Causes Of Listening Comprehension Barriers In English-Chinese Consecutive Interpreting And Coping Strategies

In consecutive interpreting,listening comprehension is a very important step.Listening comprehension directly decides the information amount and accuracy of the source language,so it affects the overall interpreting quality.This paper uses Joseph Nye's speech at Oxford Union as the mock meeting.The review of the case helps sort out the interpreting problems.With further analysis,almost all the problems are related to listening comprehension.Listening comprehension barriers are common yet have various causes.This thesis divides the causes into linguistic reasons and non-linguistic ones.Linguistic causes refer to the inefficient analysis of long and complex sentences as well as the lack of effective methods for unfamiliar words.Non-linguistic causes include the inadequacy of background knowledge,the ineffective prejudgement and psychological factors.Therefore,the paper puts forward the coping strategies accordingly.Interpreters should keep learning in daily life and make good preparations before interpreting.For long and complex sentences,interpreters should distinguish between major and minor information.For new words,it could be feasible to guess from the context or the root.Appropriate prejudgement can also be helpful for listening comprehension.Besides,to keep calm and stable is another key element for interpreters.It is hoped that this case study will provide some guidance for future practices,reduce similar problems and improve interpreting performance.