The Influence Of Source Language’s Speed Change On The Features Of Note-taking In English-Chinese Consecutive Interpreting

Note-taking in consecutive interpreting functions as remainder which helps to reduce the burden and awaken memory.Speech speed is a major factor which affects the consecutive interpreting process.To study the influence of source language’s speed on the student interpreters’ note-taking features in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting,3 research questions are raised: 1.Will the speech rate affect student interpreters’ note-taking features(symbols proportion and language choice)? 2.If so,what are the effects? 3.How does the change of note-taking features affect the effectiveness of information transition?To answer these questions,this study takes experiment and interview to do quantitative and qualitative analysis.MTI students of a foreign language university in Northeast China are the subjects.After the experiment,calculating the proportions of note symbols and words,combined with proposition to analyze the effectiveness of information transition.Summarize the results and draw conclusions.The conclusions are: First,in English to Chinese consecutive interpreting,source language speed has an impact on student interpreters’ note-taking.Second,the influences are: as speech rate increases,symbols are more used;source language use rises,and the proportion of target language use declines.Third,effectiveness of information transition reduces as note-taking features change.According to Gile’s Effort Model,student interpreters can’t balance note-taking with listening and shortterm memory in the first stage of consecutive interpreting,so more symbols are used to save time;source language is more used as memory pressure amounts.Effectiveness of information transition decreases due to short-term memory challenge.This study can provide a new perspective for the research on the speed of interpreting and help with practice.