36
SELECTED TOPICS IN INTERPRETING STUDIES (From Introducing Interpreting Studies by Franz Pöchhacker)

Selected Topics in Interpreting Studies

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Summary on interpreting studies from Franz Pochhacker's Introducing Interpreting Studies

Citation preview

  • SELECTED TOPICS IN INTERPRETING STUDIES(From Introducing Interpreting Studies by Franz Pchhacker)

  • WORD TRANSLATIONSome subjects translating faster into their acquired (non-dominant) language. (Lambert 1959)This may be due to an individuals active vs passive approach to second language acquisition.(de Bot 2000) Reaction time were found to be consistently longer for translation from the dominant into the weaker language and the effect of direction of translation diminished with increasing proficiency in the acquired language.

  • TIME LAGIn SI many researchers found average values of lag times between 2 and 4 seconds. In shadowing, Anderson (1994) found an average lag time of 1.4 seconds.In CI, Dorte Andres (2002) found that average lag times in note-taking for professional subjects working from French into German are between 3 and 6 seconds and may reach as much as 10 seconds.

  • COMPREHENSIONCloze technique is based on a knowledge-based conception of comprehension: confronted with gaps in verbal structures, subjects will use their lexical and grammatical knowledge to fill in what is missing by a process of anticipatory reconstruction or pattern-based closure.Prior knowledge serves to generate expectations which guide the comprehension process.

  • COMPREHENSIONChernov (1979/2002) had 11 professional interpreters work on a speech that had been manipulated to include meaningless sentences and unpredictable turns of phrase.Most subjects omitted or mistranslated the anomalous sentences and rendered the unpredictable utterances according to the contextually prompted expectation.

  • ATTENTION IN NOTE-TAKINGSeleskovitch (1975) stresses the nature of notes as minimal cues for retrieving a maximum of conceptual content.Interpreters need to divide their attention between the conceptual processing of input and the taking of notes; the latter must not detract from the attention needed for comprehension process.

  • ATTENTIONAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENTAndres (2002) found that the note-taking behavior of student interpreters was often insufficiently automatic and made substantial demands on attention.Students tended to fall behind in their note-taking by more than 6 seconds and to catch up by leaving gaps in their notes which showed up directly as omissions in their renditions.

  • EFFECTS OF WORKING ENVIRONMENTSound qualityMore errors and omissions were recorded for both shadowing and SI in noisy vs no-noise conditions. (Gerver 1974)Visual accessAlthough conference interpreters have long insisted on the need for a direct view of the conference room, several attempts at experimentally validating the need for visual access to ensure adequate performance have failed to produce clear-cut results. (Pochhacker 2004)

  • EFFECT OF VISUAL INPUTSBalzani (12 final year students, with audio- or videotape): significantly better performance in the video condition for extemporaneous texts but not for read speeches.Anderson (1994) (12 professionals, with or w/o video image) and Tommola and Lindholm (1995) no significant difference in propositional accuracy between SI with or without the video image.

  • EFFECT OF VISUAL INPUTSBacigalupe (1999) - 8 final-year students, with or w/o distinct kinesics (hand movements & facial expressions)- no differential impact of kinesic reinforcements in the oral presentation.

  • EFFECT OF ACCENT AND INTONATIONIn surveys on job stress among conference interpreters, unfamiliar accent is cited by a majority of respondents as a frequent and serious problem.Mazetti (1999): speech with a large number of phonemic and prosodic deviations impaired the performance of student interpreters whose native language is different from that of the speech more than that of the ones whose mother tongue is the language of the speech.

    *

  • EFFECT OF ACCENT AND INTONATIONSuch research points to the possible advantage of working from ones A- into ones B-language, at least in difficult perceptual conditions.Some evidence suggests that a speech delivered with a non-native accent may be less difficult to interpret if the speakers native language is among the interpreters working language.

  • EFFECT OF INTONATIONGerver (1971) found that monotonously read passages impaired the performance of the (10 professional) interpreters and were also associated with significantly more errors of substitution.Prosodic cues like pauses, stress and intonation assist interpreters in segmenting and processing the source-language message.

