Interpreting - Volume 16, Issue 1, 2014

This longitudinal study on the predictive value of ‘simultaneous’ Italian-to-Italian oral paraphrasing as an aptitude test for interpreting was conducted on 64 conference interpreting students at the University of Bologna (Forlì). All students completed their course with Italian as their ‘A’ language, having passed the entrance examination (which included a paraphrase test, recorded for evaluation) during the period 2004–2006. Using paraphrase as a pre-interpreting aptitude test in a smaller sample, Russo and Pippa (2004) found a significant correlation between course outcome measures (average interpreting exam mark and number of exam sessions needed to pass all interpreting exams) and two of the evaluation parameters for paraphrasing: ‘synonymic substitution’ (use of synonyms and equivalent expressions) and ‘loss of coherence’. The present study examined whether, in a different setting, these two parameters and the students’ actual admission test mark for paraphrase/recall testing correlated with the same outcome measures. Ability to use synonyms showed the highest validity in relation to the number of interpreting exam sessions, correctly classifying 48 out of 64 students (75%) as ‘slow’ (> 6 sessions: test sensitivity = 80%) or ‘fast’ (≤ 6 sessions: test specificity = 71%). Results thus indicate that an oral ‘real time’ paraphrasing test can help identify such prerequisites of effective interpreting as mental flexibility and expressive ability.

With increasing numbers of students wishing to become conference interpreters, but limited capacities in most university degree programs, accurate admission testing is an important means of predicting an applicant’s chances of completing the program successfully. This article focuses on three aptitude tests for simultaneous interpretation: Pöchhacker’s SynCloze test; Chabasse’s cognitive shadowing test; and Timarová’s personalized cloze test. The test battery was administered at the start of the 2009/2010 academic year to students beginning the two-year Master’s program in conference interpreting (MA KD) at Germersheim. Correlations between test performance and subsequent exam grades at the end of the second semester were examined for all three tests. Given the large number of applicants each year, practical feasibility of the tests was taken into consideration with a view to scheduling the format and content of the entrance exam for the 2012/2013 academic year. In this perspective, cognitive shadowing was identified as the most useful test under the existing time constraints.

Erroneous stress placement (ESP) in the target language is one of the salient suprasegmental features of simultaneously interpreted texts. This paper investigates the phenomenon in simultaneous interpretation from English, a free stress language, into Hungarian, a fixed stress language, the aim being to ascertain whether ESPs are related to source language features. Analysis of an experimental corpus collected for an earlier study (Bóna & Bakti 2009) made it possible to identify 122 ESPs, divided into two categories: (a) related to source language features; (b) others. These categories were further divided into several subcategories. Thus, (a) included ESPs related to: (i) source language stress, with semantic correspondence between the source language and target language units concerned; (ii) source language stress, but with no semantic correspondence between the target language unit and the prosodically similar source language unit identified in relatively close proximity to it. For (b), the subcategories distinguished between ESPs related to: (iii) the phonetic target language context; (iv) translation problems; (v) individual speech characteristics. Our results provide support for the view that metrical planning and segmental planning are separate processes. Thus, successful inhibition of source language interference on the segmental level during simultaneous interpreting is not necessarily associated with suppression of suprasegmental level source language interference.

This case study examines how a court’s perception of the defendant’s socio-legal identity may be affected by interpreting. Since this perception relies largely on language, interpreters are expected to minimise their impact on the dynamics of direct communication between primary participants. The analysis focuses on an interpreter-mediated defendant’s examination, recorded in an attempted murder case tried before the Belgian Assize Court, identifying possible departures from the principles of orality and authenticity. The recordings include exchanges, not necessarily audible to the court, between the defendant and the interpreter. Our analysis shows that: (a) the participation framework (directness) of the defendant’s input is altered, while the relative inaudibility of the interaction between defendant and interpreter deprives the jury of access to authentic features of the defendant’s delivery; (b) the interpreter’s intervention may shift the defendant’s oral exposition into a different style, and hence condition the way the defendant is eventually perceived by the jury.

The article explores how the distinction between egocentric and social speech affects the dynamics of interpreter-mediated interaction, during a meeting among five deafblind board members in Norway. Extracts from a videotape of the meeting were analysed, with a specific focus on two sequences of exchanges involving a board member (Inger), her interpreter and the rest of the group. Inger uses Norwegian Tactile Sign Language with her interpreter, who in turn uses spoken Norwegian and Norwegian Sign Language with the rest of the group. The analysis shows that, while most of Inger’s utterances were social and oriented to the other board members, some were of a private nature and directed only to herself. The interpreter evaluated Inger’s communicative project constantly and acted accordingly, interpreting the socially oriented utterances but not the private utterances. Based on these findings, the interpreter’s performance is discussed in relation not only to professional ethics but also to monological and dialogical perspectives on language and interpreting.

Flood, cyclone and earthquake disasters in Australia and New Zealand in 2011 brought sign language interpreters into the media spotlight in these countries. Their inclusion in television broadcasts to communicate emergency-related information was unprecedented in both countries, and attracted strong responses from Deaf viewers and the general public. Drawing on retrospective interviews with two New Zealand interpreters and one Australian interpreter, this report explains how interpreters came to be included in the broadcasts, and identifies the specific demands they encountered when working in the context of a civil emergency. Impacts of, and responses to, the interpreted coverage are also noted.