Iflytek Speech Recognition’s Influence On Note-taking In English-Chinese Consecutive Interpreting

Over the recent years,automatic speech recognition and other artificial intelligence technologies have been gaining exposure,disrupting the conventional ways of finishing certain tasks,like what the prevalence of the Internet have done since thirty years ago or so.Therefore,people are motivated to adapt to the evolving technology and enhance their efficiency.As a profession that requires intensive brain work,interpreting can be a pilot to introduce automatic speech recognition.Compared with simultaneous interpreting,consecutive interpreting is less demanding in instantaneity,and thus provides ample time for interpreters to take in the information.However,at the same time,the short term memory of interpreters may be challenged by huge information load.For interpreters whose native language is Chinese,interpreting from English into Chinese accords with the international practice.In addition,the recognition,processing and store of English information may require much more efforts from them than Chinese information.Therefore,this research tests the introduction of automatic speech recognition technology in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting to address the common need of interpreters.Currently,the majority of leading automatic speech recognition products both from home and abroad have the capacity of accurately processing more than 90%of the content,and Iflytek has even exceeded an amazing accuracy rate of 98%,That is a strong evidence to back the use of Iflytek as a potential aid to English-Chinese consecutive interpreting to reduce the burden for taking notes and improve the output.Nine advanced interpreting learners from BFSU who have obtained the CATTI Level II certificate participated in the experiment with a simulative automatic speech recognition system based on the actual recognition generated by Iflytek.The results show that with the speech recognition screen,the participants tend to reduce the contents written in their notes.The preference of symbols over language units and complete language units over segmental ones are observed.It remains unclear whether the technology has influenced the interpreters’ favor of Chinese or English language units when taking notes.In the interview conducted afterwards,all nine interpreters were aware that they had changed their way of note taking to some extent and witnessed a prominent improvement in terms of interpreting accuracy.They also agreed that the automatic speech recognition technology was helpful in English-Chinese consecutive interpreting.It is believed by the participants and the researcher that given more time,especially after the simulative system are further developed to commercialization,it can be utilized to improve the working conditions and the performance of interpreters.