An Empirical Study Of The Functions Of Note-taking In Chinese-English Consecutive Interpreting And Its Implications For Self-training

The process of interpreting could be divided into three stages: informationformulating, information processing and information producing. This thesis starts with theEffort Model developed by Daniel Gile and introduces Liu Minhua to explore the functionsof note-taking at different stages of consecutive interpreting. The empirical study took10trainee students as subjects and they were assigned simulated interpreting task. Stimulatedrecall and questionnaire were taken as instruments to collect data. The study probed intothe features of the study, the difficulties and interpreters’ self-perception about the processand note-taking functions.The study finds that layout, quantity of symbols and choices of language have a greatimpact on interpreters’ performance. The results show that the difficulties in note-taking inseveral aspects: lack of logic, the large amount of information, illegibility of notes,ambiguity of notes, strong dependence on memory and interference from habitual thinking.Besides, interpreters’ perception of their note-taking behaviour and its function wasunclear.In the end, the author rethinks note-taking’s funtions and proposes principles andsteps for self-training. This study will have implications on future study of note-taking inChinese-English interpreting and trigger more feasible suggestions on the improvement ofnote-taking skills.