THE CIRIN BULLETIN
Conference
Interpreting Research
Information Network
An independent network for the
dissemination of information on
conference interpreting
research (CIR)
__________________________________________________________________
BULLETIN n°34
June 2007
Editor: Daniel Gile
Contributors to
this issue:
Andrew Kay-fan
CHEUNG (AC), Nadja Grbc (NG), Ivana Čenková (IC), John Kearns (JK),
Heike
Lamberger-Felber (HL), Minhua LIU (ML), Margus Puusepp (MP), Sonja Pöllabauer (SP),
Gun-Viol Vik-Tuovinen (GVVT), Binhua WANG (BW)
Editorial address:
D. Gile, 46, rue d'Alembert,
92190 Meudon, France
tel/fax +33 1 45 34 83 84
e-mail: daniel.gile@yahoo.com
Web site: http://www.cirinandgile.com
This Bulletin aims at contributing to the dissemination of information
on conference interpreting research (CIR) and at providing useful information
to members of the CIR community worldwide. It is intended to achieve maximum
coverage of research into this sub-field of interpreting, and only occasionally
refers to research and publications in other sub-fields. The Bulletin is
published twice a year, in December and June. For further information and
electronic or paper copies of early issues (the last issue is available on the
Web site at any time), please contact D. Gile.
Note: the
mini-abstracts are followed by the initials of the contributors who sent in the
information, but the text may also be written or adapted from the original text
by D.Gile, who takes responsibility for the comments and for potential errors
introduced by him.
* *
*
Welcome to Binhua Wang from
Also note in this issue:
- The interesting special issue of Meta (51:2)
on translation and interpreting in
- The large number of contributions from
- The list of diploma theses from
It is
also becoming clear that the increasing number of studies on Community
Interpreting corresponds to a powerful trend. This is probably a very good
thing, as researchers into community interpreting are addressing practical
issues which are far more important for society than those addressed in CIR. On
the other hand, this expansion of research into community interpreting is
likely to be associated with gradual fading of research into conference
interpreting and with new paradigms. For reasons explained previously, the
CIRIN network does not cover community interpreting. However, the Recent
Publications section on the website of the European Society for Translation
Studies www.est-translationstudies.org
lists some interesting studies. Linguistica Antverpiensia 5(2006),
guest-edited by Erik Hertog and Bart van
der Veer as reported in the June 2007 page of the Recent Publications page of
EST, deserves special attention.
Daniel
Gile
Ahrens,
Barbara. 2006.
Structure und prominence in Simultanverdolmetschungen. In Heine et al.
(eds). 175-194.
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. 2006. Reduction
and expansion in notation texts. In Heine et al. 195-214.
Blaauw, Johan. 2006.
Interpreting with Limited Training: Experiences in the Interpreting of Academic
Lectures at the
* A particularly interesting experience. It seems that
in this environment of a bilingual South-African university (Afrikaans and
English) where interpreting quality was an important requirement, novices (in
interpreting) with good knowledge of the discipline did very well after limited
training. Food for thought.
Carsten, Svetlana. 2006. New
Challenges for Interpreting Schools. Translation
* An interesting discussion of economic considerations
in the British academic landscape and its implications on the recruitment and
situation of students in T/I programs in the
Chen, Xiaochun. 2006. The loss
of cultural information in interpreting and the compensational model (in
Chinese). Journal of
* This article analyses the reasons of the loss of
cultural information in interpreting from the macro, micro, and textual
perspectives, and makers a further discussion on how to compensate the loss of
cultural information in interpreting to the maximum extent in the stages of the
cultivation of cultural awareness, knowledge acquisition, comprehension and
reformulation. (BW)
Cho, Junmo and Park,
Hae-Kyeong.
* Interesting and
useful, not only for Asian students (and professional interpreters): learners
of foreign language who did not live as children in environments where their B
language is spoken tend to transfer phonological features of their native
language onto their B language. This may make their pronunciation difficult to
understand to users of their interpreting services into that B language. Hence
a rationale in favour of specific pronunciation training. The authors
illustrate the problems through a comparative analysis of the Korean and
English phonological systems.
Choi, Jungwha. 2005. Qualité et préparation de
l’interprétation. Evolution des méthodes de préparation et rôle de l’Internet. Meta
50: 4 (CD supplement).
Choi, Jungwha.
Choi, Jungwha. 2006.
Interpreting Neologisms used in
* The author
reviews recent neologisms in Korean. The New Vocabularies Reports of the
National Institute of Korean Language for 2003 and 2004 list more than 600 new
lexical items for each of these years, about 2/3 of which are general and the
remaining technical. The illustrations offered are explained with a
roman-character transcript, the Korean written form, the meaning of each part
of the term and the meaning of the new combination. Not interpreting-specific.
Interesting for those who are interested in the formation of neologisms and
those would like to know more about the morphology of Korean words.
Choi, Jung Yoon.
2006. Metacognitive Evaluation Method in Consecutive Interpretation for Novice
Learners.
* Basically,
ideas on how to teach students to evaluate their own performance in the
classroom.
Dam, Helle & Jan Engberg.
2006. Assessing accuracy in consecutive interpreting: a comparison of semantic
network analyses and intuitive assessments. In Heine et al. 215-234.
Darwish, Ali. 2006. Standards
of simultaneous interpreting in live satellite broadcasts. Translation Watch
Quarterly 2:2.55-88.
* The author stresses that simultaneous interpreting
in the Arab World only started in the 1990s, that Standard Arabic presents
serious problems to many simultaneous interpreters, that many of them translate
literally, something which may ascribed at least partly to the strong Arab
tradition of translating from the Qur’an. He says that prefabricated language
makes up a large portion of the linguistic stock and that the success of
interpreting is governed by the interpreter’s ability to pre-align fabricated
linguistic data and bridge the distance between the two languages, cultures and
communication situations through such alignment (p. 60-61).
Darwish
proposes a model of translation anchored in ‘optimality theory’ with rules
according to which the primary option is literal translation; if this fails, a
shift to the operative level is warranted; if the operative level is
unsuccessful, the interpretive level is required. (p.61).
On p.69,
Darwish claims that “unlike other forms of simultaneous interpreting, such as
conference interpreting, Telecast Simultaneous Interpreting is seldom scripted.
Given the ad hoc nature of most programs, TSI interpreters are increasingly
under pressure to respond to live adlibbed discourse. This increases the
potential for errors and other performance anomalies and reduces the quality of
output to unacceptable levels…” (!).
Darwish
refers to a study comparing delivery modes at Aljazeera and the Lebanese
Broadcasting Corporation, but with scarcely any methodological detail. His
findings are summed up sketchily. He makes a few points such as the presence of
unnatural intonation in Aljazeera interpreters’ performance and errors and
infelicities in extracts reproduced in the paper.
Déjean, Karla. 2006. Les douze commandements de la formation d’interprètes de conférence. Forum
4 :2. 217-232.
De Laet,
Frans & Raymond Vanden Plas.
2005. La traduction à vue en interprétation simultanée: quelle opérationnalité
ambitionner?
* In this somewhat prescriptive paper, the authors
argue that due to worsening working conditions for interpreters in
international organizations and the fact that most speakers now read at full
speed papers which may be given to interpreters at the last minute only, sight
translation training could be used to improve the student interpreters’
relevant skills.
Du, Zhengming & Meng, Xiangchun.
