Developing Communicative Competence: A Study Of The Fratures Of Government Press Conference And Competences Of Its Interpreters

China’s further intensification in reform and opening up and rising status in theinternational arena has attracted the world’s eye not only on her economic development,but also on issues concerning social construction, people’s well-being, human rights, etc.The Government Press Conferences (PCs) held between the National People’s Congress(NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) each year istherefore considered an optimal stage for foreign press to learn more about these issuesfrom the state leadership. Given its diplomatic and political features, PCs can fairly becategorized into an act of intercultural communication with special purposes, thusrequiring not only language ability and interpreting skills, but also special techniques inintercultural communication of its interpreters.This paper approaches PC interpreting from the perspective of Communicative LanguageCompetence in Language Testing. It begins by taking a look at previous research onCommunicative Language Competence, interpreters’ competence, and PC interpreting, inlight of which the author conducts a discourse analysis on PCs. Based on the aboveanalysis, the author then concludes several features on PC interpreting, after which atentative formula of PC interpreter’s communicative competence was proposed. The authorthen cited various examples in PC interpreting to see exactly how the interpreter exploitedthese competences to handle difficult situations, adding up to the eloquence of theconclusion of this paper.The methodology of this paper falls into the category of qualitative research based on dataanalysis. It concludes that to completely fulfill the role of a Press Conference interpreter,one should develop language competence, communicative competence, political qualityand professional competence. Besides, given its timeliness, political seriousness andreal-life cruelty, PC interpreting online videos are generally regarded the most preferredmaterial for interpreting learners. By studying PC interpreting from an unconventionalperspective, the author hopes to draw the learners’ attention to interpreters’ communicative competence in actual interpreting practices.