Development and Validation of the Interpreting Learning Engagement Scale (ILES).

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Applied Linguistics
• Translation and Interpreting Studies

Background:

• Learning engagement is vital for academic success and skill development in interpreting.
• A lack of validated instruments exists to measure engagement specifically within interpreting education.
• Interpreting requires significant cognitive effort and active student involvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Interpreting Learning Engagement Scale (ILES).
• To provide a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing student engagement in interpreting learning contexts.
• To address the empirical gap in engagement research within the interpreting field.

Main Methods:

• Development of the 18-item ILES across four dimensions: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement.
• Validation using data from 306 students across five Chinese universities.
• Application of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for scale validation.
• Assessment of reliability, validity, and correlation with grit for external validation.

Main Results:

• The ILES demonstrated adequate psychometric properties, including reliability and validity.
• Factor analyses confirmed the four-dimensional structure of the scale.
• ILES scores showed a significant positive correlation with grit, supporting external validity.

Conclusions:

• The ILES is a validated and reliable instrument for measuring student engagement in interpreting education.
• Findings support the use of the ILES to identify areas for intervention to enhance student engagement.
• The study provides a foundation for future research on promoting interpreting competence through engagement strategies.