An Empirical Study On The Influence Of Anxiety On The Choice Of English-Chinese Consecutive Interpreting Strategies By Student Interpreters

Due to instantaneity and multitasking in which interpreting features,student interpreters are often highly nervous and disturbed by anxiety.As unbalanced bilinguals,student interpreters who take Chinese as their mother tongue suffer from more pressure in English-Chinese consecutive interpretation than in Chinese-English consecutive interpretation.The choice of interpreting strategies can reflect the level of the interpreter’s competence,and anxiety is one of the factors affecting interpreters’ interpreting competence.Therefore,the influence of anxiety on the choice of interpreting strategies by students is worth exploring.In this study,student interpreters were investigated for their interpreting anxiety and their use of interpreting strategies in the same English-Chinese consecutive interpreting task.The qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that:(1)in English-Chinese interpreting tasks,student interpreters’ interpreting anxiety was negatively correlated with the frequency of the strategies recommended by instructors,positively correlated with the frequency of the strategies that are not recommended by instructors,and not correlated with the frequency of the strategies that instructors advise to use cautiously.(2)The influence of interpreting anxiety on interpreters’ choice of English-Chinese interpreting strategies owes to its effects on the interpreters’ distribution of effort.In addition,this study puts forward some methods to reduce student interpreters’ anxiety.The findings can be used for reference in theoretical research,teaching and practice of interpretation.