READERS’ THEATRE POTENTIAL FOR INTERPRETERS’ TRAINING

This methodological article discusses the potential of using readers' theatre in interpreters' training within a University undergraduate program. Readers' theatre is a dramatic presentation of a written work in a script form. In foreign language education, readers' theatre allows the teacher to integrate and to practice strong scaffolding, which builds rapport and group dynamic favourable for foreign language learning. Usually readers' theatre is discussed as having the potential for the development of students' linguistic, socio-cultural and pragmatic competences. This article discusses the possibility and offers psychological and methodological rationale for integrating readers' theatre in development of specific interpreters' skills. The author analyses how the use of readers' theatre is connected with reading fluency and its growth. Reading is examined in the frame of foreign speech acquisition theory and the major principles of interpreter's training, as they are developed and practiced in the Russian translation school. The novelty of the current research is in attempt to justify the possibility of using readers' theatre in these two frames. It is argued that readers' theatre can become an additional tool in professional interpreter training, specifically, in the area of speech fluency, memory training, public speaking skills.