The Effect Of Extra-linguistic Knowledge On Interpreting Quality

Interpretation itself is a complicated multitasking process in which every procedure can be affected by a number of factors, and extra-linguistic knowledge is one of them. Till now, studies on this aspect, whether domestic or overseas, all demonstrate that extra-linguistic knowledge and interpreting quality are correlated in a positive way, which means a good mastery of extra-linguistic knowledge can improve the interpreting quality in various ways. Therefore, whether the interpreter grasps the background of the source text and to what degree he owns that knowledge impact directly on the interpreter's understanding of the source language, his/her decisions on coping strategy and the final delivery.This paper is an interpreting practice report based on the author's classroom practice. By taking the interpreting task that the author has completed in the classroom as an example, this report first describes the context of the practice, characteristics of the text and the actual interpreting process, so as to analyze both the positive and negative effects of having and lacking extra-linguistic knowledge on interpreting quality:accuracy, language completeness and fluency through these case analyses. In addition to demonstrating the positive role of extra-linguistic knowledge and emphasizing the importance of accumulating extra-linguistic knowledge for interpreters, this report also puts forward some strategies on how to effectively prop up one's mastery of extra-linguistic knowledge and some suggestions on how to brush up on one's active listening ability in order to adapt to different variation of English, which the author hopes can be a reference to other interpreters.