Australia, Chinese has become the most spoken language after English. There is a great demand for Chinese-English healthcare interpreters and an urgent need for training resources (Vanstone, 2012).

The goal of this study is to explore online pedagogy in healthcare interpreter training and produce an eLearning resource that is tailored to the needs of Chinese-English interpreters working in Australian healthcare settings, test its efficacy and refine it through action research. An identified issue of healthcare interpreter training is the lack of situated learning as practicum in healthcare settings for interpreters is difficult to arrange (Crezee & Ng, 2016; Dean et al., 2003). Web 3.0 tools assist with constructing an authentic and immersive training environment hosted in the learning management system Canvas. Medical factual television-based roleplays combined with collaborative learning tools such as Padlet create a learning space that is similar to real life scenarios.

The production-oriented approach to language teaching (Wen, 2018) provides the framework for the design of the learning resource. Participants are recruited from preservice and practising interpreters in Australia, and data collected includes pre-and-post test results, online questionnaires and evaluations from an expert panel consisting of interpreting scholars and TESOL experts. Data will be triangulated to increase validation.

The study has the potential for improving interpreting quality, reducing unnecessary health expenditure and improving the health outcomes of Chinese in Australia.