| The interdisciplinary study between psychology and interpretation has become increasingly popular in the past ten years. Many scholars have intended to explore the different aspects of stress/anxiety and their relation to interpretation, be it the physical symptoms of such anxiety or the causes. However, little research is done on the relationship between anxiety and performance, let alone establishing a parameter for measuring different levels of anxiety. One of the very fundamental studies done is by Kang (2011), who not only managed to prove the existence of different levels of interpretation anxiety, but also uncovered their relative relationship to interpretation performance. Using the interpretation anxiety scale proposed by Kang, the author reexamined this relationship in26interpretation qualification test test-takers. The aim of this paper is to not only confirm Kang’s findings, but also to make a comparison between professional interpreters and novice interpreters in terms of their interpretation anxiety and performance. Further, on the basis of previous studies and with the help of many teachers and dear friends, the author tries to promote a more comprehensive way of measuring the effect of anxiety. The findings of this research are:a. That both high anxiety and low anxiety has negative effect on interpretation performance, medium anxiety has positive effect and interpretation performance; b. interpretation anxiety is related to the students’ number of grammar errors, self repetition and correction, pleasantness of voice as well as overall test score; c. The previous measurement used by Kang has yielded different research results and has proven to be incomprehensive. Compared to Kang’s measurement, the ones used in this study are comparatively more comprehensive and revealing. The author hopes that this case study could shed some light on future explorations of interpretation anxiety, and also provide some pedagogical advice for future interpretation test takers. |
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