A Survey Report On Pre-interpreting Preparation

Given the rapid growth of interpreting industry,attention has been drawn on interpreting and interpreters.Despite the booming development,interpreting studies still focus on quality evaluation,skills training,etc.,with few survey and empirical studies on pre-interpreting preparation.Besides,interpreting market in China is in its preliminary stage with intermingled interpreters,resulting in a huge gap between the number of professional interpreters and market demand.Effective pre-interpreting preparation matters a lot before a successful interpreting task and it’s also one of the standards to judge interpreters.Therefore,the survey aims to report interpreters’ pre-interpreting preparation and its effectiveness.This survey focuses on three issues:(1)the contents of pre-interpreting preparation and their importance;(2)time required for pre-interpreting preparation;(3)effectiveness of pre-interpreting preparation.The survey is conducted by questionnaire and semi-structural interviews.Results indicate that(1)interpreters’ priority in pre-interpreting preparation varies greatly;(2)professional interpreters are more satisfied with time provided for pre-interpreting preparation by clients than student interpreters;(3)inexperienced interpreters tend to have less effective preparation before interpreting tasks.As a result,suggestions are put forward which are(1)a more regulated interpreting market;(2)introduction of an effective communicating system;(3)a more overall and in-depth survey,so as to contribute to interpreters as well as interpreting market.