Conference Interpreters Research Articles

Meaning and words in the conference interpreter’s mind

Abstract The aim of the study was to examine how interpreter training and experience influence word recognition and cross-linguistic connections in the bilingual mental lexicon. Sixty-eight professional interpreters, interpreter trainees (tested at the beginning and end of their training) and bilingual controls were asked to complete a semantic priming study. Priming is a psycholinguistic research method used to examine connections between words and languages in the mind. Data analysis conducted by means of linear mixed models revealed that advanced trainees recognised words faster than beginners, but were not outperformed by professionals. A priming effect was found only in the L1-L2 direction, suggesting similar asymmetries between languages irrespective of the interpreting experience. It is the first study to adopt a priming paradigm and a longitudinal design to examine the interpreters’ mental lexicon. The study shows that word recognition is faster due to interpreter training, but is not modulated further by interpreting experience.

Feedback on feedback: Guiding student interpreter performance

Feedback is an essential part of all types of teaching and learning and interpreter training is no exception. This paper examines the theoretical and practical aspects of the feedback that student interpreters receive and give according to a questionnaire-based online survey of fifty-eight students enrolled at a conference interpreter training programme in Seoul. The results indicate that the participants generally appreciate the feedback generated by teachers and peer interaction. However, they value and trust teacher feedback far more than peer feedback, considering it more comprehensive, authoritative and hence most effective. The data analysis also reveals that students seek teacher attention and support relating to both academic and emotional needs. The findings indicate that teachers need to facilitate students’ learning through feedback, and that feedback is a complex task which requires further scholarly attention.

Virtual Classes as an Innovative Tool for Conference Interpreter Training

Virtual Classes as an Innovative Tool for Conference Interpreter Training

La formación de los alumnos de interpretación del Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) para poder llegar a trabajar en organizaciones internacionales

The master’s degree in Conference Interpretation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) is among the most rigorous and prestigious conference interpretation training program in the United States. A large number of MIIS alumni work as conference interpreters for international organizations. The MIIS conference interpretation training program is based on a thorough analysis and understanding of the needs of these organizations. One of the goals of the MIIS conference interpretation program is to give students the skills they need to pass the entrance examinations of international organizations and work for them either as freelancers or as permanent staff.

Los exámenes de admisión en las organizaciones internacionales: la oposición para intérpretes en plantilla de las Naciones Unidas

In most cases, prior to being admitted into an international organisation as a conference interpreter, candidates need to be tested. The Language Competitive Examination (LCE) is the test that the United Nations organises to assess the level of proficiency of candidates and decide who possesses the necessary skills to work at the UN. Since 2001, an increasing number of examinations have been held to establish a roster from which to cover present and future vacancies. Despite the large number of applicants, very few of them actually pass. One reason might be that LCE speeches present specific challenges that candidates have to master beforehand in order to pass the examination. An analysis of LCE procedure was carried out to shed light on the main features of the LCE. The results show that UN topics, speed and accents are the main challenges that candidates must be aware of if they are to prepare appropriately. These findings are corroborated by a survey targeted at UN staff interpreters, who suggest that the challenge lies in the very modality tested at the LCE, which is simultaneous interpreting.

Interpreting and World Englishes - Implications for Conference Interpreters in South Korea

Interpreting and World Englishes - Implications for Conference Interpreters in South Korea

Duflou, 2016, Be(com)ing a conference interpreter: An ethnography of EU interpreters as a professional community

This article reviews Be(com)ing a conference interpreter: An ethnography of EU interpreters as a professional community 978-90-272-5870-0

Meta-discourse as a Source for Exploring the Professional Image(s) of Conference Interpreters

Simultaneous conference interpreters, like all other professionals, operate with a ’professional identity’ that shapes, and is shaped, by the way a variety of actors and institutions inside and outside the field of activity see and describe the profession(al). Departing from the assumption that the professional image of conference interpreters is largely (meta-)discursive in nature, this paper analyzes how various actors and institutions depict conference interpreting and interpreters in their discourses, whether the images propagated converge or diverge from each other, and what the divergences may imply for the profession and the professional.

