Contribution of research to interpreter training
Helsinki, August 2012
Daniel Gile
daniel.gile@yahoo.com
www.cirinandgile.com
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Introduction
In this overview and analysis,
will include “pre-theoretical”/PRG contributions,
theoretical contributions, empirical contributions:
In the field, the boundaries between PRG and “proper research”
are often fuzzy
And when focusing on the contribution to training,
Information, including information on prescriptive positions,
can be valuable regardless of its academic/scientific status.
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PRG (1)
Hundreds of publications, including dozens of books.
Well-known examples in the “West”:
Rozan 1956 La prise de notes en consécutive
Seleskovitch & Lederer 1989 Pédagogie raisonnée de
l’interprétation
Basis for AIIC paradigm
Teach interpreting, not languages
(languages supposed to have been mastered fully before admission)
Instructors are practicing interpreters
Consecutive before simultaneous, no shorthand
Work into A
Ad-libbed speeches with live speaker
Authentic material…
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PRG (2)
In Western Europe, this was virtually the training paradigm
A number of publications along those lines
Virtually no ‘dissidents’
(but for instance Raúl Galer, 1974 on shorthand in consecutive)
In other parts of the world, different practices
Perhaps because different conditions, such as:
- Work into B sometimes seen as necessary or even desirable
- Separation between language enhancement and interpreting not
always clear
- Different views about consecutive preceding simultaneous
Even in ‘Western’ countries
Trainers did not necessarily follow “the rules”
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From the end of the 1980s on
1986 Trieste conf. on interpr. training (Gran and Dodds 1989)
Some aspiration for more ‘scientific’ research
for interdisciplinary research
The movement included AIIC members
Jennifer Mackintosh, Catherine Stenzl, Ingrid Kurz, Barbara
Moser-Mercer (not AIIC at that time?), Daniel Gile…
To be joined in the 1990s by others, in particular by
Miriam Shlesinger & Franz Pöchhacker
More info dissemination of between countries and schools
The Interpreters Newsletter
Later
Interpretation Research (Tokyo)
Interpreting (Moser-Mercer, now Pöchhacker & Shlesinger)
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The literature - Books
Textbooks
More in China, in Russia
Mostly describe, prescribe and suggest for training
Sometimes with some/much backing from PhD research
PhDs: Gile 1984, 1989, Sawyer on curriculum 2001…
Proceedings of conferences on training
In particular :
John Benjamins series, 3 volumes with Cay Dollerup + 2nd
editor (1992, 1994,1996), Tennent (2005)
Note that in such proceedings, also papers on translator training
…and in Benjamins Translation Library, books on translator
training as well
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Translator training & Interpreter training
Much common ground:
Acquisition of skills more than content
Language-related skills
Sometimes culture-gap related problems
Problems with insufficient language skills of trainees
Role of trainers and training philosophy
(prescribers, guides, moderators, catalysts…)
Assessment issues
Admission issues
Ethics issues
Professional issues
…
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The literature – papers
In proceedings of conferences on training
But also in proceedings of general Translation conferences
…. and in journals
(Not only in the specialized journal
The Interpreter and Translator Trainer)
Can identify them in online announcements and in online journals
See CIRIN site for list of and links to online journals
www.cirinandgile.com
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Theses and dissertations
More difficult to find because most often unpublished,
Especially MA theses,
but perhaps (at least) just as interesting because often done with
considerable investment of time and effort:
MA/graduation theses and doctoral dissertations
Many of those directly related to conference interpreting are
listed, and generally micro-reviewed in CIRIN Bulletin.
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Bibliographical basis for this analysis
Read systematically CIRIN Bulletins over the past 5 years
(focus of seminar being on ‘recent research’)
Picked up a bit over 100 items which I considered relevant to the
theme
Classified them under different topics
Comments also based on personal knowledge of the topics and
literature
Will mention them briefly as pointers
With a few bits of information
Sometimes with comments
The items are identified by date of author(s), date of publication
and CIRIN Bulletin number (in parentheses)
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Training vs no training (1)
Lederer, Marianne. 2008. (36)
“The aim of training courses is to avoid would-be translators
having to learn slowly by trial and error while looking for the
most adequate strategies”
Hong, Hsiao-Wen. 2001. (34) MA, Taiwan Normal University
Trained and untrained interpreters compared with respect to
fidelity and to delivery.