2006. ‘Waiting’ in SI: an issue open to question (in Chinese). Journal of
* The management of EVS in SI is a crucial factor
exerting substantial influence on the interpreter’s mentality, his felt
workload and ultimately, performance. However, systematic yet concrete and
elaborate studies of such a factor with its involved problems are still lacking
in spite of the flourishing research. In fact, some biased and possibly
misleading conceptions still exist in this regard, such as the proposition of
the so-called ‘waiting’ as a technique. On the basis of a discussion of the
relationship between EVS and other factors related to the interpreter’s
performance in SI, this paper analyzes the infeasibility of ‘waiting’ and then
proposes that the interpreter should comprehensively use all practical
techniques to avoid ‘waiting’ and win over time, with the understanding that
this helps to reduce his psychological pressure and the relative workload, which
in turn helps to improve the overall SI quality and enhance the conference
participants’ satisfaction. (BW)
Funayama, Chuta. 2007. Enhancing
Mental Processes in Simultaneous Interpreting Training. The Interpreter and
Translator Trainer 1:1. 97-116
* Trainees in interpreting courses tend to be
concerned more about superficial linguistic expressions than the message, or
what is conveyed by those expressions. This tendency stands out particularly in
the mode of simultaneous interpreting (SI). This paper discusses the way we
could direct our trainees’ attention to the mental work needed for SI, based on
a model which puts concepts, not lexical forms, at the centre of its schematic
description. The model applied here gives on-line tracking of the concepts built,
modified, and reconstructed during SI practice, which means that any unit of
source language (SL) expression should be recorded and analyzed in terms of
concepts. This model provides us with a new type of instruction tool as well as
more detailed insight into specific components of SL comprehension and its
rendering in the target language.
Furuyama, N.,
Nobe, S., Someya, Y., Sekine, K., Suzuki, M., Hayashi, K.
* A sequel to the
paper published in Interpretation Studies 5.
Kalina, Sylvia. 2006. Zur Dokumentation von Maβnahmen der
Qualitätssicherung beim Konferenzdolmetschen. In Heine et al.
253-268.
Kim, Hye-Rim.
2006. Strategy to Block Interference from the Source Language (cognate signifiants)
in Korean-Chinese interpretation.
* Another interesting paper (see Cho and Park above)
which shows potential (and effective) lexical interference between Chinese and
Korean due to morphological similarities in their lexicons - the phenomenon is
similar to that associated with false cognates in European languages, with the
added visual component introduced by Chinese characters and their often
ideographic function. The “strategy to block interference” proposed by the
author seems to be nothing but the deverbalization strategy advocated by ESIT,
re-named “designification” here. The author does cite Seleskovitch, but does
not make it clear enough that such deverbalization was very central to
Seleskovitch’s approach to interpreting, and perhaps that “designification” is
based on Seleskovitch’s teaching
Kohn, K. & M. Albl-Mikasa.
2002. Note-taking in consecutive interpreting. On the
reconstruction of an individualised language. Linguistica Antverpiensia
1. 257-272.
Kondo, Masaomi.
2006. Multiple Layers of Meaning – Toward a Deepening of the “Sense” Theory of
Interpreting. Interpretation Studies 6. 175-182.
Lee, Taehyung.
* This paper
compares under naturalistic conditions the interpreting performance of two
groups of interpreters who interpreted the same 7 speeches, one group live, and
the other group when the speeches were re-broadcast a few hours later. While
the author does not specify this in the paper, the interpreters in the delayed
condition probably have had time to listen to the speech at least once before
interpreting it. Temporal parameters, including the number of syllables,
speaking time, the ratio of actual speaking time to total duration of
interpreting, length of pauses between sentences and within sentences in the
target-language versions versus the original were very similar in both
conditions. The author notes in particular the correlation between the length
of sentences in the source speech and the length of sentences in the target speech,
which suggests that interpreters are strongly influenced by the form of
sentences in the original speech, presumably because of cognitive pressure. On
the whole, correlations between the Speaker’s and the Interpreter’s parameters
are stronger in the delayed condition than in the live condition, perhaps
because in the delayed condition, interpreters were more in control, having had
an opportunity to listen to the speech prior to interpreting. Another
interesting point was that accuracy as measured by the proportion of sentences
in the original which were interpreted was 65.5% for the live condition and
78.7% in the delayed condition. On the whole, the quality of delayed
interpreting seems to have been higher in several aspects, which suggests that
preparation is indeed useful.
Lee, Yun-Hyang. 2005.
Self-assessment as an autonomous learning tool in an interpretation classroom.
* The author asked 23 students in the Korean-English
program of a 2 year graduate school of translation and interpreting to take
home recordings of interpreting exercises they did in class and to assess them
on the basis of a set of criteria pooled together under meaning, language use
and delivery. All students found the exercise useful. The students’ comments
are analyzed.
Li, Ling. 2006. Importance of discourse
markers in conference interpretation and the related interpreting strategies
(in Chinese). Journal of
* Discourse markers play an important role in discourse
coherence. It is obvious that discourse markers can make logics of the
discourse more explicit, but their ultimate goal is to help the listener
understand the intention of the speaker with less effort so as to facilitate
the smooth process of communication. Therefore, discourse markers may help the
interpreters grasp and reproduce the main ideas of the speakers immediately and
accurately and thus improve the quality of conference interpretation. Some
strategies can be employed to translate discourse markers in conference
interpretation such as adding, omitting, retaining and changing the discourse
markers in the original speeches. (BW)
Lim, Hyang-Ok.
Liu, Minhua. 2005. From
descriptive translation studies to constructivism: researching and teaching
interpretation (in Chinese). Journal of the National Institute for
Compilation and Translation 33:4. 42-50.
* The author discusses why interpreting research and
interpreter training have often not benefited from each other and suggest
interdisciplinary work, the establishment of a descriptive branch of
interpreting studies, a constructivist position in training and action
research.
More
specifically, she advocates engaging student interpreters in doing actual
interpreting as opposed to skill-component training so that they can learn how
to solve problems in their original, authentic, complex and rich contexts.
She
also says that half a century of interpreter training has not benefited
interpreting research because of a prescriptive approach which was adopted
without sufficient attention being allotted to the learning process itself, and
recommends the establishment of a descriptive branch in interpreting studies to
reverse the long prescriptive character of interpreter training.
With
respect to research, she says that interpreting scholars often borrow concepts
or tools from other fields without truly understanding the underlying
fundamentals. She believes interpreting studies should be more humble and open
to effective interdisciplinarity.
Ma, Xia. 2006. Interpreting: the process of
variation, negotiation and adaptation (in Chinese). Chinese Translators
Journal 27:3.53-58.
* This paper aims to explore the dynamic context of
interpreting process from the perspective of pragmatics, based on the
variability, negotiability and adaptability in terms of the property of
language according to Adaptation Theory. It first shows that interpretation is
a complicated communicative activity, changed with the dynamic contextual
process, when achieving the interpretation between the source and target
language’s fidelity. Based upon these analyses, this paper then continues to discuss
the contextual factors on how to make choice of linguistic use from a variable
range of possibilities in the process of interpreting, with its emphasis on how
the interpreter should adapt to the meta-pragmatic awareness. (BW)
Puusepp, Margus. 2006.
Interpretation-related quality expectations of Estonian conference
participants. Baltic Horizons n°6(105), December 2006. 84-95.
