Inclusive language in ELT: a project for a liaison interpreting class at the University of Padua

The use of inclusive language is widespread in our society; however, additional effort should perhaps be made to foster its use in order to avoid any kind of discriminations and to make every individual feel accepted within the community. The project described in this dissertation was conducted at the University of Padua with a group of students attending Professor Dalziel’s Liaison Interpreting course, and it aimed at introducing inclusive language within interpreting situations, in order to create conscious future interpreters and conscious speakers, aware of inclusive terms and language strategies to make everyone feel accepted, recognized and valued in communication and in everyday life. The first stage of the project, a questionnaire to understand students’ background awareness of inclusive language and to introduce the topic. Then, students were provided a glossary of inclusive terms to be used during interpreting simulations created by Professor Dalziel and me jointly. The final stage of the project was represented by a final questionnaire, aimed at checking if the activities proposed had been effective in encouraging students to use more inclusive language both when interpreting and in everyday life.