Role-playing is a vital part of any interpreter-training programme and testing activity (Hale 2007, Hlavac et al. 2016). This chapter will discuss both in what ways role-playing can be used as an instrument to train or test specific skills and knowledge, and how variations in some components of a role-play – instructions, participants’ knowledge and abilities, general and individual goals and objectives – have an impact on the interaction between the participants and on the resemblance between the role-play and a corresponding, real-life situation. Thus, different role-play setups are likely to suit different purposes. Training or testing terminology knowledge with scripted role-plays is just a small part of what can be achieved with a variated use of the possibilities of role-playing.

This chapter addresses how the specific needs for interpreting skills, knowledge and abilities in conflict zones are met in military interpreter training. It outlines the requested interpreting skills identified in literature on interpreting in military operations and then explores to what extent these skills are acquired in contemporary military interpreter training, and how this is done. The chapter introduces a relationship between interpretation in conflict zones and Public Sector interpreting (PSI). Military personnel with tasks related to foreign languages and communication is a staff category with different names and a variety of tasks. The role of interpreters in conflict or post-conflict zones, be that military personnel or civilian volunteers, includes a wide range of tasks and is usually not restricted to interpreting. Swedish military interpreters who have gone through the training programme are expected to be fluent in three languages: Swedish, English, and one of either Arabic, French, or Russian.