No differences found in fidelity
Differences found in delivery
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Training vs no training (2)
What does this tell us?
Do we know untrained interpreters?
Have we observed some things they do not do correctly?
(Bill Weber 1984)
Is this perhaps what we need to focus on when training students?
Or do we consider that the main advantage of training is to make
them progress faster?
DEBATE
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Aptitude testing (1)
Major problem, because high failure rate
Can one find reliable indicator for efficient admission?
Special issue of Interpreting 13:1(2011) on the topic
Interesting review and comparisons by Mariachiara Russo 2011,
(44)
Paper on SynCloze test by Franz Pöchhacker 2011(44)
Auditory cloze exercise + synonimic sentence completions
Moderate correlations found
Rosier et al., Shaw 2011 (44) on soft skills/personality traits
None shows the way to efficient high prediction-rate aptitude
testing
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Aptitude testing (2)
Suggest that it will be difficult to design aptitude tests with strong
predictive power
But that personality and ‘soft skills’ are important
Implications for the classroom?
DEBATE
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Testing (1)
Huang, Min. 2005 (32)
On accreditation tests in China
Real ‘industry’, more language proficiency than interpreting
skills (?)
Chiu, Yu-Hsien. 2006 (34) MA thesis, Taiwan
Several quantitative approaches to assess difficulty of texts,
Including readability formulas, proposition density, density of
new arguments, expert judgment
None of the difficulties assessed by the four approaches
correlated with participants’ interpretation scores
Liu, Minhua & Chu, Yu-Hsien. 2009 (40)
Same
…
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Testing (2)
If it is difficult to test the difficulty of materials ‘objectively’ in
advance, any other practical way?
DEBATE
Gile suggestion:
Interpreting of authentic recorded speeches by panel of
professionals,
Each rates the difficulty
If agreement, choose one or several
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Training methods. Ideas and findings (1)
Warning:
Not many empirical studies
Few replications
Tendency to report successful operations only
Possible bias of trainers who present their ‘baby’
So in terms of research ‘proper’, the harvest may look poor
…
But interesting ideas to try out
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Training and sight translation
Wang, Ying. 2006. (35) MA, Guangdong
Effect of sight-translation exercises.
Helped a lot in interpreting into English, not much into Chinese
Perhaps because improved production skills?
If so, is this the best way to enhance production skills?
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Training and shadowing
Peng, Bo. 2008. (36) MA, Xiamen
Effect of shadowing exercises.
Reports shadowing helps, but no details are given in abstract.
Note:
Shadowing has been a controversial exercise from the start.
Widespread, but reportedly as a short transitional exercise.
On the other hand, it could be useful for language enhancement.
Empirical studies on the topic would be welcome
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Training and summaries
Cheung, Andrew Kay-Fan. 2007. (36)
Effect of “summary exercises”
Small differences between experimental and control group, but
not significant.
Summarizing requires understanding, being able to separate the
gist from the less important, and reformulating. Useful skills for
interpreters. When and in what form could such exercises be
conducted?
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Training methods – conference simulation
Lee, Migyong 2005 (31)
Benefits of creating actual conference settings (mock conferences)
Point made: Some aspects of conference communication too subtle to
explain in traditional classroom situation
Also – concerns about validity of classroom training and lab
experimenting as opposed to real-life situations.
Clearly, all real-life parameters cannot be replicated in the
classroom… but:
Vik-Tuovinen 2011 (44)
In lab, professionals referred to clients when commenting on their
decisions (similar results in research on translation). So not so
problematic?
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Training methods – theatrical training
Cho, Jinhyun & Peter Rogers. 2010. (41)
In Korea.
Training in theatre techniques revealed significant benefits in
terms of confidence, delivery and rapid problem-solving
activities
If not the full range of ‘theatrical training’, perhaps voice?
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Training methods – self-assessment
Lee, Yun-Hyang. 2005. (34).
Take home recordings and do self assessment. All students found
the exercise useful.
Note: much work, requires a lot of time, painful? Demoralizing?
Or particularly useful because students have the opportunity and
time to actually listen to themselves? Or useful and potentially
demoralizing, in which case these exercises should be handled
with care so as to produce the best effect?
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Training methods – with third language
Pyoun, Hewon. 2006. (34).
Students found it difficult to interpret when the screen was in a
third language
Note: Specific training required?
