A Report On A Simulated Simultaneous Interpreting For The Panel Discussion On The 40^th Anniversary Of China-US Relations

The report is based on the author’s simulated simultaneous interpreting of the panel discussion on the 40 th anniversary of China-US relations hosted by U.S-China Policy Foundation in 2019 that lasts for nearly 40 minutes.The panel discussion is selected as the object of the simulation for 3 reasons:(1)Covid-19 slashes practice opportunities;(2)China-US relations is a challenging but touchable political topic for the author;(3)speeches in the discussion are delivered at a moderate speed.Task description is first introduced in which the author highlights the quality control of the simulation.She guarantees the effectiveness of the simulation by limiting preparation time,self-monitoring and other methods.Then she describes the task process comprised of pre-task preparation,interpreting process and post-task evaluation.The post-task evaluation comprises of self-review and peer review,which is completed by sending a questionnaire featured faithfulness,language delivery and fluency to 6 MTI students.Based on that,the author discovers that insufficient background knowledge and distractions including pre-task notes and slides are the two problem triggers that affect the interpreting quality most.According to Gile’s Effort Model,problem triggers threatens the coordination of listening and production,which is believed to be the most daunting task for novice interpreters.To probe into how background knowledge and distractions impact interpreting quality,the author analyzes examples of high-quality renditions and low-quality renditions comparatively in the third part.The final part concludes that insufficient background knowledge and pre-task notes and slides that are not clearly structured undermine the interpreting quality.