The Influence Of Source Language's Speed Change On The Performance Of Student Interpreters

The report is based on an experiment conducted by the author to explore the effect of source language's speed change on the performance of student interpreters in the process of English to Chinese simultaneous interpreting with manuscripts.Based on the Effort Model proposed by Daniel Gile,this study selected 15 MTI students as subjects,who are from a foreign studies university in Northeast China.Their first language is Chinese,and their foreign language is English.In addition,the author uses the speech The Era of Open Innovation given by Charles Leadbeater as the source language,and uses a software called KMplayer as the speed converter,which is used to change the speed of the first half of the source language speech into 90 words per minute,and the second half into 130 words per minute.Then,the author records the results of this experiment.By comparing the interpreting performances of the subjects,together with the interview and the stimulated recall,the author uses quantitative descriptions as well as qualitative analyses,aiming to study the following three questions:(1)In the process of English to Chinese simultaneous interpreting with manuscripts,does the change of source language's speed affect the performances of student interpreters?(2)If there is an impact,what is the specific manifestation of the impact?(3)What is the reason for this effect?As a result,the experiment shows that firstly,in the process of English to Chinese simultaneous interpreting with manuscripts,the source language's speed change can exert an influence on the performance of student interpreters.Secondly,the manifestation of this impact is that with the acceleration of source language's speed,there will be an increase in the number of mistranslations and omissions of student interpreters in the process of interpreting,bringing about the decline in the interpreting quality.Finally,the reasons for this impact are as follows.On one hand,if the source language's speed is accelerated,the amount of information received by student interpreters in a certain time will increase,resulting in an increase in the burden of listening and analysis,reading and short-term memory.Therefore,the number of mistranslations and omissions will increase accordingly,resulting in a corresponding decline in the quality of their interpretations.On the other hand,if the source language is sped up,the number and types of interpreting strategies used by student interpreters will both decrease,which also leads to a decline in their interpreting performances.To sum up,this experiment uses combined methods,namely experiment,interview and stimulated recall,to illustrate that during the process of simultaneous interpreting from English to Chinese with manuscripts,if the speed of source language is accelerated,the interpretation quality of student interpreters will be declining.It is worth noting that the use of comprehensive experimental methods has achieved triangular verifications,which can effectively ensure the accuracy as well as the persuasiveness of the experiment,and provide references for interpretation teachings,practices,researches,together with the compilation of interpretation textbooks.