Exploring The Main Factors Affecting Novice Interpreters' Note-taking Quality In Consecutive Interpreting Based On Cognitive Processing Model

Note-taking plays a significant role in the whole consecutive interpreting,as it can help interpreters to memorize important source information.Therefore,it is a necessary skill for interpreting learners.However,through interviewing interpreting learners,the author found most of them had problems in taking notes.Therefore,with the foundation of the cognitive process of consecutive interpreting,the main factors influencing the quality of notes are explored in three consecutive interpreting phases through the empirical study and questionnaire survey.The author hopes this study can put forward some suggestions for note-taking teaching and offer some practical help for interpreting learners.Based on cognitive processing model and Gile's effort model,two experiments were designed to try to answer two questions,namely,what the main factors affecting novice interpreters' note-taking quality are in C-E consecutive interpreting;what the main factors are in E-C consecutive interpreting.Forty graduate students,majoring in English translation,were chosen as the experimental subjects and were invited to interpret the two different Chinese and English materials into target language in a consecutive manner respectively,after which each subject filled the questionnaire.Through analyzing the experiment and questionnaire data,the author came to the following results.For C-E consecutive interpreting,the main factors are unfamiliarity with the source topic and intensive source information in the phase of information input.Imbalanced attention distribution between taking notes and working memory and failure to use note symbols are the main factors in the phase of taking notes.As for the phase of reading notes,the main factors are difficulties in note identification and note structure.For E-C consecutive interpreting,listening comprehension and intensive information are the main factors in the phase of source information input.For the phase of taking notes,the main factors are imbalanced attention distribution between taking notes and working memory and note-taking language selection.In the phase of reading notes,most of the subjects have difficulties in note identification and taking notes with reasonable structure.Finally,the author summed up several basic reasons for these factors,insufficient bilingual and non-linguistic background knowledge,imbalanced effort allocation,unreasonable and confusing note-taking structure and poor listening comprehension.According to the experimental results,the author believes listening comprehension should be trained specially to ensure complete source information in the process of note-taking skill training.Strict training on correct,clear and simple interpreting note-taking structure helps novice interpreters comb source information's logic clearly and identify notes quickly and accurately so as to improve note's quality.Besides training these necessary interpreting skills,interpreting learners also should expand their own non-linguistic background knowledge.