The Effect Of Lexical Bundles On Fluency In Chinese-English Consecutive Interpreting ——A Corpus-based Study Of Student Interpreters

As a predictor of language proficiency,lexical bundles are regarded as important contributors to speaking fluency.The aim of the present research is to determine to what extent does the number and types of lexical bundles affect the occurrence of disfluency markers among student interpreters of different levels.Aided by corpus analytical tools including AntConc,BFSU Qualitative Coder,and WordSmith,this paper analyzes four types of disfluency markers from 100 samples of the Parallel Corpus of Chinese EFL Learners-Spoken（PACCEL-S）in light of Mizuno’s process model for interpreting.In summary,this study has identified a strong negative correlation between the number of lexical bundles used by student interpreters and their overall disfluency markers.It is found that（1）the number of lexical bundles affects pauses most,followed by repetitions and repairs,whereas false-starts are not significantly affected;（2）as the number of types of LB s used by interpreters increases,the number of disfluency markers decreases;（3）only lexical bundles that incorporate verb phrase,noun phrase and prepositional phrase fragments are significantly correlated with disfluency markers;and（4）interpreters of a higher level use more lexical bundles of different types,especially those incorporate noun phrase and prepositional phrase fragments.In response to the problems found in the study regarding the use of lexical bundles by student interpreters,this study proposes the following suggestions.For student interpreters,they are advised to（1）refer to large existing corpora to rectify frequently misused lexical bundles;and（2）use lexical bundles consciously and strategically when dealing with a high cognitive load,such as reading illegible notes and extracting information from short term memory,in order to buy time,or to make the logic more explicit,etc.For interpreter trainers,it is advisable to customize lists of lexical bundles based on different settings,such as diplomatic,business,legal,medical,etc.,in order to consciously guide students to use lexical bundles in class.This study contributes to existing knowledge of the effect of lexical bundles in lessening cognitive loads and improving interpreting fluency by analyzing empirical data from a large corpus.It also sheds light on more effective interpreter training and practices.