On The Testing Design Of Simultaneous Interpretation For MTI Students

Language testing has a crucial role to play in the teaching of language. It can help get to know the students’ mastery of knowledge and ability of language usage. As a form of interpretation, simultaneous interpretation involves at least two languages. Because of this, simultaneous interpretation testing falls into the category of language testing. This paper introduces the various definitions of simultaneous interpretation, given by a couple of scholars, as well as its attributes, reviews the evolution of language testing. A brief introduction of the four phases of language testing, the development of theories in the four phases, the representatives and the theoretic frameworks are also presented. This paper is dedicated to the study of simultaneous interpretation test and attempts to find out some criteria in light of material selection. The study is conducted by way of an empirical experiment. The author conducted an empirical experiment with the help of 25 graduate students who are in their second year and are pursuing a master’s degree in interpretation. After the experiment, the subjects were asked to finish a questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to collect information about the subjects’ opinions on the materials, two speeches given by President Xi Jinping and Secretary of State, John Kerry, used in the empirical experiment. Through analysis of the retrieved questionnaire, the author summarizes the precarious links in designing a simultaneous interpretation test. Built on the theories and language testing frameworks proposed by previous researchers and theories, it is hoped that some kind of practical and workable criteria in light of simultaneous interpretation test design can be obtained.