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Training methods – pronunciation
Cho Junmo, Park, Hae Kyung. 2006. (34).
Pronunciation problems and suggestions for pronunciation
training.
Note: Pronunciation is very important for comprehension and
listener satisfaction.
If selection of students with right pronunciation is not possible
at admission, perhaps systematic training for those who need it?
“Accent trainers”? Might boost considerably chances of success
of some graduates whose accent is not very good?
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Training methods – textbooks
Wang, Jinbo & Wang, Yuan. 2006. (34).
Review of 31 Chinese textbooks. Authors criticize weaknesses in
theoretical foundation, methodology, authenticity of material.
Discussion of usefulness of textbooks?
In the West, sometimes for conceptual/methodological guidance
(note taking, general advice)
In China, Japan, with materials, including language materials
Is it absurd?
Perhaps not, if material well chosen
If possibility to listen to good pronunciation
To automate some relevant ‘equivalences’
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Technology in training
Blasco Mayor. 2005. (31)
General, on technology in the classroom
Sandrelli, Analisa & Jesús de Manuel Jerez. 2007. (35)
Description of several tools of CAIT (Computer Assisted Interpreter
Training)
Maresova, Julie. 2009. (39)
Using PRAAT software and questionnaire, interpreters shown to
experience difficulties when prosody in SL is inadequate
Orlando, Marc. 2010. (42)
Digital pen technology for monitoring of students’ note-taking skills
DEBATE
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Assessment and quality perception (1)
Collados Aís, Prada Macías, Stévaux, Garcia Berrera (eds).
2007. (35), 2011 (43)
Along with individual MA theses and doctoral dissertations by
the ECIS group
Manipulation of various parameters.
Intonation
Terminology
Accent
Language output quality
…
Spill-over effect found regularly
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Assessment and quality perception (2)
Lee, Jieun. 2008 (37)
Study of rating scales. Successful for accuracy,
Not for TL quality and delivery
Li, Ying-Hong. 2008 (40)
Research into music performance assessment has been taken to a
greater depth than corresponding research on interpreting
assessment.
Learning opportunities
Wang et al. 2008. (36)
Survey, followed by in-depth interviews.
Bilinguals and monolinguals have different expectations.
Speakers, interpreters and listeners do not agree on the
interpreters’ role either
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Assessment and quality perception (3)
Ippoliti, Matteo. 2005 (31)
Respondents perceived fewer pauses and hesitations in
interpreting than were present
Pradas Macias, Macarena. 2006 (32)
Effect of silent pauses on interpreting not significant on quality
perception.
Toyama & Matsubara. 2005. (32)
Same.
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Assessment and quality perception (4)
Previously, evidence suggesting that listeners do not perceive
meaning errors accurately (Gile 1995, Collados Aís 1996)
Also previous evidence that language quality perception not
uniform (Gile 1985)
Knowledge from the field that expectations diverge greatly in
some cases (TV interpreting vs court settings vs conferences)
Findings suggest that there is high variability
And that, importantly, single parameters
(intonation, grammar, accent etc.)
Can make a big difference in quality perception.
Implications for the classroom?
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Assessment and quality perception (5)
1. Awareness that accurate rendition and good output language
quality are not the only things that matter to delegates
2. Focus on relevant aspects, including intonation and voice
(special voice training?), terminology
3. Teach sensitivity to various norms and expectations, including
TV, legal settings etc., and adaptation
OTHER?
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General cognitive issues (1)
For a long time, awareness of the fact that besides
insufficient language skills and
insufficient general and thematic knowledge,
a major issue in interpreting is the limited availability of
attentional resources to meet the high cognitive load associated
with interpreting.
This was present, implicitly or explicitly, in many
models/accounts of interpreting…
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General cognitive issues (2)
…and was the focal point of the Effort Models, developed in the
early 1980s and first described in a publication in 1983.
