An Experimental Report On Comprehension Strategies Of Long And Difficult Sentences In English-chinese Consecutive Interpreting

This thesis focuses on the comprehension strategies of long and difficult sentences inEnglish-Chinese consecutive interpreting. An experiment is conducted in the thesis in anattempt to find out the factors. Consequently, comprehension strategies based on thefindings in the experiment can be illustrated.As comprehension is essential to English-Chinese consecutive interpreting,interpreting cannot be accurately done without it. In comprehension, due to the long andhypotactic structure with phrases and clauses, long and difficult sentences in English leavethe interpreters a difficult task in comprehension. However, little attention is paid toanalyzing the comprehension of long and difficult sentences in English-Chinese consecutiveinterpreting.According to Daniel Gile (1995), comprehension in interpreting can be measured byknowledge of language, extra-linguistic knowledge and analysis. Thus, an experiment willbe conducted to find out the affecting factors. Specifically,13undergraduates and13postgraduates are selected as the experiment subjects. They are assigned an English-Chineseinterpreting task, in which6of the undergraduates and postgraduates are informed to havepre-task preparation and7of the undergraduates and postgraduates are informed not to havepre-task preparation. Meanwhile, relevant questionnaires are given to all of the26subjectsand interviews are also carried out on certain subjects. Through the assessment and analysisof the results, it can be concluded that knowledge of language, extra-linguistic knowledgecan affect the comprehension in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting and that measurescan be taken accordingly in order to improve interpreters’ comprehension of long anddifficult sentences.