Astrid Schmidhofer (Universität Innsbruck) works as an Elise Richter Fellow Researcher at the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Innsbruck. She researches in the areas of translation and interpreting oriented language teaching and learning, translation pedagogy and contrastive linguistics. She is author of many articles in specialised journals and has edited various books.

Project title: Developing a framework for TI-oriented language competence
What is your research about?
Language competence of translators and interpreters and how it can best be developed.

How did I come up with my research topic?
I observed in my classes in translator and interpreter training, which also included language courses, that students were expected to develop high language competence in little time, but that at the same time teaching and learning was not targeted towards future language use and expectations. This discrepancy motivated me to explore possibilities in research and practice how to remedy this need and to centre my habilitation thesis on this topic.

What empowers me?
What empowers me is being true to myself and being at peace with myself, defending my views even against established opinions, but also admitting when I am wrong. I also feel empowered by reaching the goals I set myself, but also by the positive environment at work, in family and my circle of friends. I also draw a lot of energy from sports and nature, and from learning new things every day.