Interpreting - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2004

This paper reports on a small-scale empirical study on note-taking in consecutive interpreting. As data, the study draws on the notes produced by four subjects while interpreting one Spanish source text consecutively into Danish, on the one hand, and one Danish source text into Spanish, on the other. The aim of the study is to explore what governs conference interpreters’ choice of language for their notes. The categories traditionally used to discuss, describe and explain this choice are those of source language and target language, and these categories are therefore subject to particular scrutiny here. However, somewhat surprisingly, the results of the analyses indicate that the choice of language in note-taking is governed mainly by the status of the language in the interpreters’ language combination, i.e. whether it is an A- or a B-language, and much less by its status in the interpreting task, i.e. whether it functions as the source or the target language. Drawing on the concept of processing capacity and the Effort Model of consecutive, a tentative explanation of these findings is suggested.

This study describes an experiment that aimed to determine if performance differences exist in simultaneous interpreting by individuals with similar general cognitive abilities, but different skills specific to the task of simultaneous interpreting. Professional interpreters’ performance in simultaneous interpreting from English into Mandarin was compared to that of two groups of student interpreters, beginners and advanced. The results showed that the professional interpreters who were not different from students in their general working memory capacity outperformed student interpreters.This difference was attributed, at least in part, to the development of specific skills in managing competing demands on limited cognitive resources. One important domain-specific skill observed in this study is the ability to select more important ideas from the speech input under conditions where stringent task demands jeopardize completeness and accuracy of the output.Professional interpreters’ generally superior performance is discussed withinthe descriptive framework of working memory theory.

This experimental research describes sight translation by comparing it to simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. Since the beginning of interpreting research, sight translation has mostly been considered as a pedagogical exercise and interpreters are rarely trained in this task per se. However, sight translation, consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting are performed under different conditions, and these determine how cognitive resources are managed and what strategies are adopted. The study compares the performance of six professional interpreters in sight translation, simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting with a view to identifying particular constraints and problems. Results show that interpreters face different difficulties and use different efforts in each mode. Sight translation emerges as a complex and unique technique, whose cognitive demands on the interpreter are by no means less than those of simultaneous and consecutive.

Interpreter Education Programs (IEPs) frequently encounter a dilemma when attempting to assist students who have completed a second-language learning sequence in their transition to interpreter education. Typically, students exhibit difficulties making this transition when they perceive their language base is inadequate to successfully complete the interpreting sequence in their program. This investigation was designed to (a) explore factors that contribute to or inhibit readiness to apply language skills to interpretation, and (b) identify similarities and differences between students’ perspectives of this transition in the context of signed language and spoken language interpretation programs. The Interpreter Education Program (American Sign Language/English) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA conducted this study in collaboration with the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Translation Studies at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Austria (which offers eleven languages). Observations from both programs provide insight for interpreter educators as they strive to improve programs and enhance student retention and program completion rates.