* A questionnaire
was distributed to participants at three training seminars on EU law and
institutions for Estonian civil servants. A total of 39 questionnaires were
returned from the three groups. Respondents were asked about the general role
and performance of interpreters and about quality components (inter alia as
“irritants”) with a request to rate their importance on a rate of 1 (maximum)
to 4. Among the findings, there was high inter-individual and inter-group
variability, and terminology seems to be perceived as important.
Pyoun, Hewon. 2006. Pourquoi enseigner
l’interprétation simultanée avec texte en anglais – cas d’étude entre le
français et le coréen.
* This paper is
to my knowledge the first to address the case where speakers use one language
and display written documents in another language. In the case of Korean
interpreters, speakers may speak French or Korean but use English powerpoint
presentations, which is problematic not only because some interpreters in the
French-Korean combination do not have strong English, but also because the task
then involves processing of discourse in 3 languages, not 2, simultaneously.
The author observed problems in such an interpreting exercise and found that
there were more errors and omissions than in more traditional interpreting
exercises with only two languages.
Ren, Wen & Jiang, Lihua.
2006. Reinterpreting the interpreters’ role: a discourse analytical perspective
(in Chinese). Chinese Translators Journal 27:2. 61-66.
* Abstract: Taking an interdisciplinary approach and
drawing in particular from theories of discourse analysis, the co-authors of
this paper propose to view the interpreter-mediated conversation as a discourse
process in which the primary interlocutors coming from two different
language/cultural systems interact face-to-face with each other through an
interpreter. Seen from such a perspective, an interpreter can manage the flow
of talk by adopting appropriate discourse strategies and, together with the
primary interlocutors, may even influence the direction and outcome of the
interaction. This understanding poses a challenge to some widely circulating
notions about the interpreter, such as her need to possess a “microphone
personality” or to render herself “invisible”. (BW)
Tohyama, Hitomi
& Matsubara, Shigeki. 2006. An analysis of simultaneous interpreters’
strategies for following the source speech, focusing on the ear-voice span and
the timing of the start of interpreting (in Japanese). Interpretation
Studies 6. 113-128.
* Based on a
corpus stored at
Tryuk, Małgorzata. 2000.
Tłumaczenie ustne i pamięć [Interpreting and Memory]. In
Setkowicz, Anna O nauczaniu przekładu [On Teaching Translation],
Warsaw: Polskie Towarzystwo Tłumaczy Ekonomicznych, Prawniczych i
Sądowych (TEPiS), 108-119.
* The
complex nature of memory and applications of its various components in
interpreting activities constitute the subject of this paper. The author first
demonstrates several established views on the stages of the interpreting
process and the core mechanisms of sense memorization in the process of
translator and interpreter training, and then proceeds to discuss cognitive
studies on mental processes and memory. Since memory is essential in the
training process, its testing techniques are briefly commented on.
Moser-Mercer’s models of working memory and general memory are discussed. There
is also a clear presentation of how the memory model functions during the
simultaneous interpreting process, how particular aspects of short-term and
long-term memory affect the interpreter’s performance, and what kind of
didactic hints on memory training exercises can be provided. The article
concludes with three samples of the author’s studies conducted on remembering
native Polish utterances in French interpreting by fourth and fifth year
students at the
Wallmach, Kim. 2006. ‘Pressure
players’ or ‘choke artists’? How do Zulu simultaneous interpreters handle the
pressure of interpreting in a legislative context? Language Matters
35:1. 179-200.
Wang, Binhua. 2007. From
Interpreting Competence to Interpreter Competence – A Tentative Model for
Objective Assessment of Interpreting (in Chinese), Journal of Guangdong
University of Foreign Studies 2007:3. 32-40
* Abstract:
This article is a tentative exploration into the
objective assessment of interpreting. Utilizing Bachman’s testing theory, the
author blueprints the goals, contents, and modes of different types of
interpreting assessment, with the focus on the differentiation of interpreting
competence and interpreter competence in test designing. Case studies are
presented concerning the four representative interpreting major entrance tests
as well as the three representative interpreters’ credential tests in
Wang, Jinbo & Wang, Yan.
2006. Interpreting textbooks in
* In line with the characteristics of interpreting and
of interpreting textbooks, this paper examines and evaluates 31 English/Chinese
interpreting textbooks. It argues that most of the textbooks concerned are
theoretically weak and leave something to be desired in terms of methodological
rigor, material authenticity, and thematic and discourse diversity. It
concludes that in the context of the growing importance of interpreting in
contemporary
Yeh, Shu-Pai, & Liu, Minhua.
*Abstract
The purpose
of this paper is to report findings from a pilot study under a research project
commissioned by the National Institute for Compilation and Translation. The
study was designed to explore the possibility of using scoring rubrics to
evaluate interpretation performance.
Holistic
scoring based on multiple criteria is one of the most common methods used to
evaluate interpretation performance. Descriptions for each of the criteria,
however, are often lacking or unclear, and thus up to individual raters to
determine. As many interpretation evaluations are done on site under time
constraints, raters may make hasty decisions based largely on subjective
personal preferences, which can easily lead to large variance, affecting the
test’s fairness and objectivity.
The
test in the pilot study was on consecutive interpretation from English into
Mandarin. Four first-year graduate students undergoing T&I training and
seven fourth-year English majors participated in the study. Fidelity and
intelligibility were selected as the two criteria for independent scoring by
each rater off site after the test. Three pairs of raters were invited and
trained on the use of two scoring rubrics, one for each criterion, developed by
the research team. Pair 1 scored fidelity against the recording of the source
speeches, while Pair 2 scored fidelity against the recording of reference model
interpretations of the source speeches, and Pair 3 scored intelligibility based
on each participant’s interpretations of the source speeches. The study
intended to: (1) determine the test’s reliability and validity; (2) compare the
methods used by Pair 1 and 2; and (3) explore the correlation between fidelity
and intelligibility. Statistical methods were used to analyze the scores. The
raters’ comments and suggestions concerning the development of a prototype test
and evaluation procedure were also collected.
The
study showed high inter-rater reliability for both Pair 1 and Pair 2, with the
latter being slightly higher. Pair 3 showed only moderate inter-rater
reliability, which might be a result of the small sample population. Test
validity was established as graduate students significantly outperformed
undergraduates. Fidelity and intelligibility seemed to be two independent
criteria. (ML)
Zhang Ling. 2006. The
impact of omission on SI (in Chinese). Chinese Translators Journal 27:4.
43-48.
* This paper is a tentative study on how omission
tends to affect SI. Omission has often been regarded as an error in qualitative
assessment of SI. Recently, however, it has been argued that in
interpreter-mediated bilingual communication, the ‘saying it all’ strategy may
not be successful, nor could it even be practical. Drawing from its author’s
personal experiences in interpreting, which confirm that a one-hundred-percent
reproduction in SI is neither possible nor necessary, the paper looks into the
positive role which omission can possibly play in SI. It introduces the ‘effort
model’ of cognition in order to explain why omission is desirable. In response
to relevant research questions, the author carries out an observational study
to find out under what circumstances omission is applied. Concerns about
possible loss of information as a result of omission are also addressed. In
conclusion, the author suggests that we take omission for an effective SI
strategy, integrate it in SI training and, ultimately, apply it in the
practices of SI. (BW)
Zhang, Peipei & Ren, Jingsheng.
2006. Measuring faithfulness in interpretation performance (in Chinese). Chinese
Science & Technology Translators Journal 19: 59-61.