Also in many other publications since then
Reception + Short-term Memory + Production + Coordination
R + M + P + C → Total ≤ Available Resources
Note: “Reception” as opposed to “Listening” to take on board
visual reception by signed language interpreters
Tightrope hypothesis :
Interpreters tend to work close to cognitive saturation
How “close” was not quantified,
But close enough to make interpreters vulnerable to
- Increase in resource requirements
- Errors in resource management
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Tightrope Hypothesis and numbers (1)
Many studies testing, on basis of Tightrope Hypothesis,
that numbers would be a problem
(in particular those that need conversion for syntactic reasons or
because the systems are different)
Either the numbers are omitted or rendered incorrectly
Or neighboring segments would be affected
Because of carry-over effect
(Too much attention focused on numbers, not enough left to deal
with neighboring segment)
Mazza. 2000, 2001. (25)
Gotri. 2003. (27)
Wang, Hsiu-Yu. 2005. (34)
Puková, Zdeňka. 2006. (33)
Pinochi, Diletta. 2006 (33). 2009.(40)
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Tightrope Hypothesis and numbers (2)
So idea of training students in number conversion, for instance in
Chinese:
Her, Emily. 1995
Cheung, Andrew. 2008. (37)
Thirty minutes of training.
In context apparently better than in isolation
Moratto, Riccardo. 2011. (44)
Various techniques
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Translation and interpreting (1)
Interpreting is done under more cognitive pressure than
translation,
so presumably less time and resources to produce output of
maximum quality
Tactics
Cognates
More or less literal?
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Translation and interpreting (2)
Shlesinger, Miriam & Brenda Malkiel. 2005. (35)
Interpreting, Translation after 4 years.
More cognates and false cognates in interpreting
***Jakobsen, Jensen & Mees. 2007. (35)
Processing of 12 idiomatic expressions in two texts translated into
Danish by five professional translators and sight-translated by five
professional interpreters.
- Translators preferred non cognates, then direct transfer, then
paraphrase
Interpreters preferred paraphrase, non cognates, direct transfer
- Individual variation was “huge”
- Direct transfer took interpreters a long time (perhaps avoidance
first)
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Translation and interpreting (3)
***Dragsted & Gorm Hansen. 2007. (35)
Translators translated first part and sight translated second part of
speech
Interpreters sight translated first part, simultaneous of second part
Gaze data showed interpreters looked more locally
Sight translation by interpreters was much faster than by translators
Interpreters turned out to be less literal than translators
The translator’s translations were not better than the interpreters’
sight-translation.
Shlesinger, Miriam. 2008. (37) (same corpus as Shlesinger and
Malkiel 2005?)
Same source text interpreted, then translated > 3 years later
Analyzed with software. Richer in translation, more complex
structures, fewer imports from English, etc.
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Cognitive pressure and directionality (1)
Presumably, interpreters are capable of producing acceptable
speech in B under everyday conditions, and even in consecutive.
Otherwise, what is the point of the B language classification?
So why would they not be able to produce a good speech into B
in simultaneous?
Because:
1. Higher cognitive pressure on production in simultaneous
(in consecutive, production of target speech only occurs after
reception of the source speech)
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Cognitive pressure and directionality (2)
2. Higher risk of language interference because both sourcelanguage and target-language structures are simultaneously
present in working memory/ are highly activated
De Groot, Annette & Ingrid Christoffels. 2007. (38)
About processes and mechanisms of bilingual control.
When elements from one language are activated, so are those of
the other, but they need to be inhibited,
which has a cost (in attentional resources)
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Research on directionality and implications (1)
Bartlomiejczyk, Magdalena. 2006a. (33)
English and Polish. Did not find more lexical transfer when working
into B than into A (students)
Bartlomiejczyk, Magdalena. 2006b. (33)
Strategies different when working into A or into B
Palka, Alina. 2006. (35)
Interpretations into B assessed by native user, positive overall
evaluation
Chang, Chia-chien & Diane L. Shallert. 2007 (35)
Ten professional interpreters, dominant Chinese or English.
Interpreters tend to develop different strategies into A and into B
Bartlomiejczyk, Magdalena. 2008. (39)
More anticipation into Polish, but more successful into English
(questionnaire)
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Research on directionality and implications (2)
Opdenhoff, Jan-Hendrik. 2011. (44) PhD Granada
Web questionnaire survey. 2129 respondents (conference
interpreters), from 94 countries.
