Vol/51 No/1 2012FEBRUARY/MARCHTheLinguist13FEATURESimportance of knowing other languages. Inorder to reach as wide a range of adultlearners as possible, it is necessary to lookbeyond traditional approaches and to adaptcontinuously to changes in society. Social media in their many forms (internetforums, weblogs, micro-blogs, wikis, podcasts,social bookmarking, Facebook, Twitter etc)have turbocharged the way we communicate.Italian in Italy schools are aware that socialmedia are one of the main means ofcommunication for many people, includingyoung mothers, teenagers, the unemployedand many active professionals. They aretherefore an extremely valuable tool forreaching these target groups, and anunderstanding of the marketing tools thatsocial media offer is now imperative.The 'Get Strategic Through Social Media'project, funded by Grundtvig, was approvedlast year by the European Commission.Analysing the use of social media as a tool formarketing language learning, it will help Italianin Italy and its partners in Belgium, Croatia,Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Spain andthe UK to implement the best media for themarketing needs of our organisations. Working with management and teachingstaff in language instruction, users of foreignlanguage teaching services (individuals andemployers) and expertsin marketing, we hopeto develop strategies to make efficient use ofsocial media to attract adult learners, reachdifferent target groups, and foster awarenessof the need to know foreign languages. Wewill begin by analysing the marketing needsof the participating organisations.Raising standardsItalian in Italy has its own Quality AssuranceCertification System, in accordance with Uniterand accredited by Sincert. In order to assurehigh standards of teaching competenceamong our trainers, we have participated invarious European educational projects. Ourmembers have taken structured trainingcourses all over the EU, and developed skillsin areas such as ICT, creative teaching,leadership, counselling and coaching. Now, through preparatory visits, we aresetting up a consortium of partners for aproject to analyse coaching strategies to helptrainers experiencing difficulties in theirprofessional lives. Funded again byGrundtvig, the project aims to enhancecoaching expertise by investigating existingapproaches to coaching, sharing experiencesand devising techniques appropriate to adulteducation. These techniques will be practisedin focus sessions, which will help to build theconfidence of participants and will be used asa basis for developing new coaching skills inthe future.Italian in Italy was awarded the ThrelfordMemorial Cup 2011 for fostering the study of languages.Social media are oneof the main means of communication.They are therefore anextremely valuable tool RECOGNITIONA 'Get Strategic through Social Media' eventheld in Belgium, in October 2011 (left).Baroness Coussins (r) presents Fabio Boccioand his colleague, Patrizia Pelliccioni, with the Threlford Memorial Cup at the prizegiving event in November (far left)raising awareness of what happens when thereare different perceptions of an interactionbetween migrants and local people; learningto appreciate differences as enrichingexperiences; promoting the capacity to copewith cultural differences; and eliminatingprejudices and stereotypes by introducing amore differentiated, global and effectiveapproach to teaching. At the end of the project, migrant and locallearners and staff will produce an inventory ofthe formalities of verbal and non-verballanguage, prejudices and stereotypes thatexist in our host and partner countries, and thesimilarities and differences in the languagescovered. Learners will check how this guidesupports communication during real andvirtual meetings. Staff and learners will alsoparticipate in role-plays designed to show howcultural misunderstandings can occur ininteractions between different communities.Exploiting social mediaItalian in Italy represents trainers and teacherswho are highly qualified in second languageacquisition and our member schools areauthorised examination centres for theCertificato di Italiano TELC (a member ofALTE, the Association of Language Testers inEurope). We cooperate with the ItalianEducation Ministry as an accredited teachertraining centre and are listed on the database of the Italian Ministry of ForeignAffairs as a centre for teacher training abroad,working with Italian Cultural Institutes inCaracas, Cordoba, Frankfurt, London, NewYork and Toronto.A permanent question adult languageschools are confronted with is how to attractadult learners and raise awareness of the

Programme makershave major problemsfinding linguists whounderstand the TV-making craft14 TheLinguistFEBRUARY/MARCH www.iol.org.ukFEATURESSusie Valerio takes us inside the high-pressureenvironment of TV interpreting As a rule, people who are interviewed withthe help of an interpreter are either famousor play an important role in high-profilestories. in production terms, interpreters andtranslators come as very expensive budgetitems. the hourly rate of an agencyinterpreter or translator is higher than that ofmost assistant producers, and an interpreteron full rate for a whole day can easily bemore expensive than the director. So it will come as no surprise thatinterpreters and translators are used verysparingly. producers prefer to hire productionpeople who have language skills becausethey will do two jobs in one. they only callprofessional linguists when the story isimportant enough to justify the extra costs. however, working for the media is not onlyabout interpreting for the stars. on footballassignments for the champions League, forinstance, interpreters are often called in toassist the club's press office with queries fromforeign journalists. they may be asked to dostadium announcements or even to help withsecurity issues involving foreign fans. the work also brings huge responsibility, aseverything the interpreter says is in the publicdomain within a very short space of time. inan age of increasingly aggressive mediatactics, the interpreter is frequently called onto act as mediator, often prompted byproducers and interviewees to 'guide' thestory they are covering by slightly adaptingquestions and answers in order to fit aparticular brief. Discretion, attention to detailand common sense are paramount. A way into the professioni began working as a media interpreter in1998, after finishing a BA in Drama, Film andquotes into 20-30 second time-codedsections to enable editing may seem obviousto me, but it would not occur to a 'normal'translator. Nor would most translators think toadapt interviews to the language of specificgenres in order to facilitate scripting, or knowhow to operate the machines in the case ofon-site translation at the pre-editing stages. Interpreting the gameAfter working for two years as a freelance tVtranslator, i began working as a researcher,assistant producer and live footballinterpreter. i was approached by an agencyspecialising in soccer and began to work onhigh-profile games in the championsLeague, premier League and Uefa cup, and have since covered most of the gamesplayed by the Brazilian national team inthe Uk. interpreters are often hired by the hostteam and, as information can leak very easily,almost no information is given prior to theassignment. instead, interpreters need toread up on the tournament they are coveringand the club they are working for beforearriving for the job. Making a mistake with aplayer's name when sitting next to the likes ofFabio capello or Jose Mourinho, at a pressconference with the cameras rolling, wouldbe unthinkable. the work is always dynamic and there tendto be many additions to the original jobdescription. interpreters are generally hiredfor a certain number of hours on a fixed feeand expected to help with whateverlanguage support is needed during thattime -from consecutive interpreting forinterviews to helping with the accreditation offoreign journalists. Interpreting in the limelighttelevision Studies. A friend who worked as aproducer for a big television company askedme to translate some interviews for aninternational football show, aired in morethan 100 countries. i was concerned that iwas not a trained interpreter but was toldthat my knowledge of programme makingwas much more important than any linguistictraining. i later learned that programmemakers have major problems findingtranslators and interpreters who understandthe technical aspects of the tV-making craft. the extremely fast-paced environmentmeans that they cannot afford to waste timeexplaining technicalities. Breaking down© iStockphoto