* Based on the results of previous researches, this
paper argues that faithfulness is one of the most important parameters and the
reliability of information units plays an important role in interpretation
performance evaluation. It proposes a formula to gauge faithfulness of
interpretation, which may help to make the evaluation method more scientific,
objective and feasible. (BW)
Zhang, Wei. 2006. Memory
and interpreting: a cognitive analysis (in Chinese). Chinese Translators
Journal 27:6.47-53.
* Memory enjoys a close and complex relationship with
interpreting and is one of the fundamental elements in the understanding of
interpretation. Looking closely into a survey designed to find out how Chinese
practitioners and students of interpretation tend to think about memory’s role
in their profession, this paper calls attention to the defects of previous
empirical researchers on memory and interpreting, and supplies a new and more
objective set of data for further studies of the relationship in question. (BW)
Zhang, Wei & Wang Kefei.
2007. Studies of interpreting and working memory (in Chinese). Foreign
Languages and Their Teaching. 2007:1.43-47.
* Memory is one of the fundamental elements in successful
interpreting exerting great influence on interpreting quality. This paper
focuses on the relationship between SI and working memory, showing the
significant effect of both volume of working memory and coordinating power of
working memory on interpreting quality, and the more practical effect of other
interpreting related skills and strategies. By analyzing the existing problems
in interpreting research, the authors hold that working memory in interpreting
can be furthered by improving research design as well as adopting
interdisciplinary approaches. (BW)
THESES
Benhaddou,
Adil. 2002. Video
conference and interpretation. Mémoire de DEA. Université de Mons Hainault.
Chiu, Yu-Hsien. 2006. Assessing
input difficulty in interpretation: An experiment of English to Chinese
consecutive interpretation. Unpublished MA thesis, Fu Jen University,
Taiwan.
* Abstract
Assessing input
difficulty is an essential issue to interpretation training and test development.
The purpose of this study is to use several quantitative approaches, including
readability formulas, propositional density, density of new arguments and
expert judgment, to assess the difficulty level of input materials. Readability
formulas were used to measure lexical and syntactic difficulty, while
propositional density and density of new arguments were used to estimate the
semantic or conceptual complexity. Expert judgment was helpful in exploring
other aspects of input difficulty.
Three English
texts were chosen as input materials. The difficulty level of these input
materials was judged by using the above-mentioned approaches and analyzed for
correlation with the performance of English to Chinese consecutive
interpretation. Four first-year graduate students and seven undergraduate
seniors participated in the study. There were two independent variables: three
English input materials (text) and two groups of participants with different
levels of interpretation expertise (group). The dependent variable was the
scores of participants’ interpretation performance, based on propositional
accuracy as well as scores of fidelity and intelligibility based on 5-point
scales.
The major
findings of the study are as follows:
1.
None of the difficulty levels assessed by the four
approaches correlated with participants’ interpretation scores. However,
propositional density and expert judgment seemed to show some possible
relationship with the interpretation scores.
2.
A significant main effect of “group” was observed,
with significantly better performance by the graduate students.
3.
The impact of input difficulty on interpretation
performance varied according to participants’ level of expertise, showing
graduate students’ performance less affected by input difficulty than that of
undergraduates. (ML)
Ďoubalová, Jana. 2007. Culture
and interpreting (Cultural differences and their influence on interpreting into
the native language and into the foreign active language). (in Czech). MA
thesis,
* A study on the relations between culture and
interpreting and on the effect of cultural differences on interpreting
strategies when translating names and institutional concepts in the EU context.
Building on Newmark’s, Gile’s and Jones’s models, a number of strategies are
listed. Detailed analysis of authentic interpretation at the European
Parliament validated these strategies. Since in that environment, there is
relative cultural unity, differences in the relative frequencies of strategies
when working into A or B are probably due to the interpreting process itself
rather than to cultural differences. (IC)
Dufrane, Luc. 2005. L’expression des émotions en
interprétation simultanée. Elaboration d’un outil d’investigation. Mémoire
de licence (?). Université de Mons Hainault.
Podhajská, Kvĕta. 2007. Time Lag in Simultaneous
Interpretation from English into Czech and its Dependence on Text Type. MA
thesis,
* This work, a follow-up to an earlier thesis by
Pavličková (2004) on French-into-Czech simultaneous interpreting, focuses
on the links between a spontaneous vs. read speech and time lag in simultaneous
interpreting. Twelve students and recent graduates of interpreting took part in
the experiment. The hypothesis which assumes a shorter time lag when
interpreting the read text was corroborated. A further finding is that time lag
is also influenced by the individual approach of the interpreter. (IC)
Diploma theses on conference
interpreting, Department of Translation Studies, Karl-Franzens Universität
Graz, 2003-2007 (NG, HL, SP)
* Other diploma theses, which have to do with other
types of interpreting, are listed on the EST website www.est-translationstudies.org
, under Recent Publications for the month of May
Borovsak, Petra. 2005. Dolmetscher in den
slowenischen Medien. Allgemeiner Überblick über die Situation der
Mediendolmetscher in Slowenien. Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens
Universität Graz.
* An overview of the situation of media interpreting
in
Eder, Sigrid. 2003. Die Bedeutung des visuellen
Inputs für Simultandolmetschen. Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität
Graz.
Gattringer, Claudia. 2005. Die Rolle
der Kohäsion für das Simultandolmetschen. Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens
Universität Graz.
Lieleg, Beatrix. 2003. Relevanz der
antizipatorischen Kompetenz in der Theorie und Praxis der Dolmetschditatik.
Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
Messner, Lieselotte. 2006. Qualitätsbeurteilungen
von Simultandolmetschungen. Fehlertypologien und Beurteilungsinstrumente.
Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
Moazedi. Laura. 2006. Persönlichkeitsunterschiede von
angehenden Übersetzerinnen und Dolmetscherinnen. Klischee oder Wirklichkeit?
Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Personality study among students in Graz
Morascher, Arnold. 2004. The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Rolle und Status des Dolmetschers und
Übersetzers im US-amerikanischen und europäischen Spielfilm ab 1990. Diploma
thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Representation of interpreters in films.
Reinmüller, Gerrit. 2003. Dolmetschen für
die EU. Qualitätsanforderungen beim Simultandolmetschen im Gemeinsamen
Konferenz- und Dolmetschdienst der Europäischen Kommission. Diploma thesis,
Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Small-scale survey
Reithofer, Karin. 2003. Haben
RednerInnen immer Recht? Dolmetschen von defekten Texten. Diploma thesis,
Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Experiment
Schneider, Julia. 2007. Die
Quantifizierung von Interferenzen beim Simultandolmetschen mit Text. Eine
Pilotstudie. Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
Wilhelm, Christine. 2005. Unterrichtsmethoden
beim Simultandolmetschen. Diploma thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Qualitative study (interviews)
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. 2005. Qualitative
Anforderungen an freiberufliche KonferenzdolmetscherInnen. Diploma
thesis, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz.
* Survey
MA theses from the Graduate
Institute of Translation and Interpretation of
Chang, Ho-Ching. 2001. The influence
of language proficiency and sight translation training toward sight translation
performance (in Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
This research probes into the influence of subjects’ different
language proficiency and sight translation training toward their sight
translation performances, so as to learn more about sight translation and how
to improve its training. The evaluation criteria in this research are: 1)
fidelity, which is divided into miss-interpretation, omissions, and unnatural
Chinese; 2) sight translation chunking, which includes chunk-moving, and
chunk-connection; 3) delivery, which covers backtracks, fillers, pauses, and
time. The major findings are: 1) sight translation training, with the help of
high language proficiency, makes the best ST performance; 2) language
proficiency has more influence on ST performance than ST training; 3) language
proficiency should be the prerequisite of ST training.