  • EFFECT OF SPEEDAlpbach (1968): The input rate (speed of delivery) is all-important. Slow input can disrupt processing as much as fast input.Gervers experiment (1969) confirmed the suggestion that a rate of 100 to 120 words per minute is comfortable for SI. At speeds above the range of 95-120 words per minute, subjects showed a decrease in the proportion of text correctly interpreted and an increase in lag time and pausing.

  • EFFECT OF SPEED AND MODEA source speech with monotonous intonation and short pauses was perceived as faster and more difficult to interpret than a speech with marked intonation contours. (Dejean le Feal 1982)Balzini (1990): the student interpreters in the experiment performed significantly better on improvised rather than read input material.

  • STRATEGIES IN INTERPRETINGWaiting/stalling (slowing down delivery or using neutral padding expression or fillers)Anticipation (top-down processing)- the simultaneous interpreters production of a sentence constituent before the corresponding constituent has appeared in the source-language input.Compression or abstracting in response to high input speed and/or information density in SI.

  • STRATEGIESHerbert (1952): full consecutive interpretation should only take up 75% of the time taken by the speaker, which is achieved by speaking at a faster pace and avoiding repetition, hesitation and redundancy.Helle Dam (1993): Text condensing, achieved by various types of substitutions and omissions, was a necessary and usually good interpreting strategy.Viaggio (1991: 51): Saying it all that is, reproducing the sense of the message with all stylistic and semantic nuances was not always necessary for the interpreter to convey all the senses.

  • STRATEGIESImplicitation what needs to be said or remain unstated depends on the language and culture in question.Explicitation more elaboration may be needed to circumvent linguistic and socio-cultural differences.Adaptation in case where there is cultural difference or difference in discourse conventions.

  • FIDELITYGlmet (1958: 106): interpreters should transfer speech with the same faithfulness as sound-amplifications.Herbert (1952: 4): fully and faithfully conveys the original speakers idea.Gile (1992: 189) demands fidelity to the message and style of the original, with priority given to the informational content rather than the linguistic package of the text.

  • DEVIATION FROM THE ORIGINALOmissionsAdditionsSubstitutions (errors of translation)Sandra Hale (1997: 211): linguistic omissions and additions are often required to ensure accuracy.Clare Donovan-Cagigos (1990: 400): Fidelity is not a fixed quantity but relative to a concrete communicative situation.

  • INTONATION IN SIShlesinger (1994): Fifteen subjects listened to three passages either as interpretations recorded in authentic conditions or as transcriptions of the interpreted output read on tape by the interpreter. Comprehension scores based on three content questions on each passage were twice as high for the group receiving the read versions than for the group listening to authentic output with interpretational intonation.

  • POLITENESS AND REGISTERBerk-Seligson (1988/2002, 1990): Mock jurors gave a significantly more favorable assessment of the Spanish witness when they had listened to the version of the English interpretation with politeness markers.A similar effect was observed with the same experimental design for interpretation in hyperformal style, that is, an upward shift in register by the non-use of contracted forms in English.

  • INTERPRETERS ROLEAnne-Marie Mesa (2000): The expectation of community service providers in Canada that the cultural interpreter should explain cultural values ranked rather low.Even fewer respondents considered it very important to receive cultural explanations from the interpreter after the mediated exchange.IN CONTRAST, most interpreters considered it very important to be able to provide such explanations.Angelelli (2001): Interpreters perceived, enacted and described their role as visible agents in the interaction.

  • INTERPRETERS ROLEKadric (2001): Court judges in Vienna were rather accepting of tasks such as simplifying the judges utterances and explaining legal language for the clients.85% of judges expected the interpreter to explain cultural references for the court.

    IN CONTRASTKelly (2000): Most legal professionals in the survey were against a cultural mediator role of the interpreter.Kopczynski (1994): Users of conference interpreters generally preferred the ghost role of the interpreter.

