A Tentative Study On Sports Interpreter's Competence--An Approach Of The Assessment Models Of Interpreting And Interpreter Competence

The twenty-first century has witnessed a process during which globalization exerts its overwhelming impact on nearly every field of human life. Economic globalization, as the fundamental driving force behind the overall globalization trend and its most obvious manifestation, has attracted the attention from countries around the world. At the same time sports, as another indispensable part of human life, has been experiencing the same kind of global integration like the world economy. Take football and basketball—two most welcomed sports in modern times—as the example, hiring foreign players or foreign coaches for a certain team is no longer a new thing. Therefore sports interpreters, who provide interpreting service for foreign players or foreign coaches, just come into being as time requires.This thesis starts from the background of the emergence of sports interpreters, giving a brief introduction about the global integration in the sports world and its situation in China. Then the author points out that sports interpreters, who play the role of a mediator of language and culture, have something in common with conference interpreters or escort interpreters, etc.. However, sports interpretation has its unique characteristics. The author engages much of her attention to analyze the uniqueness of sports interpretation.Given to its particularities, certain competences and qualities are needed in order to be a professional sports interpreter. This thesis tries to analyze the qualities needed for a sports interpreter by applying the assessment models of interpreting and interpreter competence theory proposed by Wang Binhua (2007:3). With her observation and interviewing of certain sports interpreters, the author points out with examples that language proficiency, knowledge, interpreting skills, psychological qualities, physiological qualities and professional qualities are necessary for sports interpreters.The development of interpretation has been pushing forward by social progress and the global democratization. Now it enjoys a high social status as a profession and gains more and more attention from the academic world. Yet sports interpretation, as an inevitable product of interpretation specialization, has seldom, if not never, become the subject of interpretation research. By writing this thesis, the author hopes to win some attention from the academic world for sports interpretation and provide some references for those who want to be professional sports interpreters in the future.