An Empirical Study on the Impact of Pre-interpreting Preparation on Business Interpreting under Gile's Efforts Model

Abstract

With Gile's Efforts Model as the theoretical foundation, this study aims at analyzing the effect of pre-interpreting preparation on business interpreting between English and Chinese, particularly focusing on the following two questions: 1. Does pre-interpreting preparation affect the quality of students' business interpreting output? If so, how it affects the various factors of interpreting output quality? 2. Will the pre-interpreting effect change with the different language levels? To answer these two questions, we carried out an experimental study by testing sample students' interpretation on a selected business interview without any preparation and with adequate preparation respectively. With the data collected, we made both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Based on the analysis, the following conclusions are reached: First, pre-interpreting preparation has a positive effect on the overall quality of business interpreting output. Second, in business scenarios, pre-interpreting preparation have different degrees of impact on the factors of interpretation quality. Specifically, it has a relatively large impact on the accuracy of terminology and the logical coherence of the target-language speech, while exerting a minimal impact on the voice quality. Third, pre-interpreting preparation has a greater influence on the interpreting output of the intermediate language level group than it has on the advanced language level group. It is hoped that this study could provide some new perspectives and offer some help to the teaching of business English interpreting.