Quality Of Chinese To English Interpreting In Diplomatic Conferences In The Eyes Of Chinese Trainee Interpreters And English Native Speakers

Users’ perspectives are always highlighted in the assessment of interpreting quality. User groups consist of speakers, audience, conference organizers and other relevant parties, among whom the audience is the major target population of interpreting activities. Thus, audience’s perspectives on interpreting performance have played a very significant role in the assessment of interpreting quality. In the process of interpreting A language to B language, linguistic and cultural differences may cause translating barriers for interpreters and information-receiving asymmetry for the audience. In Chinese to English interpreting, English native speakers account for a large proportion of the audience group. Due to differences in Chinese and English syntax structures and cultural backgrounds between China and western countries, English native speakers may perceive the interpreting quality differently from Chinese interpreters. Among varied categories of conferences, diplomatic conference shares its particularity on culture, language and speech delivery. Therefore, this thesis will compare Chinese interpreters’ and English native speakers’ evaluations of a simultaneous interpreting for President Xi’s keynote speech in Boao Forum of Asia through surveys and interviews. The data will be collected and analyzed. Both practical and pedagogical suggestions will be proposed in order to improve the quality of Chinese to English interpreting. This thesis consists of five chapters, which are illustrated as follows:Chapter One is Introduction, which introduces the concepts related to interpreting quality assessment, including the definition of quality, the standards of interpreting quality and users’ perspectives. Besides, the research questions are proposed in this section.Chapter Two is Literature Review, which reviews the previous research on the assessment of interpreting quality and the role of users’ perspectives in such assessment both in and outside China. Previous studies enlighten the author to undertake this research which will enrich the existing theories and findings in this field.Chapter Three is Methodological Approaches. Related methodological approaches, participants, materials, and the software adopted to analyze statistics are illustrated in this section.Chapter Four is Results and Discussion. Data have been collected and analyzed by the professional statistical package. The comparison is made between the evaluations of Chinese trainee interpreters and English native speakers.Chapter Five is Conclusion. The argument has been restated and the limitations of this research have been explained in this part. The practical, pedagogical and pragmatic significance of the research will be highlighted.