Information Loss And Compensation In Consecutive Interpreting

Research on the interpreting process is aimed at revealing the complex information processing mechanism which in fact is a cognitive process integrating source language comprehension,memory and language transfer.Each step of this information processing has a critical role in the final interpreting quality level.It is therefore true that research on problem triggers in the interpreting process will enhance the understanding of the whole interpreting process.Research in interpreting and teaching practice has found that interpreters may have information loss which directly affects the interpreting quality level and interpreters confidence,which may finally result in a disastrous ending.Based on this,an overview of previous studies on information loss in translation and interpreting process is presented.It is found that the previous studies are focused on either simultaneous interpreting or specific points,while information loss in consecutive interpreting has been neglected..This empirical research is thus designed to answer the following three research questions:(1),What are the features of information loss in consecutive interpreting?(2),What are the reasons behind information loss in consecutive interpreting?(3),How do interpreters compensate for information loss in consecutive interpreting?In the hope of answering the above mentioned questions,both qualitative and quantitative methods have been employed,namely experimental analysis and survey questionnaires,accompanied by prompted recall methods and semi-structured interviews.The experiment consists of one mock consecutive interpretation participated in by professional and student interpreters.The first group is composed of five professional conference interpreters(with over five years of experience)and the second group consists of 32 MTI students with two to three years studying experience.The student interpreters are first-year MTI interpreting majors coming from two universities,with one foreign language university(16 student interpreters),the other comprehensive university(16 student interpreters).Experiment and questionnaire surveys are applied to answer the first researchquestion.All the research subjects are invited to do a mock consecutive interpretation of a speech.The researcher then transcribes the interpretation and analyzes the information loss based on the previously chosen evaluation standard.Results show that information loss of professional interpreters is mainly at the semantic level;while that of student interpreters is more likely to be present at the pragmatic level;also,the anxiety of interpreters is proportional to information loss.Survey questionnaire and prompted recall data analysis helps to identify the basic features of information loss.Information processing in cognitive psychology is manipulated to reveal the cognitive causes of information loss.The research findings show that the cognitive structure is the critical element in information loss;anxiety is another major cause for information loss;and retroactive interference can also result in information loss.Prompted recall method(targeted at student interpreters)and semi-structured interview(targeted at one professional interpreter)are carried out to answer the third research question.10 MTI student interpreters from one university finish their self-evaluation report on the mock interpreting,analyzing their own interpreting problems in detail.By analyzing the interview recording and self-evaluation reports,coping techniques utilized by both groups are presented.The self-evaluation focuses on the three aspects of information: faithfulness,accuracy and fluency.Statistics from the research data shows that information loss is almost unavoidable in consecutive interpreting,so interpreters have to resort to information compensation mechanisms naturally.Student interpreters tend to use dominant compensation while professionals are more likely to have the other way round and in less frequency.The Results of self-evaluations and post-interpreting interviews show that both student and professional interpreters have clear expectations related to information loss.But student interpreters tend to use more simple compensation techniques while professionals prefer to trigger their cognitive knowledge coupled with pre-interpreting anticipation,and the techniques used are more flexible.It is found that student interpreters tend to use intentional compensation(wrongcompensation);seasoned interpreters tend to have hidden compensation;interpreting learners tend to have dominant compensation.This dissertation employs information processing theory to explore the information loss and compensation techniques used in consecutive interpreting with the example of English to Chinese consecutive interpreting.Research findings show the features of,and reasons for information loss,and how interpreters compensate.These will prove to be sound extensions of interpreting studies,practice and teaching,serving as an empirical reference.