Research Tendencies in Translation and Interpreting Studies and Intercultural Communication

Abstract

The rise of globalization, the strengthening of multicultural societies, the abolishment of borders, technological advances, social networks, and the increasing political power of economic forces are all unmistakable occurrences that are characteristic of the 21st century. Communication within these multilingual societies comes across new developments and challenges that inevitably modify each type of intervention. All these issues are subjects of growing interest within the scope of research and training in Translation and Interpreting Studies and intercultural communication. This article focuses on some of these issues. First, the author will briefly write about some overarching themes in Translation and Interpreting Studies (T&IS). This will be followed by an overview of the influence of some disciplines. After that, some tendencies in research methods used in T&IS will be explore. Finally, an example of crossing domains in research and practice in T&IS in the 21^st century will be presented taking as an example the Master Thesis from the MA in Intercultural Communication, Public Service Interpreting and Translation (Chinese- Spanish) offered at the University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.