파워포인트와 사전준비에 대한 통역사 인식 조사

Technical advances have led to the advent of new forms of visual material in conference settings – the most notable of them being PowerPoint presentations. Long gone are the days when hastily scribbled notes would be delivered to the booth at the last minute, which allowed conference interpreters little to no time to prepare for. Instead, they now enjoy access to elaborately prepared PowerPoint presentations delivered online in advance. However, interpreters are now faced with new issues as PowerPoint presentations tend to differ in both style and density, sometimes exposing the interpreter to too much information while at others providing next to no information should the presentation be mostly image rather than text-based. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the perception that interpreters hold of such PowerPoint presentations when it comes to preparing for a conference.

Birds of a feather? A comparison of the personality profiles of aspiring interpreters and other language experts

Since the early days of translation and interpreting studies, scholars have emphasized the value of certain personality related traits for translation and interpreting performance. Especially in the conference interpreter world, preconceived opinions about the desired personality traits for conference interpreters seem to exist. However, there is little to no empirical evidence to either corroborate or refuse these ideas. In this paper we aim to explore a set of individual difference variables (IDs) — as these traits are called in the literature — to gain an insight into the profile of aspiring interpreters and to explore whether this profile differs from that of other advanced language experts. To this end, we have compared the IDs of three groups of advanced language learners who have received the same bachelor training but will branch off into three different master’s programmes: interpreting, translation and multilingual communication. By means of self-report questionnaires we have gauged the language learners’ willingness to communicate, cultural empathy, social initiative, flexibility, open-mindedness and emotional stability before they began their professional training. The data show that student interpreters score significantly higher than students of multilingual communication and student translators on the social initiative and emotional stability dimensions. These results seem to indicate that students aspiring to become interpreters can be distinguished from students aspiring to become translators or multilingual communicators on the basis of these personality traits. These differences are already in place before the students embark on their professional training in the master’s programme.

A DIFFERENT SHADE OF SHADOWING: SOURCE TEXT TO SOURCE TEXT AS EFFICIENT SIMULTANEOUS PROCESSING EXERCISE

Many conference interpreter trainers consider shadowing as an unhelpful exercise in simultaneous interpreting training because it does not require the student to analyse while processing the information. Among the outspoken critics of shadowing was Seleskovitch (Seleskovitch and Lederer, 1989); Kurtz questioned the value of the exercise in her article “Shadowing” Exercises in Interpreter Training (Kurtz, 1992) and Gillies maintains that it is the ‘thinking’ element that is absent and yet so important in Simultaneous Interpreting (Gillies, 2012). However, in the early 1990s Lambert championed shadowing as a useful device in the early stages of SI training even though she accepted that use of shadowing in training was controversial, she justified it as one of the training methods employed with beginner interpreters (Lambert, 1992). The exercise proposed in this paper takes shadowing beyond what Lambert offers and closer to simultaneous proper. It is a form of intelligent editing, which requires a higher order of processing capacity compared to that of shadowing. It is termed as efficient simultaneous processing of the source text.

MAPPING A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ORCIT

The ORCIT project (Online Resources for Conference Interpreter Training) was launched in September 2010 and is currently in its sixth successive year. ORCIT is a multilingual and interactive learning resource with a designated website (www.orcit.eu) which offers pedagogical best practice in interpreter training. Focus of the modular resources is on six main competences necessary for successful training: listening and analysis; mastery of the mother tongue and public speaking; early and advanced consecutive interpreting; early and advanced simultaneous and research skills. In ORCIT, we are near the stage where the corpus of material is substantial enough to subject it to empirical evaluation. Extra funding is currently being sought to launch evaluation in October 2016. By definition, in any learning environment, including a technology-enhanced environment, the overall goal for both the student and the teacher is to expand and consolidate the student’s knowledge of the subject and to improve performance. Therefore the aim of an evaluation of ORCIT would be to assess the use of the resources in a blended learning environment. A proposed theoretical framework which could provide a suitable platform for an experimental design is Diana Laurillard’s the Conversational Framework and a classification of five media forms (Laurillard 1993 & 2002). Relevance of the Conversational Framework and five media forms to ORCIT are the subject of the discussion in this paper. The focus is on the media forms which would assist in the evaluation design.