96,1% of respondents have already worked into B
81,2% think it is “absolutely legitimate”; 18% “necessary evil”
40% consider their performance is of equal quality in both
directions
40% consider it is better in their A language
Respondents say some languages easier to interpret from than
others
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Research on directionality and implications (3)
Implications:
Many (most?) graduates will have to work in both directions
Since tactics and strategies may be different,
and since developing them takes time,
They should be trained in both directions
DEBATE
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Deverbalization (1)
One key idea in interpretive theory,
which has been highly influential throughout AIIC
is that the principles of interpreting are the same whatever the
working languages
and provided the interpreter has mastered
the fundamental deverbalization process and the languages
There are no more difficulties in interpreting between any
language pair in any direction
Deverbalization:
After comprehension, all traces of the ST form disappear
And what remains is only the ‘sense’
on the basis of which the interpreter reformulates the message
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Deverbalization (2)
In cognitive terms: in the 1960s, psychologists found
that after clause boundaries
memory for form faded rapidly in readers
Working memory
(where signals are processed until they yield recognition of
language units and meaning)
has very limited storage capacity:
perhaps around 7 information chunks, perhaps less
Listeners cannot afford to keep information in WM when it is
no longer needed.
Once sense has been extracted, form is no longer needed
In interpreting, ‘deliberate’ forgetting of form also mentioned.
(to fight interference?)
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WORKING MEMORY AND LONG-TERM MEMORY
A METAPHOR - COMPREHENSION
EXT. STIMUL.
sensory mem.
LONG-TERM MEMORY
Gile Effort Models
WORKING MEMORY
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Deverbalization (3)
But perhaps form and sense are associated in some cases in
long-term memory
Perhaps form helps remember meaning because of its structure
So ‘total’ deverbalization
i.e. complete loss of memory of form
is no longer seen as true
Ito-Bergerot, Hiromi. 2006. (33) PhD, ESIT
Deverbalization only partial
Zhou, Shudan. 2008. MA, Shanghai SISU
Test of form recognition by interpreters after interpreting and
listeners after listening to same speech. No difference.
So interpreters do not ‘deverbalize’ more than ordinary
listeners?
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Language-specificity
But if deverbalization-reverbalization are not the sole key of
interpreting…
and meaning can be related to form
Perhaps more attention should be devoted to form during
training?
Even comparisons of form in working languages?
Comparative linguistics useful for awareness raising?
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Working memory
Known to be heavily involved in cognitive operations,
including language comprehension and production
Many studies on the interpreters’ working memory
Two aspects:
- Its storage capacity, measured by various types of ‘memory
span’ : in interpreters, does it increase over time?
Köpke & Signorelli 2012 (44)
Review results, which contradict each other
It now looks as if it is not storage capacity, but efficiency in the
use of resources, which increases with experience
(Signorelli, Haarmann & Obler 2011 (44), Timarová 2012
(44))
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Other cognitive issues
Hild 2011 (44)
Linguistic complexity has strong effect on students’
performance, not on professionals’
Perhaps better use of cues to construct efficiently a
representation of the meaning of an utterance and/or more
efficient use of language for production of target utterance?
*
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Language specific (1)
Baldaccini, Jessica. 2005. (31)
Mean EVS for initial and final segments from German into Italian
longer than from French into Italian
Kondo, Masaomi. 2005. (32)
Questionnaire
Syntactic differences
35% of respondents say Japanese original too vague and ambiguous
Guo, Jiading. 2006. (33)
Long experience as diplomatic interpreter, and Chinese ambassador.
Importance of political awareness of connotations of Chinese words
and idioms
Darwish, Ali. 2006. (34)
Standard arabic is a problem for many Arab interpreters
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Language specific (2)
Chang, Chia-chien & Diane L. Shallert. 2007 (35)
Interpreters complained of lack of explicitness in Chinese
Guo, Liang Liang. 2007. (38) MA, BFSU
One interpretation of Kofi Annan’s farewell address by students.
Considerable effect of word-order in English into Chinese.
Hu, Kaibao & Tao, Qing. 2009. (39)
Much explicitation when working from Chinese into English
Bevilacqua, Lorenzo. 2009. (40)
Dutch/German into Italian. Longer EVS from German because of rigid
word order. (15 professionals)
Chang, Cha-Chien & Wu, Michelle. 2009. (40)
Case study, problems with forms of address
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Language specific (3)
Chang, Albert. 2009 (41)
Chinese into English, average EVS 4.7-7.1 seconds.
Higher rate of errors and omissions when longer lag
Moratto, Riccardi. 2010 (43)
Special Chinese expressions.
Seeber & Kerzek 2012 (44)
Pupil dilation higher when working into syntactically different
structures…and at the end of sentences
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Language specific (4)
Implications
Language-specific issues are important
Training needs to be language-pair specific
And even ordered language-pair specific
(which is SL, which is TL is important)
But is it useful / efficient use of time to
teach students the linguistics of their working languages?
