Exploring Interfaces Between Interpreting Competence And Performance

Since the 1990s, the concepts of "translation competence", "translator competence", "interpretation competence" and "interpreter competence" have been frequently referred to in the literature. On the basis of these concepts, this program/thesis hypothesizes the possible interface between interpreting competence and interpreting performance to the extent that there are a variety of various interfaces that serve as a bridge linking up internal "interpreter competence" with external "interpreting performance". These interfaces may have mediating effects on interpreting performance in different aspects, such as bilingual proficiency, interpreting competence, encyclopedic knowledge and psychological and physiological qualities, among which, the interpreting competence is composed of transforming abilities and skills required in actual interpreting. In consecutive interpretation, such external representations as working memory and interpreting note can be considered as an important indication to internal transforming mechanism between interpreting competence and performance, and they coordinate with each other and may produce bring-about effects on interpreting performance in the process of consecutive interpretation.Admittedly, there have been a few empirical studies on correlations between note-taking and interpreting performance in consecutive interpretation, but few on the correlations between working memory and performance. Given that there are likely to be interactions between the two sub-interfaces, this thesis seeks to examine the correlation between interfaces and interpreting performance with a primary focus on the role of note-taking and working memory in the sub-interfaces. The designed experiment, questionnaires and interviews are intended to find out the correlations of note-taking and working memory, if any, to interpreting performance. The chosen subjects were English majors’ sophomores and MTI students.The theoretical analysis suggests that the correlation between working memory and note taking is represented in different situations. Note-taking can be active and passive. Thereby, a positive correlation among interpreting interfaces may presumably become a strong interface; a negative correlation may become a week one while an uncertain correlation may become a dynamic interface.Data analysis helps to reach the following conclusions:1) Working memory is represented as a strong interface to interpreting performance. The percentages of target language, abbreviations and symbols in interpreting notes are also correlated as strong interfaces to interpreting performance.2) Working memory and the quantity of note is correlated as a dynamic interface to the (?) quantity of notes and the percentage of symbols in notes.3) The percentages of verbs, adjectives in interpreting notes are represented as weak interfaces to interpreting performance.This study has sorted out the complicated correlations among all the interfaces in transforming from interpreters’competence to performance, which may serve as a guide to both interpreting course teaching and interpreting practice.