INTERPRETING TECHNIQUES BY A TOUR GUIDE AT THE ANCIENT TOMBS OF RAJA SIDABUTAR

INTRODUCTION:Since earliest time the activities of interpreting-translating world wide as a form of mediating across boundaries of language has given a great contribution as a form of mediating and crucial instrumental in human communications. When ancient people were driven into exile, when explorers had to transact business, and when slaves were being put to work for the colonizer. Interpreting can defined most broadly as inter lingual, intercultural oral or signed mediation, enabling communication between individuals or groups who do not share, or do not choose, the same language (s) by the children of immigrants, by hospital cleaners, by trained and untrained signed-language interpreters, by tour guides and by countless others with widely varying levels of language and communication skill (Pochhacker, 2002).It has been written in the history when Christopher Columbus, a famous navigator from Genoa sailed to discover the American continent at the end of the second half of the 15 th century. He brought along with him an interpreter who understood the local ethnic language by using paralinguistic or kinetic speech in order to communicate with the local people in the continent. Then history also indicates the discovery of inscribed stones written in two languages. It has proven that translation activity has existed since the year 3000 AD in the Old Egypt period which was located in the first Riam area, Elephantin.In 300 BC, the translation became an increasingly important activity for Western people, particularly for those in Rome who absorbed the Greek culture. History of Islam also revealed during Khilafah Abassiyah, they had translated a wide variety of disciplines that were not available for them, such as Medicine, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Philosophy. (Yusuf, 1994) says before the Islamic community spread its influence to Europe, Baghdad city was well known as the city of translation. The city became an important place for Middle East people in translating classic works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, and others into Arabic language.In further development, the need of professional translator and interpreter is critical due to the increase of cooperative relations among nations in many sectors such as diplomatic, cultural, economic, political, and national defense. This is seen in various gatherings of nations such as the United Nations, European Union, ASEAN and so on which interpreter occupied an important position in delivering information through many different languages. In Indonesia the role of interpreter began to increase, especially since in the 10th Summit Conference in Jakarta in 1992 which required about 5,000 language staffs (including liaison officers, field officers, etc.). This amount does not include the conference interpreters (conference interpreters). (Machali, 2009).In general, interpreting activity is more difficult than translation. There are some reasons underlying this statement. The first reason is that the interpreter must complete his duties in a very limited time. Once the process begins, interpreters do not have the opportunity to repeat, revise, or evaluate translations. So it might be concluded that the results of an oral translation is Non-correctable and non-verifiable. ( (Shuttleworth & M. Cowie, 1997). In certain cases, the interpreter has the right to ask and ask the speaker to repeat his utterances. However, the inability of the interpreter in capturing and listening to the speaker's speech will show his unprofessionalism as an interpreter.The second reason is that in doing his job, interpreter always relate directly to the speakers. The presence of speakers greatly affects the process of interpreting and it really felt by interpreter, especially in terms of mentality.The third reason is that in oral translation, the translated text is principally a verbal speech delivered by speakers. Therefore, the skills needed interpreters are listening skills and spoken skills. …

In search of the working memory advantage in conference interpreting – Training, experience and task effects

Aims and Objectives: The purpose of the study was to disentangle the effects of simultaneous interpreting experience and training on working memory, to examine the effect of language, modality and recall on working memory scores, and to associate memory scores of trainees with interpreting quality. Design: Working memory scores were compared in the L2 reading span task (performed by professional conference interpreters, bilingual controls and interpreter trainees tested before and after training) and in the L1 reading span task and L1 listening span task (performed by interpreters and controls). Data and Analysis: Data was collected from 68 participants in experiment 1 and from 51 participants in experiment 2. It was analysed by means of linear models, regressions and t-tests. Findings: Professional interpreters consistently outperformed controls on all working memory tasks. They performed better in L1 than L2, and their scores were not affected due to modality (visual vs. auditory presentation) and recall mode (serial vs. free). Interpreter training improved working memory scores. Trainees’ higher scores predicted better interpreting performance. Originality: This was the first study to adopt a longitudinal design to examine the effect of training on memory of conference interpreter trainees. Significance: The study shows that interpreter training (but not experience) improves working memory capacity and predicts interpreting performance.

The policy maker in conference interpreting and its hegemonic power

This paper sets out to explore the concept of hegemony in the field of conference interpreting practice. It presents the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) as the hegemon in conference interpreting and examines its power as a policy maker. The paper associates this type of investigation with the sociological turn in conference interpreting research. It takes two large-scale surveys by Feldweg (1996) and Zwischenberger (2013) as its starting point, based on the self-representations of conference interpreter members of AIIC. The examples taken from these two surveys reveal a consistent degree of consensus and highlight the hegemonic power exerted by AIIC. This study’s main focus is on appropriating the hegemony concept for conference interpreting and thereby showing that AIIC governs the entire field of conference interpreting practice. AIIC’s power as a policy maker is based on a large degree of consent, although its hegemonic power is not uncontested.

