An Experiment Report On Omission In Chinese-English Consecutive Interpretation

Consecutive interpreting,as a type of interpreting activity,is widely used in press conferences,negotiations,interviews and speeches.In Chinese-English consecutive interpreting,whether an interpreter can reproduce complete information of the source language will greatly affect the quality and effect of information transfer.If the output is incomplete,it not only affects the comprehension of the listeners,but also affects the reputation of the interpreter.The phenomenon of omission is almost universal in interpreting learners.Therefore,it is of practical significance to study the phenomenon of omission.Professor Daniel Gile from France created the Effort Model of consecutive interpretation using cognitive psychology,and proposed that consecutive interpretation contains two phases,namely the listening and note-taking phase and the speech production phase.Listening and note-taking phase involves the Listening and Analysis Effort,the Note-taking Effort,the Short-term Memory Effort,and the Coordination Effort.The speech production phase is composed of the Remembering Effort,the Note-reading Effort,and the Production Effort.Because the performance in phase two is greatly influenced by the four Efforts in phase one,and it’s difficult to measure and evaluate one’s coordination conditions.In addition,the interpreter may have production problems due to insufficient language competence.Therefore,the author deems that omission in consecutive interpretation mainly involves four Efforts:the Listening and Analysis Effort,the Note-taking Effort,the Short-term Memory Effort and the Production Effort.The experiment is intended to find out the types and causes of omissions in the subjects’ Chinese-English interpretation.Corresponding strategies are also provided to help interpreting learners reduce omissions.The thesis is an experiment report.The author selected the 13 postgraduate English interpreting majors of Class of 2018 from Shaanxi Normal University as subjects,and invited them to do a consecutive Chinese-English interpretation of the 8 minutes’ contents of the Chinese speech by foreign minister Wang Yi at the 2014 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in a language laboratory.Before interpreting began,they were given questionnaires which investigate the causes of their omissions.They were asked to take down notes on the other side of their questionnaires.After their interpreting was recorded,they filled in the questionnaires.After the experiment,the author transcribed the 13 recordings,discovered and classified their omissions,and analyzed the specific causes according to the results of the questionnaires,transcripts and the subjects’notes.Results indicate that their omissions include time,logical connective,coordinate component,modifier,the modified,proper noun,technical term,and short sentence.Listening and analysis problems,poor note-taking skills,unfavorable short-term memory,and production problem are summarized as the four major causes of omissions in their C-E consecutive interpretation.Listening and analysis problems include lack of attention to the logic of the source speech,and the difficulty in comprehending technical terms.Poor note-taking skills include taking down too much information,poor handwriting,illogical presentation of notes,unsystematic note symbols and abbreviations.Based on relevant literature and the author’s own interpreting learning experience,the author puts forward respective strategies for each cause,so as to guide interpreting learners to reduce omissions in classroom exercises and extracurricular practices,and improve the quality of Chinese-English consecutive interpretation.