Directionality in Chinese/English simultaneous interpreting: Impact on performance and strategy use.

摘要

This study aimed to explore professional Chinese/English interpreters' experience of simultaneous interpreting in different language directions, focusing specifically on the impact of language direction on performance and strategy use. Ten professional Chinese/English interpreters were asked to interpret two speeches from English into Mandarin Chinese, and two speeches from Mandarin Chinese into English, each followed with a stimulated retrospective interview. Of the ten interpreters, seven reported dominance in Chinese and three reported either being dominant in English or having equal abilities in Chinese and English. The products of their interpreting, their linguistic outputs, were analyzed using a propositional analysis of the semantic content and an error analysis of the linguistic quality. The processes of their simultaneous interpreting were explored through qualitative analysis of their stimulated retrospective interviews. Through a grounded theory approach, a model was constructed showing how interpreters' experience of simultaneous interpreting in different directions was determined by a myriad of factors, including contextual factors, personal factors, and interpreting norms.; Results of this study indicate that professional interpreters who must regularly interpret simultaneously in both directions may develop strategic approaches to cope with the different demands of A-to-B and B-to-A interpreting. The difference in their performances seems not only to be a result of the asymmetry between their A and B language proficiency, but also a result of their metacognitive awareness of the limits of their language abilities, the strategies available to them, their audience's expectations and other norms they believe apply to their performance, as well as the discourse structures of their working languages.; The present data suggest professional interpreters may again behave differently from student interpreters when it comes to simultaneous interpreting in different directions. This study not only sheds light on the differences in performance and strategy use between interpreters working with different language directions, but also can contribute to the design of more effective interpreting pedagogy.