A survey to profile conference interpreting practice in China

This report presents findings from an online survey of 140 English/Chinese conference interpreters, conducted as a follow-up of an exploratory diary study (Han 2015), to provide a detailed account of real-life interpreting practice in China. Three main tendencies are identified: a) conference-related materials (mainly programmes and speakers’ scripts/notes) are often received late, leaving little preparation time; b) interpreters do a much wider variety of simultaneous interpreting tasks than previously thought, albeit with varying degrees of frequency; c) difficulties are felt to arise mainly from technical subject matter and terminology, speakers’ delivery (strong accent, speed), and lack of preparation. These findings largely support the diary study results and previous scholarly descriptions.

언론보도에 투영된 동시통역에 대한 고찰

This study explores the way simultaneous interpretation is portrayed in Korean news media. Simultaneous interpretation is a complex task requiring an interpreter to master the skills of listening, production, and memory skills which need to be operated simultaneously facilitated by the right coordination skills(Gile, 2009). Thus it requires expertise, and interpreters who are well trained and, consequently, competent in both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting are called ‘conference interpreters.’ Conference interpreters are covered frequently in newspaper articles and are often called ‘simultaneous interpreters’ in Korean media. Conference interpreters are recognized as experts in the field. However recently, the words ‘simultaneous interpretation’ and ‘simultaneous interpreters’ are often used inappropriately: ‘simultaneous interpretation’ is used to describe a celebrity’s language competency; ‘simultaneous interpreter’ is often used to add glamour to a celebrity’s career profile or lifestyle; ‘simultaneous interpretation’ is also often used in names for language services provided for the general public, which requires consecutive interpretation at best. This study explores how the media uses and tweaks the concept of simultaneous interpretation and discusses implications of such misuse.

La traducción de términos de la ciencia y la técnica en la prensa española

Although everything is improvable, it can be said that Spanish translators and conference interpreters have dictionaries, glossaries and data banks available to do their work satisfactorily thanks to publishers of technical dictionaries, terminology teams of International Organizations, the Real Academia Española and the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. However, the situation is quite different in the press, the field of written language where all subjects of social interest are dealt with. The press is the main importer of loanwords, mostly unnecessary Anglicisms (of non-specialized fields but also of science and technology), and journalists make translation mistakes daily. Because of the considerable influence that journalists have on readers, the loanwords they use as well as their translation mistakes infiltrate the Spanish language. In this article, we analyse the situation in the translation of scientific and technological texts in the Spanish press and show examples of unnecessary loanwords as well as translation mistakes. We also include a brief glossary of 45 loanwords and translation mistakes in the military field.

Vollautomatisches Dolmetschen – Möglichkeiten und Grenzen

This article describes how technologies needed to fully automate inter- pretation work. It assesses the performance of existing technologies and compa- res them to the work of human conference interpreters. The article goes on to evaluate the problems to be encountered at every step of a spoken language translation system: speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthe- sis. The article closes with an overview of existing products and tries to define areas where current technology can improve interlingual communication. This article argues that a 'universal translator' as depicted in science fiction will be hard to implement with statistical machine translation at its core

Directionality and context effects in word translation tasks performed by conference interpreters

AbstractProfessional interpreters employed by international institutions usually work into their L1 from their L2, while freelance interpreters tend to work both into and from their L1. A study was devised to see if the long-term interpreting unidirectional practice (in the L2–L1 direction only), in contrast to bidirectional practice (in the L2–L1 and L1–L2 direction), influences the speed of lexical retrieval manifested through shorter translation latencies. Forty-eight professional conference interpreters produced oral translations of nouns presented in isolation, in high context constraint sentences and in low context constraint sentences. Contrary to predictions, unidirectional interpreters did not manifest directionality asymmetry and their L2–L1 translation latencies were not shorter than L1–L2 translation latencies. Surprisingly, the L2–L1 direction advantage was found in the group of bidirectional interpreters. The data suggest that the dominant directionality in interpreting practice has little impact on the strength of interlingual lexical links in the interpreter’s mental lexicon or that other factors (such as language use, exposure and immersion) might offset any such impact. The study also revealed an expected context effect, which shows that interpreters use semantic constraint to anticipate sentence-final words.