On The Influence Of Translation Unit On Chinese-English Consecutive Interpreting For Impromptu Speech-from The Perspective Of The Interpretive Theory

As China furthers its engagement with the international community, impromptu speech has become a key form of communication. When this form of speech is consecutively interpreted, the choice of translation unit holds sway of the quality of interpreting. Therefore, translation unit has become a magnet for scholars in this field including those who propose the interpretive theory. The interpretive theory, which comes from the practice of interpreting and translation, is more operative and feasible in choosing translation unit. Therefore, the author works, with the guidance of this theory, to carry out an experiment in which eight interpreters are involved in the consecutive interpreting of a Chinese impromptu speech. After the interpreting, they fill in a questionnaire about the difficulties they face, the tactics they employ, and the translation unit they choose. The author then conducts quantitative and qualitative analyses on the result of their interpreting and questionnaires. The finding of the analyses has proved that the quality of the consecutive interpreting of Chinese impromptu speech will be higher if the interpreter use unit of sense, rather than isolated sentence as translation unit. There is a positive correlation between the use of unit of sense and the quality of interpreting.