The Influence Of Note-taking On CI Performance An Experiment Report

Note-taking is a very important skill in consecutive interpreting. In CI it almoststands no chance for an interpreter to memorize all the information without theassistance of notes. Notes are the extension and supplement of interpreter’s memory.If the notes are taken properly, it can greatly relieve interpreter’s memory burden andreduce the energy consumed in memorizing, which then improves the efficiency andguarantees the quality of interpreting making it more accurate and complete. On thecontrary, if the notes are not taken properly or if the interpreter does not know thecorrect way of taking notes, instead of a memory trigger, the notes will becomeinterference affecting the interpreter’s understanding of the original speech and theprecision in his or her production process. Based on this, the purpose of this paper isto explore to what extent the notes influence the performance of CI performancethrough a practical experiment and then put forward some improvement strategies soas to help the interpreter achieve a good interpreting performance.The subjects of the experiment are all second grade MTI students. Theexperiment is carried out in a multimedia language lab where they are all recorded inthe process of interpreting a speech after which their notes are also collected. Then byusing methodologies in descriptive statistics, the author conducts a qualitative andquantitative analysis to the experimental data through graphics, figures, explanationsand other ways. Then the author gets a conclusion about the influence of note-takingon CI performance which proves the hypotheses put forward before and then theauthor gives some improving suggestions on how to take notes properly.The theoretical foundations of this thesis are based on Daniel Gile’s effort modeland Paris School’s interpretative theory and deverbalization. The experiment testifiesto Gile’s effort model on how to allocate the energy properly in the process of CI, andParis School’s interpretative theory and deverbalization give the author someenlightenment on the principles of note-taking in CI.