Abstract
(Para)linguistic parameters (e.g., un/filled pauses, speech rate) are believed to underlie perceived fluency of simultaneous interpretation (SI). Little research, however, is available to ascertain whether and to what extent these (para)linguistic measures of SI fluency correlate with fluency ratings provided by human raters. This exploratory study investigates three questions: a) how nine selected (para)linguistic parameters correlate with each other, b) how the parameters correlate with rater-generated fluency ratings, and c) which parameter or a combination of parameters could best discriminate an interpreter into pre-determined groups of interpretation fluency. The major results are: a) three underlying dimensions of the perceived fluency emerged, including breakdown, speed, and repair fluency, b) speech rate, phonation/time ratio, and mean length of a run had higher correlation with the fluency ratings, and c) speech rate and phonation/time ratio were the best possible predictors of the interpreters’ group affiliation. Implications of the results are discussed regarding fluency assessment in SI. Keywords: Correlation, Disfluency, Fluency, (Para)linguistic Parameters, Simultaneous Interpretation
Highlights
Fluency is regarded as one of the most important quality criteria of simultaneous interpretation (SI). Altman (1994) even states that fluency could be the one single aspect of an interpretation that distinguishes students’ performance from that of professional interpreters
There was positive correlation within the three sets oflinguistic parameters: a) number of unfilled pauses (NUP), mean length of unfilled pauses (MLUP) and total number of pauses (TNP), b) Speech rate (SR), Phonation/time ratio (PTR) and Mean length of a run (MLR), and c) number of false starts (NFS), number of reformulations (NRef) and number of replacements (NRep), with each set encapsulated by dotted lines
The results from the analysis of relationship betweenlinguistic parameters suggest that the perceived fluency of SI is often regarded by interpreting researchers as a unitary variable, and could be measured by differentlinguistic parameters, it may be best represented as a multi-dimensional concept
Summary
Fluency is regarded as one of the most important quality criteria of simultaneous interpretation (SI). Altman (1994) even states that fluency could be the one single aspect of an interpretation that distinguishes students’ performance from that of professional interpreters. There were a fast speech rate of about 155 wpm and a slow rate of approximately 105 wpm; there were two native English speakers: one non-accented speaker from Australia, and one strongly accented speaker from India. These two IVs were fully crossed with each other, producing four treatment conditions: slow and non-accented (SN), slow and accented (SA), fast and non-accented (FN), and fast and accented (FA). Each interpretation was assessed by nine trained raters using eight-point descriptor-based rating scales on three dimensions: a) information completeness (InfoCom), b) fluency of delivery (FluDel), and target language quality (TLQual)
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