A Study On Preparation For Community Interpretation From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

Community interpreters mainly serve the public service sector,including healthcare,legal,immigration and other public services sectors.Compared with conference interpreting,community interpreting receives relatively less attention from the academic community.With increasing international exchanges and large-scale immigration trends,the demands for community interpreting is growing rapidly.Then research on community interpreting has gradually developed.Therefore,this paper attempts to provide some suggestions for community interpreters.In interpreting activities,preparation for interpreting plays a crucial role and directly affects the quality of interpreting.The preparation for community interpreting shall be emphasized.Thus,this paper tries to make an analysis of the importance of the preparation for community interpreters and the strategies for preparation.Schema theory is often mentioned in cognitive psychology to explain the memory and understanding mode.Schema refers to the structural understanding of the outside world in each person’s mind.The preparation for community interpreting is actually a process of building schema system for a certain interpreting activity within a limited period of time.Therefore,this dissertation takes Schema Theory as the theoretical background.Schemata are classified into three categories:language schema,content schema and formal schema.Therefore,in the process of interpretation,the preparation part could be considered in these three ways and interpreter’s work can be analyzed from his or her thinking schemas.However,these three kinds of schemas cannot cover the professional ethics of community interpreters.Thus,professionalism schema is added here to analyze the preparation for community interpreting.In the preparation for community interpretation,the interpreter should store the relevant schemas in the brain as much as possible to improve the efficiency and accuracy of interpretation.And community interpreters should also consider the possible behaviors of certain groups and have a complete understanding of the social environment.Though a survey and two interviews,this dissertation summarizes that the common problem in the preparation for community interpreting is mainly related to the environment and personnel information.And to solve these problems,according to the schema theory,the preparation for community interpreting should be as comprehensive as possible,and face-to-face or voice communication with the client before interpreting would be better for interpreters to build a more comprehensive schema system.