  • QUALITY EXPECTATIONInterpreter-related qualitiesThorough preparationEndurancePoisePleasant appearance

    Conference interpreters output qualities

  • Quality ExpectationBhler 1986% interpretersKurz 1989% usersSense consistency9681Logical cohesion8372Correct terminology4945Completeness4736Fluency of delivery4928Correct grammar4811Native accent2311Pleasant voice2817

  • QUALITY EXPECTATIONKurz (1993/ 2002): Average ratings by end-users were consistently lower than those of the interpreters in Buhlers study.Users expectation profiles differed according to their professional background.Kurz and Pochhacker (1995): Users of SI in media settings put considerably less emphasis on completeness while giving special importance to such criteria as pleasant voice, native accent, and fluency of delivery.

  • QUALITY EXPECTATIONPeter Moser (1996)s interviewees ratings:Faithfulness to the originalContentSynchronicityRhetorical skillsVoice qualityExpectations tended to vary considerably depending on meeting type (large vs. small, general vs. technical), age, gender, and previous experience with SI.

  • QUALITY PERCEPTIONFindings from user expectation surveys indicated preference for essentials rather than a complete rendition. (Vuorikoski 1993: 321, P. Moser 1996: 163f).Collados Ais (1998/ 2002): Subjects who had given less importance to delivery features in the expectation survey were nevertheless distinctly affected by monotonous intonation, as reflected in lower ratings for overall quality and several other criteria.

  • QUALITY PERCEPTIONContent errors in the melodic interpretation did not result in lower scores.The criterion valued most highly by the users (fidelity) is the one that they fail to appreciate and are likely to judge by such secondary criteria as fluency and lively delivery.Giuliana Garzone (2003): Poor delivery (i.e. hesitation and erratic prosody) had a marked impact on quality assessments (i.e. delivery, voice quality, fidelity, coherence).Cheung (2003): Subjects gave lower ratings to the non-native version for criteria like clarity, pacing, completeness, interference (code-mixing), fluency and coherence.

  • EXPECTATION IN COMMUNITY INTERPRETINGAnne-Marie Mesa (2000): Canadian community service providers ratings of interpreter qualities and behaviors:Proficiency in the clients languagePointing out a clients lack of understandingKadric (2001): Court judges in Vienna rated interpreting skills and linguistic and cultural competence as more important in a good courtroom interpreter than basic legal knowledge and knowledge of court organization and procedure.

  • HIRING CRITERIACOMMUNITY INTERPRETINGKadric (2001): Court judges re-hiring criteria include smooth facilitation of communication and costs.

    CONFERENCE INTERPRETINGMoser-Mercer (1996: 50): Team disciplineAdaptabilityFlexible schedulingAvailability

  • STRESSAIIC (2002): Most important stressors include difficult source texts and speaker delivery, poor booth conditions and insufficient preparation.The feeling that work-related stress causes a drop in performance quality was not substantiated by an assessment of interpretation samples for meaning correspondence, linguistic correctness, and delivery.However, there is experimental evidence that the fatigue resulting from excessively long SI turn (up to 60 minutes) has a significant detrimental effect on performance (see Moser-Mercer et al. 1998, Zeier 1997.

  • STRESSVideoconferencing resulted in higher stress levels but there is little evidence of lower output quality as judged from the perspective of interpretation users. (p. 172)

    Media interpreting also resulted in higher stress levels. (Kurz 2002)

  • POSSIBLE RESERACH TOPICS (FROM A CONFERENCE WEBSITE)What training is available for interpreters? What is the attitude of interpreters and interpreting businesses toward such training? What interpretation services are available in Thai hospitals? Are special training programs needed for hospital translators/interpreters to help improve this business?

  • POSSIBLE RESERACH TOPICSWhat translation/interpretation services are needed in local hospitals to service ethnic people, foreign visitors, and refugees who have limited Thai abilities?What translation/interpretation services are needed by local government to service ethnic people, foreign visitors, and refugees who have limited Thai abilities?What translation/interpretation services are needed by the justice system for efficiency in the courts and justice for ethnic people, foreign visitors, and refugees?

    *

    *

    *