About the Master’s program in Conference Interpreting
Our Master’s programs offer students the opportunity to put the multilingual and intercultural expertise they have acquired during the pre-Master’s program into practice in various professional environments.
ISIT produces graduates with a strong general knowledge and a solid understanding of intercultural issues who are able to show agility in an international environment and to grasp the complexity of globalized organizations and businesses.
The Master’s degree in Conference Interpreting responds tomeets the need for multilingual communication brought about by the globalization of politics and economies.
In 2014, the Conference Interpreting program at ISIT joined the European Masters in Conference Interpreting (EMCI) consortium, an elite group of universities offering accredited masters degrees in conference interpreting. In 2022, ISIT was elected president of the EMCI consortium of conference interpreting schools.
This program receives funding from the European Union.
Visit the European Commission’s conference interpreting website
Faculty
- Practicing conference interpreters accredited by international organizations or French ministries
- University lecturers and researchers
Learning objectives
- To train professionals capable of working for government departments, the media and international organizations upon graduation.
- To train students to interpret in the context of high-level international conferences or meetings (bilingual or multilingual).
Practical skills acquired
- Simultaneous interpretation, consecutive interpretation and sight translation techniques
- Economic and legal knowledge
- Ability to listen, analyze, summarize, and concentrate quickly
- Ability to express oneself clearly and precisely in public
Courses
Year 4
UNDERSTANDING THE PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT & RELATED PRACTICES
- Methodology of Consecutive
- Interpreting
- Methodology of Sight Translation
- Cognitive Keys to Interpreting
- International Economics
COMMUNICATING WITHIN AN INTERCULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF INTERPRETATION
- Public Speaking Skills
- Consecutive Interpreting & Sight Translation B to A language
- Consecutive Interpreting & Sight Translation A to B language
- Consecutive Interpreting & Sight Translation C to A language
- Self-study (individual and group)
CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL ISSUES: SPECIALIZED INTERPRETING
- Political Economics
- Economic and Financial Interpreting
DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE INTERCULTURAL & INTERNATIONAL EXPERTISE
- Research methodology
- Research workshops
CAREER SUPPORT
- Multilingual Mock Conferences
- Stress Management Workshops
- Professional Integration
- Workshops & Seminars
- Internship (2 months min.)
Year 5
FINETUNING YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
- Advanced Consecutive Interpreting & Sight Translation for Professional Contexts
- Simultaneous Interpreting with and without text (language combinations: B to A, A to B, C to A)
SPECIALIZED INTERPRETING
- Geopolitics by Region
- Legal Interpreting
CAREER SUPPORT
- Multilingual Mock Conferences
- Stress Management Workshops
- Seminar on Professional Interpreters’
- Code of Ethics
- Volunteer Interpreting
- Internships within the Interpreting
- Departments of International organizations
- Participation of key recruiters at the final exams
Resources
Careers guidance
We work with teachers, alumni, practicing conference interpreters and potential recruiters to:
- Inform students about potential paths into the world of work
- Provide an insight into the conference interpreting market (talks and meetings with working interpreters)
- Help students find internships (in companies and international organizations)
- Help students with their personal development, particularly stress management and exam preparation (sophrology workshops)
- Equip students with the information and tools they need to set up as freelance interpreters
- Encourage a considered and objective approach to work-related issues
- Provide graduates with individual guidance after they have completed their degree
First-year internships
A work placement is a requirement for all first-year Conference Interpreting students.
Main objectives:
- Understand the business world and its requirements
- Identify the stakeholders interpreters work with
- Deepen your understanding of economic issues and increase your vocabulary
all of this through hands-on experience in a professional role other than interpreter.
Internship details
- Length: 2 to 3 months
- Period: between the end of May and the end of September
- Placement: global companies and NGOs
- Main roles: marketing, communications (including press relations and corporate communications), human resources, purchasing, finance, lobbying
- Location: in France for students with French as a B or C language, or abroad for French A students
Second-year internship
Second-year Conference Interpreting students complete internships:
- dummy-boothing in a variety of international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the OECD, the EU and UNESCO). A dummy booth is a real interpreting booth in a meeting room in which student interpreters may sit and listen to the meeting, or practice their interpreting in a realistic environment.
- as volunteer conference interpreters for charitable or humanitarian organizations (CCFD, Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort), or during large student events such as GIMUN (Geneva International Model United Nations) conferences.
Getting ready to apply
Prerequisites
- Admission in Year 4: 3rd year of higher education (L3) successfully completed
- Admission in Year 5: Master 1 or equivalent (4 years of higher education in France or abroad, officially recognised as being worth 240 ECTS) successfully completed
IMPORTANT: for the Conference Interpreting specialization, the student’s Master 1 or equivalent qualification must be in Conference Interpreting
- You must have an excellent command of all the languages you are applying with.
Each conference interpreter works with a unique language combination. This combination of working languages is composed of:
- Native language or A language: The language into which the interpreter works from all his or her other languages, in both simultaneous and consecutive modes.
- Active language or B language: A language other than the interpreter’s native language, of which he or she has a perfect command and into which he or she works from his or her A language.
- Passive language or C language: A language of which the interpreter has a complete understanding and from which he or she works into his or her A language.
Accepted language combinations
At ISIT, English and French are required in any language combination. ISIT also caters for all languages for which a demand exists and qualified instructors can be found:
- AA for English and French exclusively,
- AB for English and French exclusively, provided that the candidate’s level in his/her B language is nearly equivalent to that of his or her A language,
- ABC, ABB, ABCC, ACCC or ACCCC, in which case English and French are still required but can be A, B or C languages.
ACC combinations, except in rare cases, are not accepted.
Mobility
You must have a minimum of 12 consecutive months of in-country experience using your B language. 6 consecutive months of in-country experience using each of your C languages is also recommended.
Past papers
- Stay up to date with current events by reading newspapers and magazines in your working languages. Radio, television and the internet are other valuable sources of information.
See our selection of recommended news sources - Practice conveying messages originally expressed in your B and C languages in your A language, and if your language combination so permits, from your A language into your B language. Listen carefully to the speaker’s message, be sure you fully understand it, then deliver it in the first person, making sure to communicate the main ideas.
- See the ORCIT website (Online Resources for Conference Interpreter Training), a European Commission-funded project in which ISIT is involved, which produces interactive teaching and learning tools for conference interpreting students and trainers.
- Watch our videos about language preparation on ISIT’s YouTube channel.