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.

 

*       *       *

 

EDITORIAL

 

Welcome to Binhua Wang from China who has kindly provided us with a list of Chinese contributions with English translations of the titles and with abstracts. So has Minhua Liu, with information on MA theses from National Taiwan Normal University. The availability of such information is valuable and could change our perception of the microcosm of CIR. Most Chinese, Japanese and Korean publications on conference interpreting are in the respective languages of the three countries. They represent about 25% of the total number of publications in the CIRIN database for the years 2000 to 2006, with China accounting for 15% of the total production, Japan for about 5%, and Korea for about 6%. In particular, when/if Chinese theses reporting empirical work are also summarized as papers in English, they could make an important contribution to the discipline (as long as the wider CIR community has no access to them for linguistic reasons, their value is partly potential). Not only will we then have views and findings from non-Western society with a language markedly different from European languages in many ways, but they will help us reach critical mass and offer replication possibilities which help assess results of previous research.

 

Also note in this issue:

- The interesting special issue of Meta (51:2) on translation and interpreting in Korea guest-edited by Jungwha Choi. The papers on conference interpreting are listed in the articles section. Papers on translation and other forms of interpreting are listed on the EST site (www.est-translationstudies.org ) under ‘Recent Publications’ for February 2007.

- The large number of contributions from China, including MA theses with empirical studies.

- The list of diploma theses from Karl-Franzens University, Graz (Austria). These texts report work done by students, not experienced researchers, but their supervisors rate some of them as serious. Again, those addressing issues in community interpreting are listed on the EST site. Would it not make sense to encourage universities to provide access to such theses, perhaps in electronic form, so that the fruit of so much work is not lost?

            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

 

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

 

ARTICLES

 

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 North-West University, South Africa. Translation Ireland 17:1. 7-21. (Special issue New Vistas in Translator and Interpreter Training, guest-edited by John Kearns).

* 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 Ireland 17:1. 181-195. (Special issue New Vistas in Translator and Interpreter Training, guest-edited by John Kearns).

* 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 UK, and of the implications of the spreading of English as a lingua franca.

 

Chen, Xiaochun. 2006. The loss of cultural information in interpreting and the compensational model (in Chinese). Journal of Jimei University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 9:4. 54-57.

* 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. 2006. A Comparative Analysis of Korean-English Phonological Structures and Processes for Pronunciation Pedagogy in Interpretation Training. Meta 51:2. 229-246.

* 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. 2006. A Proposal for Globally Competitive Graduate Level Translation and Interpretation Curriculum Based on a Comparison of Existing Curricula of Graduate Schools in Korea and Abroad. Forum 4:2. 191-215.

 

Choi, Jungwha. 2006. Interpreting Neologisms used in Korea’s rapidly changing society : delivering the meaning of neologisms in simultaneous interpretation. Meta 51:2. 188-201.

* 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. Meta 51:2. 273-283.

* 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? Meta 50:4 (CD supplement)

* 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 PLA University of Foreign Languages. 29:5. 69-73.

* 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. 2006. A Study on Simultaneous Interpreter Gestures (part 2): A Corpus-based case study of English-to-Japanese Simultaneous Interpreting by a Trainee (in Japanese). Interpretation Studies 6.91-112.

* 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. Meta 51:2. 247-262.

* 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. 2006. A Comparison of Simultaneous Interpretation and Delayed Simultaneous Interpretation from English into Korean. Meta 51:2. 202-214.

* 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. Meta 50:4 (CD supplement).

* 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 Henan University (Social Science) 46:5. 88-91.

* 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. 2006. A Comparison of Curricula of Graduate Schools of Interpretation and Translation in Korea. Meta 51:2. 215-228.

 

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. Meta 51 :2. 263-272.

* 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 Nagoya University as the CIAIR simultaneous interpreting database. Two EVS styles were found, one long EVS and much variation in EVS length, and the other with short EVS.

 

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 University of Warsaw. (JK)

 

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 China. (BW)

 

Wang, Jinbo & Wang, Yan. 2006. Interpreting textbooks in China: problems and prospects (in Chinese). Foreign Language World. 2006:5.41-47.

* 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 China, interpreting textbooks should be based on relevant theoretical underpinnings, cater for the needs of the reality in the interpreting profession, and reflect the characteristics of interpreting. (BW)

 

Yeh, Shu-Pai, & Liu, Minhua. 2006. A more objective approach to interpretation evaluation: Exploring the use of scoring rubrics (in Chinese). Journal of the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, 34(4), 57-78. (Full-text access: http://journal.nict.gov.tw/downpdf.php?pid=jour_3404764.pdf)

 

*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, Charles University, Prague

* 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, Charles University, Prague.

* 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 Slovenia.

 

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 Taiwan Normal University  (Information contributed by Liu, Minhua)

 

Chang, Ho-Ching. 2001. The influence of language proficiency and sight translation training toward sight translation performance (in Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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 Taiwan (in Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis, Taiwan Normal University.

 

Abstract

As a new profession in Taiwan, research on interpreting is at its initial stage; thus, the match of individual traits and the job is fully studied, and the interpreters’ sense of well-being is not analyzed. Seashore & Taber (1975) states that job satisfaction has an impact upon performance, retreat as well as physical and psychological conditions, all of which can further influence the organization and society. Among all factors, personality traits with their direct and indirect relationship to job satisfaction are stable and measurable; therefore, this study gathers and analyzes information about the personality traits and job satisfaction of interpreters in Taiwan in order to have a better understanding of the profession. Based on the “Big Five” or “Five-Factor Personality” theory and researches on “SOHO” workers and independent contractors, this study processes the data from the questionnaires given to freelance interpreters in Taiwan with T-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s Coefficient and LSD. Primary results include:

  1. Among the five personality traits, only Openness has a statistically significant positive correlation with job satisfaction.
  2. Freelance interpreters are challenged by issues identified in studies on SOHO workers; however, differences are found in other aspects.
  3. Subjects with previous employment experience present a lower external satisfaction compared to those without any work experience.

 

Fan, Damien. 2004. Legal issues in interpretation services: A Copyright Act perspective (in Chinese). Unpublished MA thesis, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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. 1999. A study of note-taking in consecutive interpretation: Students' learning behavior. Unpublished MA thesis, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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, Taiwan Normal University.

 

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.