Chen, Yue-Chen. 2005. Personality
traits and job satisfaction of freelance interpreters in
Abstract
As a new profession in
Fan, Damien. 2004. Legal
issues in interpretation services: A Copyright Act perspective (in
Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
Freelance interpreters often find themselves in
disputes with clients who wish to record the interpreters’
works. Interpreters consider interpreting to be a mode of communication
occurring within a specific context, which optimizes the effectiveness of the
interpretation only when used in that certain context. Therefore interpreters
hope that clients will not use their interpretation in any other forms and
contexts. In addition, interpreters see their works as intellectual
properties protected by copyright laws, and consider recording as infringement
of their copyrights. However, some clients still insist on recording, and
claim that they have the right to do so, in addition to using the
recordings. This research analyses the legal relationships among the
speaker, the interpreter, and the client from the perspective of the Copyright
Act. The research indicates that the interpreter’s work is a derivative
work, protected as an independent work. The relationship between the
interpreter and the client should be governed by Article XXII, i.e. the
commissioning party and the commissioned person. In order to avoid
disputes and protect the rights of both parties, the interpreter and client
should stipulate in a contractual form the assignment of authorship and
economic rights, the reservation of moral rights, the purpose of commission,
and the scope of use.
Hong, Hsiao-Wen. 2001. The
influence of interpretation training on simultaneous interpretation performance
(in Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
This study evaluates the influence of SI training
based on the corpus data collected from the speech production by trained and
untrained interpreters. The assessment includes not only the content-based
criteria, i.e. completeness, accuracy and fidelity, but also speech delivery.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis are both attempted to disclose a better
picture of the truth. The major findings of this study are: (1) Trained
interpreters showed only a marginal advantage over untrained interpreters in
terms of completeness and accuracy. In fluency, however, a noticeable gap is
found between trained and untrained interpreters as the subjects with
interpretation training tend to deliver their interpretations much more
smoothly without excessive disruptions. (2) Variance within the same group,
however, is much greater than difference between groups, especially for
untrained interpreters. (3) A striking similarity is observed between groups in
omission types, error types and types of speech disruptions. According to the
research findings in this study, the effect of interpretation training is not
strong in completeness or accuracy but in fluency.
Hou, Hui-Ju. 2004. Sight
translation from Chinese into English: The selection of the main verb phrase(s)
and the translation of non-main verb phrases (in Chinese). Unpublished MA
thesis,
Abstract
Chinese and English are very different in terms of
verb usage. A Chinese sentence may contain two or more verbs that have no
inflections, while an English sentence usually contains one predicated verb
(the main verb) only. This study aims to find out which of the verbs in a
Chinese complex predicate would be chosen as the predicate verb in sight
translation into English, and how other verbs in the construction would be
translated. A Chinese opening speech is used as the source text, and the
experiment is divided into two parts: a main verb selection and the actual
sight translation. The verb in the main clause of a Chinese complex
predicate is often identified as the main verb used to construct an English
sentence, whereas the translation of the other verbs in the construction
depends on their relation to the main verb or other English grammar
requirements. The size of translation units may affect the selection of
the main verb. However, in actual sight translation, the first
non-prepositional verb in a Chinese sentence is often translated into English
as a predicated verb. The line between Chinese verbs and prepositions is
sometimes unclear. Nevertheless, it becomes clearer during sight translation
into English. Written materials are often used in sight translation
classes, which provides a good opportunity to introduce Chinese-English
contrastive studies into ST teaching.
Jen, Yu-Mei. 2005. Directionality
in simultaneous interpretation: A reassessment. Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
This study discussed SI directionality by examining
the validity of the claim that interpreting into A language was a
better/standard direction. Two approaches were taken: literature review and Internet
survey. On the part of literature review, aside from the fact that the
ambiguity of the existing language terms that necessarily involved in the
discussion of directionality deserved more research attention, some of the
major arguments for supporting A-B and B-A were reviewed respectively. Other
previous empirical studies also revealed important clues which might turn out
to be factors that determined SI directionality in quite independently of the
interpreter’s working languages being native or non-native, as identified by
this study. It was highly likely that SI directionality was an issue that had
gone beyond the discussion of native vs. non-native languages. On the other
hand, the Internet survey results showed that interpreting into A language as
the standard direction was a well-noted idea in the field but few respondents
actually gave their support to its strict practice mostly out of the concern
for market reality.
Lee, Pey-Chih.
Abstract
This study examines students’ notes in relations to
their speech production throughout the training course in graduate level
Translation and Interpretation programs. This study takes content completeness
as the only criterion for the evaluation of the 12 student subjects’ notes and
delivery. Major findings of this paper include: 1) regardless of years of
training, students rely heavily on their notes in speech production; 2)
training has more effect on students’ notes than on speech production in terms
of bringing their performance closer together; 3) senior students demonstrate
better capability in coordinating their notes and working memory in that they
tend to deliver fuller of their incomplete or missing notes; while junior
students tend to translate their complete notes incompletely or even
incorrectly, showing that their information processing before the act of
note-taking is not deep enough. However, due to the small sample size and the
fact that this experiment was done only once, it is not clear whether the
progress in note-taking demonstrated by students comes from the good training
program design, or it is simply the result of experience and practice.
Liao, Hsing-Hsien. 2004. Quality
standards and training for television news interpreting: From the perspective
of television news translators and interpreters (in Chinese). Unpublished
MA thesis,
Abstract
Need for television interpreting has increased since
the Gulf War of 1991. Breaking news in other parts of the world has also
generated greater demand for use of television interpreting services. As
television interpreting is considered to be a highly difficult type of
interpreting, it is important to establish a standard for quality in television
interpreting, and to determine if special training is required to provide
quality television interpreting services. There have been many empirical
studies and discussions about live television interpreting, most of which
approach television interpreting from the perspective of users, i.e. television
audiences. This study intends to explore views of quality and hiring decisions
from the perspective of television news translators and interpreters. A
questionnaire survey of 11 television news translators and interpreters shows
that (1) Television news stations prefer in-house translators to professional
interpreters for breaking news interpreting. (2) Training of interpreting is
recommended for potential television news interpreters. (3) Special training
focusing on television interpreting should be offered by educational
institutions. The study also shows that working experience and training in
interpreting affect the views of quality and hiring decision in television
interpreting. The study also presents lists of quality standards and training
curriculum from the perspective of television news translators and
interpreters.
Liu, Ellie. 2005. Numbers
count - How training, presentation mode, and complexity affect the processing
of numbers in interpretation. Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
Many students of Chinese-English interpretation often
find it difficult to translate numbers during simultaneous
interpretation. A number of factors, such as digit length and the
differences between Chinese and English number notation systems, could be
responsible for this phenomenon. This study uses an experimental approach
to test the effects of training, notation, and presentation mode on number
translation. Six groups of subjects from graduate interpretation and
translation programs with various training levels were tested under three
presentation modes using a series of stimuli consisting of nine different types
of numbers, and asked to translate them from Chinese into English. Results
showed an increase in reaction time as the amount and complexity of information
increased. It took longer to translate numbers with more digits, and the
addition of a unit greatly increased translation time. Presentation mode
also had major effects on processing time. Audio input was the easiest,
followed by visual input, and the presence of both audio and visual input was
the most difficult.