DEBATE
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Foreign accent (1)
According to the Tightrope Hypothesis, any increase in attention
resource requirements may bring about cognitive saturation.
Foreign accent potentially problematic,
Because it takes more time to process the signal and decide what
language unit it corresponds to
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Foreign accent (2)
Kurz, Ingrid. 2008 (37)
Interpreting students complained about difficulty when non native in
English. Also accuracy was lower
Kurz, Ingrid & Elvira Basel. 2009. (40)
English by Spanish & French speakers. Knowledge of native language
of speaker by interpreters led to better rendition of information.
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. 2010. (43) Global English
Globish by non-natives causes difficulties and dissatisfaction
Implications?
For practice material, get speeches with foreign accents, prosody and
faulty grammar (gradually)
Speeches on the internet are a good resource
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Remote interpreting
Poor sound was one problem of remote interpreting
Mouzourakis, Panayotis. 2005 (32)
Sound is now OK.
Visual problems are more difficult to deal with
But
Rennert, Sylvie. 2008. (38)
Speakers seen in one condition, booth covered in another.
No significant difference in performance found,
But questionnaire indicated more stress when speaker not seen.
More work on TV, more work with monitors
Have to get used to it.
Videos from the internet are useful
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Television interpreting
Liao, Hsing-Hsien. 2004 (34) MA Taiwan
Questionnaire, filled out by TV news translators and interpreters
Recommend specific training
Gile. 2011. (44)
Obama inaugural speech
Many errors and omissions
More when working into Japanese
Personal preferences for completeness vs. language output
quality?
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Consecutive and note-taking (1)
Consecutive has been proposed as a mandatory and useful
exercise in training:
Besides its professional use
(challenged by some)
It is said to be a very useful didactic exercise:
Training in careful, analytical listening
Training in public speaking
Diagnosis of comprehension problems, production problems,
separation problems which is more difficult to conduct in
simultaneous
Recent research:
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Consecutive and note-taking (2)
Dam et al. 2005. (31)
Higher ratio of SL/TL notes in more accurate renditions
Abuín González. 2012 (44)
Students tend to use source language, professionals target language
Ersöz Demirdag (ongoing)
Students use more SL and more mixed langu., then TL and less mixed
Yang, Chengshu. 2005. (32)
Analysis of her own consecutive notes. Even notes representing ca.
15% of the information in the source speech can be enough to
reformulate the whole speech.
Yang, Xuan. 2006. (35) MA, Guangdong
Training in symbols over 2 months vs none for control group
Better performance in experimental group
Gumul, Ewa. 2007. (35)
More explicitation in consecutive than in simultaneous
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Consecutive and note-taking (3)
Xu, Haiming & Dai, Weidong. 2007. (35)
A comparison, apparently between students of professional interpreting
programs and language learning programs. Students in professional
programs wrote fewer notes, more single words and more symbols,
more target-language in notes.
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. 2008.
Students tend to note along the same micropropositional forms as ST
Gumul, Ewa. 2008.
Conjunctive cohesion markers tend to be kept in simultaneous, changed
in consecutive
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Consecutive and note-taking (4)
Anything useful for the classroom?
Perhaps about language of note-taking
Not to force students to write in a particular way
Anything else?
DEBATE
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Professional issues
We train interpreters for the marketplace
What happens in the marketplace is relevant
and should help design/adapt
- the curriculum
- training methods
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Research on the role of the interpreter
Wang et al. 2008. (36)
Survey, followed by in-depth interviews.
Speakers, interpreters and listeners do not agree on the
interpreters’ role.
Note: Interesting insights from Signed-Language Interpreting
ZHAN 2011(44)
In political interpreting in China, some mediation found (!)
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Cultural role?
Al Zahran, Aladdin. 2008. (37) Aleppo, Syria
Electronic questionnaire, 295 responses, 87% from AIIC.
Suggest that interpreters consider that intercultural mediation is
part of their job.
No details
Eraslan Gercek, Seyda. 2008. (37)
Questionnaire based. Many Turkish users expect interpreters to
do more than translate and also explain (in consecutive)
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Technology in practice
Pöchhacker, Franz. 2007. (36)
Hybrid recording and then simultaneously interpreting instead of
consecutive
Fantinuoli, Claudio. 2006. 2011.(43)
Specialized Corpora from the Web and Term Extraction for
Simultaneous Interpreters.
