The Development Of Interpreting Studies In China From 2009 To 2014 — A Survey Of About 400 Articles From Core Journals And Doctoral Dissertations In CNKI

For any disciplines, a comprehensive understanding of its previous researches is a necessity to help researchers further its development. Interpreting studies is no exception. This survey, using the data from 2009 to 2014, describes quantitative changes in details. It is conducted to present the development of interpreting studies from the perspective of topic selection. Besides, several suggestions are given based on the analysis of reasons behind quantitative changes.The first step is to collect the related data from China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI). Data selection and grouping are conducted based on information provided by other resources including previous researches and other websites. Then the data is analyzed, which reveals the development trend and existing problems.Based on the data description and analysis, the survey shows that China’s interpreting studies is on a general increase from 2009 to 2014 but the increase is mild. As for research topic selection, on the one hand, the basic pattern is unchanged. Interpreting pedagogy and interpreting process are the two most popular topics every year. While interpreting product and performance get the least attention. On the other hand, the development of each topic is not in the same pattern. Researchers have decreased studies on interpreting pedagogy but increased studies on interpreting process in the recent six years.Although researchers are paying more attention to interpreting studies, the backwardness including the lack of a solid theoretical basis, innovative topics and advanced methodologies still put an obstacle to its future development. Thus, the establishment of a complete theoretical framework should be fastened and an adaptation of better research strategies should be made. Besides, it is also important to cultivate more qualified researchers. Though there are both subjective and objective limitations, this survey still provides reliable statistics and practical suggestions for the future development of interpreting studies in China.