Shih, Yan-Ju. 2004. An
initial investigation of conference interpreters' personality profile and
anxiety level. Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the
personality profile and anxiety level of conference interpreters in
Tsui, Chien-Chang. 2004. Note-taking
and speech production in consecutive interpretation from English into Chinese (in
Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
Consecutive interpretation (CI) from English into
Chinese consists of three stages including comprehension, message retention,
and re-expression. The role of interpreter’s notes is the reminder assisting
memory to retain messages. The coordination of notes and memory determines the
percentage of the messages retained. However, the process of exerting memory
cannot be observed directly. The limit brings this study to compare the notes
and speech production of the research subjects, aiming to infer the possible
process of their memory retention. In addition, the note-taking skill
covers two aspects during the three stages. The first aspect involves the
effort allocation of note-taking during the stages of comprehension and message
retention. The second aspect is the efficiency of message retrieval from the
notes taken in the stage of re-expression. The research subjects of this
study are divided into three groups, namely Y1, Y2, Y3, according to the year(s)
of CI training they have received. The results of this study indicate that
Y2 subjects are superior in the level of comprehension, compared to the Y1
subjects; Y2 and Y3 are similar in terms of comprehension, but Y3 subjects are
better at re-expressing the messages understood. The possible explanation is
that the note-taking of Y2 subjects requires less effort than that of Y1
subjects, which relieves more effort to comprehension. This shows that Y2 can
well manage the first aspect of note-taking. On the other hand, given the
similar level of comprehension, Y3 subjects re-express more messages than Y2,
which means Y3 subjects excel in the second aspect of note-taking, retrieving
messages from notes.
Wang, Chen-Yu. 2004. Translating
strategy into action for freelance interpreters in
Abstract
Due to the inherent nature of interpretation as a
problem-solving service, interpreters usually rely on passive strategies to
obtain interpretation assignments. This study explores the possibility of using
business management tools to achieve active participation and growth in the
interpretation profession. The Balanced Scorecard approach is selected for taking
into consideration both financial and non-financial factors.
Employing the case study method, data was collected
through in-depth interviews with nineteen freelance interpreters, who had the
same language combination, and shared the same vision regarding their career. A
generic freelance interpreter model noting the major attributes was derived
from the data, and applied as the unit of analysis in the development of the
Balanced Scorecard. Developed
propositions are listed as follows:
-
Financial perspective: income growth/ sustained
existence as an interpreter, increase in interpretation assignments, increased
payment collections
-
Customer perspective: client satisfaction, long term
client established, increased probability of interpretation assignments, positive
interactions with intermediaries
-
Internal Business Process perspective: positive
interactions with other interpreters, requiring feedback from clients,
periodical provision/update of CV, effective glossary building and preparation,
successful referrals
-
Learning and Growth perspective: domain knowledge
enrichment, high speed data access, refined interpretation skills
-
Findings from this study suggest that freelance
interpreters are best off working together as a team, by sharing glossaries for
example, to achieve maximum utilization of all available resources.
Interpreters should aim at being the “highest value/lowest cost” service
provider for the client, instead of the “lowest price” service provider.
Wang, Hsiu-Yu. 2005. Numbers
as a quality variable in simultaneous interpreting: A case study of English
into Chinese SI. Unpublished MA thesis,
Abstract
Numbers have been regarded as one of the hurdles in
simultaneous interpreting (SI), but empirical evidence on the effects of numbers
on SI has been lacking. This study focused on isolating and examining the
effects of numbers on accuracy and fluency in an experiment setting. The
experiment involved 12 participants—4 practicing interpreters and 8 student
interpreters. Each group interpreted one of the two versions of the speech
material. The interpretation of each sentence containing a number or numbers
was compared with the interpretation of a corresponding sentence without
numbers but otherwise similar in meaning. The results suggest that numbers
requiring number word syntax conversion adversely affected the accuracy and
fluency of interpretation. In addition, numbers appearing in proximity in the
speech also increased the number of hesitation phenomena in the interpretation.
Together, these findings suggest that number word syntax conversion and numbers
appearing in proximity pose a heavier processing requirement in SI.
Ying, Chung-Hui. (2000). Redundant
elements in prepared speeches and simultaneous interpretation. Unpublished
MA thesis,
Abstract
This study examines the redundant elements in English
speech texts that are written before a conference and delves into the
differences in the use of redundant elements by native and non-native speakers
when preparing speech texts. Analysis of this study is based on a corpus
consisting of ten authentic speeches. The four redundant elements identified in
this study include false starts, repetitions, parenthetic remarks, and filler.
The type-token ratio of the speech texts is also analyzed in order to shed
light on vocabulary diversity in written texts. Major conclusions of this study
include: 1) When interpreting a prepared speech, the workload for the
interpreter, especially the memory load associated with high vocabulary
diversity, is not as heavy as interpreting a written document; 2) In speeches
that feature technical nature, the speaker would help to make the interpreter’s
job easier by repeating the keywords or inserting paraphrases of some sentence;
3) Fillers and false starts are less prevailing than repetitions and
parenthetic remarks in prepared speech as all the speaker would reads the text
verbatim.
DOCTORAL
DISSERTATIONS
Lindquist,
Peter P. 2004. Identification
of Interpreter-Training Needs through Corpus- Based
Analysis. Doctoral dissertation, Universidad de
Alicante, San Vicente de Raspeig,
* Abstract: Working within the theoretical frameworks
of Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis, using a parallel corpus of forty
interpreter performances, (approximately 80,000 words of interpreter renderings
from English to Spanish and Spanish to English) an analytical model was
developed which considers interpreter renderings in terms of three universal
aspects of communication: meaning, rhetorical value, and clarity. Deviations from the source-text message are
identified in terms of these communicative considerations and the means by
which such deviations occur (omissions, lexical shifts, grammatical errors,
false-starts, additions, pronunciation errors and intelligibility errors). A technical framework for applying automated
and machine assisted search techniques associated with corpus-based studies to
spoken language mediation, consisting of a combination of audio recordings,
transcriptions, and spreadsheets, is described.
Specific areas of interpreter difficulty are identified the pedagogical
implications of those findings are presented.
Peng, Kuei-Chuan. 2006. The Development
of Coherence and Quality of Performance in Conference Interpreter Training.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
* The theoretical framework used in Rhetorical
Structure Theory. 66 consecutive interpretations by 8 trainees and 3
professional interpreters were mapped into tree-like RST structures and were
compared by implicit vs. explicit discourse marking, by the width and depth of
the tree and by the nature of the summary yielded by Marcu’s summarisation
algorithm. Findings include the following:
- Trainees tend to focus on local cohesion while
professionals tend to emphasize the global structure of the speech (not the
convergence with data from TAP studies on written translation – DG’s comment)
- Over time, trainees deal with complex rhetorical
structures by using more diverse and more specific connective (this could be
due to better management of attentional resources leaving them with more
processing capacity for production – DG’s comment).
Peng
believes that awareness of quality attributes such as coherence helps trainees
improve their interpreting performance.
Pérez Luzardo Díaz, Jessica. 2005. Didáctica
de la interpretación simultánea. Tesis doctoral, Universidad de las
Palmas de Gran Canaria.
