Impact Of Non-native English Speaker’s Accent On Simultaneous Interpretation And Coping Strategies

This thesis is guided by three concentric circle theories of Kachru and Effort Model of Daniel Gile, by using empirical research to prove that accent is the problem trigger in English to Chinese simultaneous interpretation, and leads to failure sequence finally. Thus, SI quality is heavily affected. The enlightenment from effect on SI training is discussed further.In the theoretical part, the paper introduces Kachru’s three concentric circle theories, definition of accents and Effort Model of Daniel Gile to describe the working process of SI and provide theoretical support for failure sequence due to accent.In the empirical research, the author proves accent’s weight on interpretation quality through quantitative and qualitative analysis, and different tackling strategies are suggested to be taken. Experimental subjects were divided into groups, which is group with accent and group without accent to show the heavy accent’s impact on interpretation. The content of experimental material is consistent. However, the material used by group A is a speech recorded by Bruno Cautres, the professor of Sciences Po, with a strong French accent. Group B’s is Standard English spoken by Paul Saunders. Both records last about12minutes. In quantitative research, the author compiles scores of the overall interpretation quality, the weight of accent on output of interpreters and the failure sequence it lead to. In the qualitative part, the author further analyzes relationship between accent and the energy distribution, failure sequence and overall quality of interpretation.Through comparison analysis, the author concludes that accent has impact on SI quality. If the interpreters strengthen accented English listening training during the routine practice and take flexible strategies in line with the interpretation task, the failure sequence could be reduced and thus, the interpretation quality will be greatly improved.