An Analysis Of Barriers And Solutions To E-C Consecutive Interpreting From The Perspective Of The Schema Theory

Consecutive interpreting is a very common and very important way of interpreting, it requires the interpreter to perform his task with what he remembers of the speech, with the aid of notes, after the speaker finished a relatively long section of the speech(often 1-3 minutes). A qualified consecutive interpreter should be accurate and fluent in interpreting, swift in response, and decent in performance. There are many factors affecting interpretation, including the interpreter‘s bilingual ability, note-taking skills, speaker‘s speed and whether the interpreter is familiar with the topic. This paper aims to explore, from the perspective of schema theory, factors that affect a consecutive interpreter‘s performance.Schema theory has drawn much attention from the linguistic world. Many people have analyzed, using schema theory, ways to improve people‘s English reading comprehension, listening and writing ability. But by far, not much study has been reported on this topic in terms of barriers from the perspective of schema theory. The author will use schema theory to probe elements affecting consecutive interpretation and ways to improve it by analyzing a first-hand experience of consecutive interpreting.Based on schema theory, this paper analyses the barriers in the consecutive interpreting of the newest series available from the Reith Lecture broadcasted by BBC4, which is the first two sessions of ―Playing to the Gallery‖(the name of the 2013 Reith Lecture series) given by Grayson Perry. While analyzing those barriers, by categorizing them into linguistic schema, formal schema, content schema, the paper also carries out analysis on why these barriers happen as well as comparison between the in-field solutions and future improvement strategy.In the meantime, the author reflects on the shortcomings in interpreting training and reasons for them by analysing the difficulties of sample interpreting, providing measures for improvement under the guidance of schema theory. It also summarizes corresponding strategies to handle such difficulties in consecutive interpreting as reference for routine training.