* In spite of its general title, this doctoral
dissertation is actually an empirical study comparing on a number of criteria
(knowledge of the relevant languages and cultures, general extralinguistic
knowledge, forms of linguistic mastery of the working languages, inferencing,
recall, synopsis abilities) the performance of students before and after
specific training, with a comparison of performances on the same criteria of
two other groups of students who did not undergo the same training.
Piccaluga,
Myriam. 2004. Approches
psycholinguistiques de l’interprétation. Thèse de doctorat. Université de
Toulouse le Mirail.
Vik-Tuovinen,
Gun-Viol. 2005.
Tolkning på olika nivåer av professionalitet. (Interpreting
on different levels of professionality). Doctoral dissertation,
* The aim of this study is to explore how the
interpreting process works for informants at different professional levels and
how strategic thinking and acting are affected by training and experience. The
discussion about the interpreting process is based on the concept of
‘interpreting strategy’. Central issues in the theoretical base of the study
are the interpreting process, different levels of expertise and the methodology
of retrospection.
Interpreting strategies are defined as procedures
activated by the interpreter in order to manage an interpreting assignment and
to solve problems or prevent them from arising while interpreting. Strategies
can be applied before, during and after an assignment. The interpreting
strategies that an interpreter can and will apply depend on several factors.
This study concentrates on three main elements affecting these strategies.
These are 1) situational factors 2) the interpreter’s character and knowledge
and 3) norms.
Empirical data within this study is based on written
and oral, mainly retrospective comments, given by informants based on an
interpreting task. Three groups of informants contributed to the study. These
groups are novices taking their first interpreting course, students with
interpreting as a minor subject in their Master of Arts degree and professional
interpreters. Each group consists of 6–8 people. The interpreting task involves
simultaneous interpreting from Finnish into Swedish of a 7–minute long speech
originally given by a Minister at a conference. The source text for the
interpreting task is a videotaped simulation of the speech. The informants fill
in questionnaires before and after the task, analyse the source text and their
own interpretation of it. The problems and strategies commented on are related
to different phases of the interpreting process.
The study shows both differences and similarities
between the informant groups. The main differences are that novices mainly
concentrate on words and expressions in the source text and how to carry out
the interpreting task. Students with interpreting as a minor subject also focus
on words and expressions, including terminology, but are additionally concerned
with their own output and with how they manage to convey the message. Students
with interpreting as a minor subject and professional interpreters focus both
on expressions calling for concentration and complex processing. Professional
interpreters additionally emphasize the importance of situational factors,
consider norms and stress the interpreter’s responsibility for the
communication.
Gun-Viol Vik-Tuovinen, Department of Scandinavian
Languages.
Key words: Interpreting, interpreting process,
interpreting strategies, norms, expertise, professionality, retrospection.
SUMMARY
The purpose of this study is to explore the
interpreting process for informants at different professional levels. The focus
of the study is on the concept of ’interpreting strategy’. Interpreting
strategies are defined as being procedures activated by an interpreter in order
to manage an interpreting assignment or to solve problems or prevent them from
arising during an interpreting session. The interpreting process can be defined
as including all phases from the moment when the interpreter becomes aware of a
future assignment to completion of the work to the client’s satisfaction. This
comprehensive definition of the interpreting process is relevant for theoretical
discussions within my study. Empirical material relating to the study mainly
deals with the so-called central process, from the preparation phase to the
phase when the interpretation is carried out.
The theoretical framework of this study can be found in
translation studies with focus on retrospection. The study is also influenced
by works in the field of pragmatics and cognitive processes. Social aspects
related to development of professionality as well as the concept of ‘expertise’
are also considered in the discussion. Essential starting points for design of
the methodology used in analysis of the empirical material are Gile’s models
for translation and interpreting, A Sequential Model of translation and An
Effort Model of simultaneous interpretation (Gile 1995).
The interpreting strategies that an interpreter can
and will apply depend on several factors. Three main categories of factors
affecting the strategies are situational factors, the interpreter’s
character and knowledge and norms. These main categories are
discussed in the study and they are also further divided into subcategories.
Essential situational factors are the participants in
the event in question, the purpose of the communication, source text
characteristics and mode of presentation as well as the setting of the event.
The interpreter’s character can be considered to set the framework for his or
her behaviour. Some character traits can be improved consciously (e.g.
persistence of stress), others cannot. Essential parts of the interpreter’s
knowledge are general knowledge and knowledge of the subject field and
terminology. Sufficient language skills are a prerequisite for interpreting.
Additionally, interpreting strategies are affected by the interpreter’s
knowledge of interpreting; for instance knowledge of interpreting techniques
and knowledge of what an interpreter must and must not do. The norms affecting
the interpreting strategies applied can be divided into ethical norms,
intertextual norms related to the relationship between source text and target
text, intratextual norms related to the interpreting as received by a person
who does not understand the source text, and instrumental norms related to
interpreting as a service for clients.
Ideally, interpreting performance is based on analysis
of the situational factors, makes good use of the interpreter’s character and
knowledge and pays attention to prevailing norms.
Empirical data within this study is based on written
and oral comments given by informants based on an interpreting task. Three
groups of informants contributed to the study. There are six novices taking
their first interpreting course, eight students studying interpreting as a
minor subject as part of their Masters of Arts degree and seven professional
interpreters. All informants are female. The interpreting task is simultaneous
interpreting from Finnish into Swedish of a 7-minute long political speech
recorded on video.
In order to get a multifaceted overview of the
strategic thinking and actions of informants at different professional levels,
informants are asked to comment on the interpreting task in several ways. They
answer questionnaires before and after the interpreting task, each informant
gives retrospective oral comments on her own interpreting and retrospective
written comments on transcriptions of both the source text and her own
interpreting. The novices do not participate in the whole set of material. They
do not provide written comments, as it was not considered wise to confront them
with transcriptions of their own interpreting at such an early stage of their
studies.
Separate hypotheses were formulated for the different
phases of the central interpreting process. The hypothesis for the preparation
phase was that the novices lack appropriate routines for preparing for the
interpreting task while more experienced informants were expected to have their
own appropriate routines. This hypothesis could only partly be confirmed in the
study.
The hypothesis for the comprehension phase was that
novices and, to some extent, students with interpreting as a minor subject in
their degree would focus on words and expressions in the source text, while
professional interpreters would focus on the content of the source text. This
hypothesis was confirmed by the analysis.
For the phase of transfer from source language to
target language, it was assumed that professional interpreters would report
fewer problems than the other groups. The professionals’ interpreting routine
and their more comprehensive knowledge was supposed to be beneficial during
this phase of the interpreting process. This hypothesis was confirmed.
The hypothesis for the reformulation phase and the
final interpreting product was that professional interpreters would be more
concerned than the other informants with how the message is perceived by their
audience and they would focus on a clear and well-formulated interpreting
product more than the other informants. The analysis confirmed this hypothesis.
Additionally, it was assumed that the analysis would
provide information about the technique used by the informants for preparing
for the interpreting task as well as about the interpreting technique applied
during the task itself. The professional interpreters proved to have a better
technique for using the written material that was made available. The less
experienced informants were somewhat confused as they did not know when and
when not to rely on the material provided during the actual task. The
professional interpreters also showed that they possessed a better technique
for solving linguistic problems, for dividing their attention during the
process and for mastering the complete interpreting process.
