“70.6 Billion World Citizens”: Investigating the difficulty of interpreting numbers

Francesca Maria Frittella

doi:10.12807/ti.111201.2019.a05

Abstract

Among all the difficulties inherent in interpreting, numbers stand out as a common and complex problem trigger. This experimental study contributes to research on the causes of errors in the passive simultaneous interpretation (SI) of numbers. Two groups of Italian Master’s degree students (one for English and one for German) were asked to interpret simultaneously a number-dense speech from their respective B language into their mother tongue, Italian. Note-taking was allowed during the test and both the study participants and their lecturers completed a questionnaire afterwards. Data analysis was conducted with statistical and qualitative methods, combining the cognitivist and contextualist approach. The objective was to ascertain whether one main variable may be held responsible for the high error rate related to interpreting numbers and the difficulty perceived by students in the task. The analysis quantifies the relative impact of different causes of difficulties on participants’ delivery of numbers. It stresses the crucial role of the subjective variable represented by interpreters’ skills. Didactic implications and directions for future research are discussed in the conclusion.

Highlights

Simultaneous interpretation (SI) requires complex cognitive processing
The present study contributes to the research on number processing by interpreting trainees during passive SI, and the root causes of the observed high error rate
A first assumption was that the analysis should focus on the cognitive mechanisms involved in number processing and include the textual and pragmatic function of numbers

Summary

Introduction

Simultaneous interpretation (SI) requires complex cognitive processing. Individual characteristics such as personal experiences, skills, knowledge and thematic preferences unavoidably play a role in the degree of accuracy achieved and contribute to the interpreter’s perception of the difficulty of the source speech or of the element to be interpreted. The difficulty in interpreting these elements seems to be objective rather than subjective in nature Such elements are defined as problem triggers and are usually associated with a significantly higher error rate than subjective difficulties (Gile, 2015). Among such triggers, researchers have identified numbers as the interpreting problem trigger par excellence (Mead, 2015)

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Discussion

Conclusion