The Role Of Liaison Interpreters:A Case Study

This thesis centers on the roles that the author as an interpreter played in business liaison interpreting tasks.Liaison interpreting,taking place in different social settings of business,medical assistance and tourism,is a form of consecutive interpreting,but it is different from conference consecutive interpreting.In liaison interpreting,the participants talk face to face and the turn-taking time is usually shorter than that of conference consecutive interpreting.Compared with conference consecutive interpreters,liaison interpreters are more flexible to adjust their interpreting behaviors to the needs of the participants involved in their interpreting tasks.More importantly,liaison interpreters play multiple roles in their interpreting tasks.This report aims to illustrate the roles of a liaison interpreter as an information transmitter,a cultural mediator,a conversation participant and a personal assistant.Through reflecting on and analyzing her performances,the author has attained a better understanding of such a range of roles,which will be able to provide a clearer direction for the author to follow in her future work.In this report,the author also aims to provide valuable suggestions for other liaison interpreters by introducing the tasks she undertook,illustrating the roles she played and summarizing her findings and implications so that interpreters in their liaison interpreting tasks can present better performances.