A Study Of The Functions And Roles Of Note-Taking In E-C Consecutive Interpreting

Consecutive interpreting is one of the two major modes of conference interpreting and an indispensable part of the teaching curriculum and accreditation test of most formal interpreting programs.However,literature review identifies consecutive interpreting as a much under-researched subject compared with simultaneous interpreting.Among the relatively small number of scholarly discussions on consecutive interpreting,note-taking is one of the most regularly addressed topics,though regrettably few of the studies pertain to the functions and roles of note-taking and even fewer are empirically based.Hoping to do justice to note-taking whose significance to successful consecutive interpreting is often under-valued,this study attempts to offer a scientifically sound description and explanation of the functions of note-taking and the roles it plays in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting.Research questions are raised on the basis of literature review and the observation of interpreting as an educational program and as professtional practice.The questions are three fold.Firstly,do notes serve as external storage of information?If they do,to what extent the information stored in notes and in memory overlap?Are there any regularities where no overlap is found?Secondly,do notes trigger memory?What are the features of those that do trigger memory and their relations to the quality of interpretation?Why do some notes fail to do so?Thirdly,can note-taking help deepen interpreters' understanding of souce messages and how?The study draws on the theoretical framework and instrument of multiple disciplines,including depth of processing hypothesis,long-term working memory mechanism,relevance theory and the New-the Given structure in functional linguistics.Quasi-experiment and survey are used as main research methods,whose results are triangulated against each other.Inspired by the method of subtraction often adopted in cognitive psychology,the author has designed a quasi-experiment that compares classic consecutive interpreting with two intentionally created processes/tasks:1)consecutive interpreting without notes in either of the two phases,and 2)consecutive interpreting with notes in the listening phase and without notes in the production phase.The use of digital pen has enabled the otherwise painstaking data collection to be more time-and energy-efficient.The study has found that notes function as external storage of information and trigger of interpreters' memory.There is also evidence showing that note-taking helps to some degree deepen interpreters' understanding of source messages.Questions related to the functions and roles of note-taking have also been answered.For example,the information stored in notes and in memory overlap to a great extent;regularities are found where there is no overlap;the participants in the experiment tend to have a preference for language in particular their mother tongue to take down notes;the number of notes varies greatly from participant to participant;the quality of interpretation tends to improve with the increase of the number of notes,the increase of the percentage of symbols and the decrease of the percentage of language;some notes fail to trigger memory for a number of reasons,e.g.lack of understanding or misunderstanding of source messages,insufficient notes,or strategies adopted in production;the participants give more efforts to process unrecoverable new information in the phase of listening and analysis.Many of the findings have pedagogical relevance,offering recommendations and empirical basis for teaching consecutive interpreting and note-taking.Despite the limitations on sampling,directionality,speech variety and hence the generalization of the conclusions,the study also provides directions and references for future endeavours to uncover more pieces of the puzzle of note-taking.