Compensatory Strategies In Handling Lexical Difficulties In The Chinese-English Interpretation In The Oral Test Of TEM8

The purpose of the current study is to find out how students used compensatory strategies in the Chinese-English interpretation in the oral test of TEM8and what the differences were among high, average, and low achievers in terms of compensatory strategy use.There were60participants in total. Forty-seven of them were senior English majors from Henan University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and Nanjing University. The other13were junior English majors from Nanjing University. The47students took the oral test of TEM8in2009. The13students from Nanjing University attended a simulated oral test, organized by the researcher, of TEM8in2011. After the test, they participated in the retrospective interviews.The researcher identified and analyzed compensatory strategies under the guidance of existing taxonomies and participants’retrospective data. The results are as follows:First, when faced with lexical difficulties, students used compensatory strategies. They resorted to both conceptual strategies that analyze the intended concept to compensate for a missing word or phrase and linguistic strategies that manipulate the language so as to come as close as possible to expressing their original intention. Conceptual strategies were more popular.Second, high, average, and low achievers had differences in compensatory strategy use. Students used almost the same categories of compensatory strategies, but the proportion varied. High achievers used the least compensatory strategies per capita while low achievers the most. Such contrast indicates that proficiency influences compensatory strategy use. As for the use of the two sub-categories of compensatory strategies, high, average, and low achievers showed differences. Average and high achievers adopted conceptual strategies more frequently and linguistic strategies less frequently.The current study has theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications. Theoretically, it has developed a new taxonomy that specifically addresses strategies to handle lexical difficulties in the context of TEM8Chinese-English interpretation. Methodologically, it combines quantitative data with qualitative data. Pedagogically, it can guide both the teaching and the learning of interpretation, especially the Chinese-English interpretation in the oral test of TEM8.