Reportedly very useful in the booth
Honegger, Monica. 2006. MA Zurich
Terminology extraction
IMPLICATIONS?
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Other professional issues (1)
Choi, Jungwha. 2005. (32)
Studied demand for conference interpreting
Wang, Enmian. 2005. (32)
Survey on the demand for interpreting in China
Chen, Yue-Chen. 2005. (34)
Sought correlation between personality traits and job satisfaction. Only
found correlation with openness
Salmon, Ine. 2008. (37) MA, Brussels
Audio and video recording of interaction in the booth. Technical
cooperation between boothmates.
Falk, Stefanie. 2009.(38) MA, Graz
Questionnaire on professional experience of graduates in Austria and
Germany
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Other professional issues (2)
Chen, Kai-Yi. 2007. (40) MA National Taiwan University
Questionnaires, work values and job satisfaction
Ageiwa, Veronika. 2010. (41) MA, Charles University, Prague
Interpreting in European institutions, with a focus on Czech
Tseng, Jente. 2004. (41) MA, Fu Jen.
Market research. Survey. Shows inter alia much customer loyalty, price
is not first concern of clients. Cutting prices by interpreters did not
generate an increase in revenue.
Brandstötter, Maria. 2009. MA, Vienna
Job satisfaction
Fox, Brian. 2010. (42)
Satisfaction survey. Strong correlation between overall satisfaction and
satisfaction with terminology. Also shows remarkable integration effort.
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Other professional issues (3)
Scheible, Daniela. 2011. (42) MA Germersheim
Interpreting for courts. Historical evolution.
Haas, Nicole. 2011. (43)
Legal, Rwanda.
Schützler, Anne. 2011. (42) MA Germersheim
Diplomatic interpreting, with a focus on Germany
Jüngst, Heike Elisabeth. 2011. (43)
Film interpreting. Descriptive, but rare topic
Císlerová, Eva. 2011. (43)
Film interpreting. Czech Republic.
Verhoef, Marlene & Theodorus du Plessis (eds). 2008. (43)
Educational interpreting, South Africa
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A bit more on cognitive issues
B. Moser-Mercer and others have been working on the expertnovice paradigm
In cognitive psychology, having to do with automation of
processes over years
Beginners go through several stages with typical features, and
become ‘experts’ after a number of years.
This means that at graduation after two years of training,
They are still at a stage where a lot can improve.
If they fail to reach the required level of expertise at graduation,
does this mean they will never make it?
No – many examples show the opposite.
Any implications on policy of training programs?
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Missing
It would have been nice
to see some research/more research
on the following
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1. Language skills and interpreter training
Little research on language skills
Theoretically, students master their languages when they reach
the interpreter training program
but it is a well-known fact among trainers that there are often
weaknesses in their language skills
What to do about it?
Is it possible to teach interpreting skills when language skills are
not up to professional level yet?
Previous experience suggests this is possible
Gile at INALCO with 3rd year students of Japanese
Experience at Univers. Central de Venezuela… and elsewhere ?
Ongoing research in Turkey by Hande Ersöz Demirdag
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2. The discrepancy between the ideal target speech
and reality in terms of accuracy and completeness
There is ample evidence of the fact that there are
Many errors and omissions in our renditions of speeches
How much is lost?
How aware of this are clients?
Implications:
What we tell clients is one thing
What do we tell students?
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3. Missing: research on trainer attitudes
The interpreting classroom is a stressful environment
because of the difficulty of the task of interpreting
To what extent can trainer attitudes
mitigate the stress
turn it into a productive element?
Socio-constructive attitude useful?
(Look at literature on training in translation, inter alia
books by Donald Kiraly)
Perhaps surveys-based research
Seeking correlation between trainer attitudes and student
motivation
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4. Missing: research on the usefulness of theory in
training programs
Personal opinion: students would like to be able to understand
what is happening to them
(apparent loss of linguistic mastery, large performance
fluctuations)
Why they encounter difficulties,
Why they are given the advice they are given,
Why such advice is sometimes contradictory
They would like some theoretical/conceptual guidelines
for decision-making
Some basic theoretical concepts and models may help
Do they?
Surveys: questionnaires, interviews?
(there are some on translations students)
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