The study is based on just one interpreting task, but
it stills reveals both similarities and differences between informants. The
study shows that those involved represent different professional levels. The
novices have basic knowledge and skills, but the interpreting task is demanding
and challenging for them. The students with interpreting as a minor subject in
their degree have acquired more interpreting knowledge and skill. The general
tendency is for the less experienced informants to focus on problems and
challenges related to the source text. The more experienced informants focus on
the target text and on interpreting performance as a service for clients.
Professional interpreters tend to stress the interpreter’s responsibility for
providing clients with an appropriate understanding more than the other groups.
The study generally shows that the informants at different professional levels
skilfully use the knowledge and skills available to them.
The levels of professionality found in this study meet
the levels normally expected within the range from novice to professional. The
novice is on a level where he focuses on ways of performing, while the more
advanced learner tries to understand the task. As knowledge and skills develop,
the learner also gets a better understanding of the event as a whole. The
professional has reached a level where he feels that he is participating in the
event as a responsible party interacting with other parties. (GVVT)
Wan, Hongyu.
* A welcome contribution from SISU. In the theoretical
part, the author uses both IS literature (it is good to know that it was
available in
BOOKS AND
UNPUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS
Gillies, Andrew. 2005. Note-Taking
for Consecutive Interpreting – A Short Course. Manchester: St
Jerome.
Heine, Carmen, Klaus Schubert & Heidrun
Gerzymisch-Arbogast (eds). 2006. Text und Translation. Theory and
Methodology of Translation. Jahrbuch Übersetzen und Dolmetschen. DGÜD. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr.
Wang, Binhua. 2006. Conference
Interpreting: Theories, Skills & Practice (in Chinese).
* This book is part of “the Series of Textbooks for
Translation Major in 21st Century”. http://www.wdp.com.cn/book.asp?id=3275.
It comprises of six chapters:
Chapter 1 summarizes the latest development of major
theories in interpreting and is intended to serve as a theoretical foundation
for interpreting trainees.
Chapter 2 elaborates on a wide range of applicable
skills in interpreting, from listening comprehension to interpreting preparation.
Chapter 3 collects some typical audio recordings of
on-site interpreting, which can serve as models.
Chapter 4 provides authentic recordings of on-site
speeches covering different kinds of conference topics, which can be used as
training materials.
Chapter 5 gives suggestions to trainees who will take
interpreter accreditation tests on how to prepare for such tests.
Chapter 6 offers advice on how to develop one’s career
in the interpreting profession. (BW)
Vik-Tuovinen, Gun-Viol. 2005. Tolkning
på olika nivåer av professionalitet. (Interpreting
on different levels of professionality). Doctoral dissertation. Acta
Wasaensia No 153.
(see above, in the doctoral dissertations section)
Widlund-Fantini, Anne-Marie. 2007. Danica Seleskovitch. Interprète et témoin du XXe siècle Lausanne : L'Âge d'Homme.
REVIEWS
Darwish, Ali. 2006. Review of
Jones, Roderick. 2002. Conference Interpreting Explained.
Tsuruta, Chikako. 2006. Review of
Gillies, Andrew. 2005. Note-Taking for Consecutive Interpreting – A
Short Course.
Present Nodes
Nodes are local institutional or individual members who represent CIRIN in their
respective geographical area. Members volunteer to become Nodes; they
cease to operate as such at any time after notifying headquarters in
For
For Australia: JC Lloyd-Southwell, Department of Language and
International Studies, Faculty of Language, Education and Community Services,
RMIT University, Melbourne - Telephone (03) 9527- 4160 or mobile 0414-614-022,
e-mail: hewittandlloyd@bigpond.com
For
For
For Canada: Stephen Capaldo, Interpretation and Translation
Service, Legislative Offices, Room 3657, Whitney Block, Queen's Park, Toronto,
Canada M7A 1A2 - e-mail: Capaldo@gowebway.com
For China (Beijing): Wang Lidi, School of Translation and
Interpreting, Beijing Foreign Studies University, N°2, North Xisanhuan Avenue,
Beijing 100081 - e-mail: sti@bfsu.edu.cn
For China (Shanghai): Ailing (Irene) Zhang, Graduate School of
Interpretation and Translation, Shanghai International Studies University, 550
Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, P.R.China - e-mail: azhang@shisu.edu.cn
For the Republic of
For
For
For the
tel 42 02 216 195 13 fax
42 02 216 195 28 - e-mail: IVANA.CENKOVA@ff.cuni.cz
For
Denmark: Helle Dam, Handelshojskolen i Aarhus, Fuglesangs Allé 4,
DK-8210 Arhus V - e-mail: HD@asb.dk
For
Egypt: Sania Sharawi-Lanfranchi 4,
El-Saleh Ayoub, Zamalek 11 2 11, Cairo shara11@hotmail.com
For
Estonia: Margus Puusepp, Vallikraavi12-15, 51003 Tartu, Estonia.
mpuusepp@hot.ee
For Finland: Yves
Gambier, University of Turku - Centre for Translation and Interpreting,
Koskenniemenkatu 4 - 20500 TURKU, Finland - yves.gambier@utu.fi
For France: Daniel
Gile, 46, rue d'Alembert, 92190 Meudon - e-mail: daniel.gile@yahoo.com
For
Germany: Sylvia Kalina,
Fachhochschule Köln, Fachbereich Sprachen, Mainzerstr. 5, 50678 Köln
- e-mail: Sylvia.Kalina@fh-koeln.de
For
Greece: Anastasia Parianou, Ionian University, Megaro Kapodistria, 49100
Corfu - e-mail: papik1@otenet.gr
For China (Hong Kong): Andrew Cheung, Department of Chinese
and Bilingual Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong
Kong - e-mail: ctandrew@polyu.edu.hk
For
For
For
For
Israel: Miriam Shlesinger, Bar Ilan University, 12 Recanati Street,
69494 Ramat-Aviv, Shlesm@mail.biu.ac.il
For
Italy: Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori,
Universita degli Studi di Trieste, Via Filzi 14, 34132 Trieste - e-mail: laurag@sslmit.univ.trieste.it
For
Japan: Masaomi Kondo, Daito Bunka University, Dept. of Economics, 1-9-1 Takashimadaira, Itabashi-ku,
Tokyo, Phone: 935 1111 - e-mail: mkondo@ic.daito.ac.jp
For
Mexico: CESLAA (Dra Georganne Weller), Tlaxcala 78-501, Col. Roma Sur,
México, D.F. 06760 - e-mail:
georgann@avantel.net
For Peru: ASPTI -
Asociación de Profesionales en Traducción e Interpretación de
For the
For
For
Portugal: Manuel Santiago Ribeiro, Rua Correia Teles, 32-2º PT -
1350-100 Lisboa, tel/fax: + 351.21.386.9429 - e-mail: msr@aiic.net
For
Rumania: Doina Motas, 3, Nicolaie Iorga Str., Bucarest 1, 71117
For
Russia: Elena Alikin, Perm State Technical University elena_alikina@ecology.perm.ru
For
For Spain: John MATTHEWS, Facultad de Traduccion e
Interpretacion, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici M, 08193 Bellaterra,
Cerdanyala, Barcelona, tel/fax +34 3 580 65 45 - e-mail: jmatthews@grn.es
For
For
For the
For Uruguay: Maria Julia Sainz, Facultad de Derecho/Traductorado,
Universidad de
For the
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