A Comparative Study On Quality Between Consecutive And Simultaneous Interpretations

Consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation are two forms of most popular and widely used interpretation. Consecutive interpretation is mainly applied at press conferences, media briefings and other small meetings while simultaneous interpretation is focused on all kinds of international conferences. These two forms of interpretation have their own features and advantages. Do their features and advantages lead to their application in different situations? Are there any differences on the quality between consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation? If yes, do these differences also lead to their application in different situations?The author gives expression to the their own steps, requirements for the reproduction and capacity required by interpreters of consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation by applying effort model in CI and SI, processing capacity, and sequential model of CI and SI. In addition, experimental research is also applied to answer the above-mentioned questions. The experiment is based on tests on the second year of postgraduates majoring interpretation at Guang Dong University of Foreign Studies. They are divided into two groups randomly. Two speeches are chosen with one spoken by person from English-speaking country on which the subjects have less background knowledge and the other from extract with Chinese characteristics on which the subjects have more background knowledge. One group interpreted consecutively and the other simultaneously. In experiment, cultural background and language proficiency are set as invariables. The key for experiment is to compare and analyze the interpretation produced by subjects. The author adopted quantitative and qualitative analysis for the experimental results. After comparison and analysis for the results, the author draws the following conclusion that there are real differences on quality between consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation. The features of two forms of interpretation and the different requirements for the quality in different situations lead to their applications in different situations.As a by-product, the thesis testifies theories on interpretation and findings of previous studies. As the subjects participating in the experiment are second-year postgraduates majoring in interpretation at GDUFS, the study may shed light on the teaching and training provided by universities and colleges.