Discursive analysis, the ally of the apprentice interpreter

Since the 2000s, many European universities and training institutes offer programmes that are specific to public service interpreting and translation. They traditionally include at least the teaching of ethics, intercultural communication, interpreting techniques, medical and legal terminology, as well as role playing.
In our communication, we would like to stress the importance of systematically including a discourse analysis module in the curriculum. Indeed, only the detailed analysis of recorded and transcribed authentic interactions enables the apprentice interpreter to become aware of linguistic phenomena that might escape notice during role-plays. The face threatening acts and their mitigation strategies (Brown and Levinson 1987 ; Kerbrat-Orecchioni 1992), the inference mechanisms (Sperber and Wilson 1989), the relationèmes (markers of interpersonal construction, Kerbrat-Orecchioni 1992) and thus the formation of coalitions within the triad, etc., should be studied in depth.
As an example, we would like to present the application of the pragma-dialectical theory of van Eemeren and Grootendorst (e.g. 1988, 1996) and van Eemeren and Houtlosser (e.g. 1999, 2000, 2009) to an excerpt from a French-Russian psychotherapeutic session. This kind of analysis increases the trainee's awareness of the dialectical strategies (logos) deployed by the speaker to convince the interlocutor in a negotiation, and of the derailments of strategic manoeuvring that might occur during the interpreting process (when pathos and ethos aspects outweigh the dialectical one to persuade the interlocutor).
The analysis of argumentative strategies, yet under-exploited in public services interpreting learning, turns out to be highly instructive.