A Case Study On Interpreting Anxiety Of Master Of Translation And Interpreting(MTI) Students

Interpretation as an important skill of foreign language learning has been a research highlight since 1950 s,and studies on interpreters’ psychological conditions started to increase since 1990 s,among which the role of anxiety in interpretation performance has long been a research focus for researchers.Nevertheless,no consensus has been reached on whether interpreting anxiety affects interpreters’ performance negatively or positively,and research on what strategies are employed by interpreters to self-regulate their interpreting anxiety is rather limited.On the other hand,the current flourishing of MTI(Master of Translation and Interpreting)programs in China again leads to the need to explore into the issue of interpreting anxiety of MTI students.The present study aims to probe into the interpreting anxiety of MTI students,its correlations with interpreting proficiency and the strategies they use to regulate the anxiety.To investigate the research questions,a mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative research is adopted.Methods of data collection include questionnaire,open observation and semi-structured interview.Quantitative and qualitative data are respectively analyzed using SPSS 19.0(descriptive analysis and correlation analysis)and grounded theory.The following findings are drawn in the present study: firstly,interpreting anxiety of MTI students is slightly higher than the medium level.Secondly,there exists a negative correlation between overall interpreting anxiety and interpreting proficiency,and between high-level interpreting anxiety and interpreting proficiency.Thirdly,eight major causes are found to contribute to interpreting anxiety,and accordingly seven different self-regulated strategies are utilized by participants to deal with it.The present study has implications for administrators and teachers of MTI programs and is hopeful to help them optimize the design of syllabus and make adjustments to their teaching methods.Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.