Teaching Oral Consecutive Interpretation

Roza Ayupova

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.7p.163

Abstract

The paper describes the research conducted in interpreter-training based on the experience of teaching oral consecutive interpretation in two groups of undergraduate students approximately of the same level of linguistic and translation skills. In one of the groups – key informants – metacognitive approach was applied to have the would-be interpreters conscious of what they are expected to be successful interpreters. As many scholars in this field claim, metacognitive competence developed in the process of education is believed to form the ability to meet the challenges an interpreter can face executing oral consecutive interpretation. Since attentiveness and memory are viewed as important mechanisms of psychological base of the type of interpretation under consideration, special sets of exercises directed to developing these properties in interpreters-to be elaborated by contemporary scholars according to special methodology were given in this group. The next group – focus group – was also provided with the same educational technologies and other facilities as the group of key informants, but metacognitive approach and aforementioned sets of exercises were not used in it. Long-term memory tests held at the beginning and at the end of the semester in both the groups demonstrate that metacognitive approach in combination with special sets of exercises lead to much better results in long-term memory developing.

Highlights

Increased competition in labour-market, active scientific and business collaborations between companies of different countries require high level of competence of specialists in translation nearly in any field of human activity
Long-term memory tests held at the beginning and at the end of the semester in both the groups demonstrate that metacognitive approach in combination with special sets of exercises lead to much better results in long-term memory developing
As the major tasks of oral consecutive interpreter training we distinguish the following: developing attentiveness, the ability to comprehend and to process the received information, the ability to retain the information in the mind, note taking skills, the ability to select appropriate lexical units and structures in the target language

Summary

Introduction

Increased competition in labour-market, active scientific and business collaborations between companies of different countries require high level of competence of specialists in translation nearly in any field of human activity. Achieving the main goal requires delving into the essence of translation itself, which is known as a process of transforming a text in the source language into one in the target language. Viewing from this angle an interpreter should have excellent linguistic competences in both the languages. Permanent adding up of cultural encyclopedic information from as many fields as possible is seen as integral part of translation process. As it was mentioned above equivalence is one of the essential requirements of translation. The super-objective of interpreter-training process, to the opinion of this scholar, is development of “metacognitive intercultural communicative competence – a complex, integrating, psychological, socio-linguo-cognitive and communicative construction as well as a mode of action that can only be developed first of all in-class focusing on the attemptedvisualizationof the interpreters mental process during the phases of comprehension, reformulation and re-expression of the message to be rendered” (Morell, 2011)

Methods

Developing long-term memory

Findings

Conclusions