Language Choice In Note-taking Of Chinese MTI Students For Consecutive Interpreting

As Helle Dam proposed in his2004publication in Interpreting,“the choice oflanguage in note-taking is governed mainly by the status of the language in theinterpreters’s language combination, i.e. whether it is an A-or a B-language, andmuch less by its status in the interpreting task, i.e. whether it functions as the sourceor the target language”, and interpetors are more likely to use easier and quikerlanguage which helps to save processing capacity, that is their mother tongue and thesource language. Based on Helle’s proposal, this thesis focuses on the language choiceof note-taking in consecutive interpreting of Chinese MTI (Master of Translating andInterpreting) students, of which five in their second year are picked. Interpretationrecording, questionnaire and open interviews are used to collect data. It is found thatHelle’s proposal is not fully supported in this empirical study. Rather, the note-takinghabit formed in their daily interpreting exercises plays the major part in the choice oflanguage in note-taking. Except for a slight preference for A-and source language,almost all the interpretors show a balanced usage of different languages.