Application Of Schema To The Process Of Simultaneous Interpretation

Schema,originated from cognitive psychology,refers to a mental framework or outline that functions as a kind of vague standard that arises out of the past experience, growing and differentiating throughout childhood,and places new experience in the appropriate context and relation.Schema theory,since firstly proposed in 1932,has passed from psychology,through artificial intelligence,and into language learning. Over the past two decades,quite a number of studies have probed the relations between schema theory and the second language acquisition including listening and reading comprehension,and have generated fruitful findings.Though different in forms,a conclusion is drawn out by these various researches that background knowledge plays a vital part in listening and reading comprehension,language defects can be made up by the ability to activate corresponding schemata.Inspired by this,the author takes a bold step to apply schema into interpretation,or rather,simultaneous interpretation.This study first gives an overview of schema theory through the definition and features of schema,and two modes of information processing based on schema theory.Then with enlightenment from Daniel Gile's Effort Model,the author steps into three sequential parts of simultaneous interpretation, namely listening comprehension,working memory and production,with detailed introduction to four kinds of schemata involved in the process of simultaneous interpretation.After exploring the role of schemata playing in the different stage of simultaneous interpretation,the author discovers that according to schema theory, when new information is inputting,the background knowledge already stored as various schemata or sub-schemata in one's mind will be activated throughout the whole process of listening comprehension to facilitate the understanding and encoding of the original message,avoid ambiguities and anticipate the upcoming development of utterances in source language;while in the process of memorization,schemata provide reference to retrieve information,assisting recall of the information from the interpreter's permanent memory and contributing to the interpreter's inferential elaboration;finally in the process of production,schemata supports the formulation of grammatically correct and contextually accurate target language.To sum up,schema plays a positive role in the improvement of listening comprehension,memory and production in simultaneous interpretation.It is also the author's hope that this study could be some help and reference to the current interpretation training programs.