On The Assisting Role Of Speech Recognition Technology In Consecutive Interpreting

This dissertation aims to study the assisting role of speech recognition technology in consecutive interpreting. Two major empirical studies are included:the first one takes Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking as a case study and focuses on its accuracy rate while dealing with speeches of different types, accents and speed. In the second empirical study, ten students in their second grades majoring in English interpreting have been selected as subjects to take part in several consecutive interpreting tasks and fill in relevant questionnaires. This part of study attempts to explore interpreter's performance with the assistance of speech recognition software and how this technology assist interpreting. According to the research data, the accuracy rate of Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking reaches over95%. Strong accents and fast speed are major challenges for speech recognition.And it is clear shown that subjects perform better with the assistance of speech recognition technology during the process of consecutive interpreting. However,misrecognition might influence the quality to a large extent. Therefore, speech recognition technology can be applied to assist consecutive interpreting, but to promote speech recognition software in a large scale, developers have to promote its accuracy rate further.