Causes Of Improper Pauses In Spanish-chinese Consecutive Interpretation And Its Coping Strategies

In the process of consecutive interpretation,the improper pauses of the target language are the most direct reflect of the output fluency,which have reduced interpreting quality,showing a negative performance of the interpreter.This paper takes as a case the mock conference entitled the"21^st General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization"in order to analyze the causes of improper pauses in the consecutive interpretation from Spanish into Chinese,and to explore strategies to effectively reduce or avoid those improper pauses.In this paper,silent pauses over 2 seconds and filled pauses over 0.3 seconds are considered improper pauses.Based on data analysis,it can be found that improper silent pauses usually appear"after the speaker ends,before the interpreter begins",mainly due to notes-recalling,not controlling well the time;improper filled pauses are presented like um,ah,and eh.It also shows that there are obvious prolongations of syllables behind words such as"de"???,"le"???,"y?u"???,"nénggòu"????,which have affected the flow of speech.By looking back on the reasons for improper pauses,it is possible to summarize the following six points:listening and analysis,notes,language-organizing and self-repair,use of strategies,psychological stress and others.Among them,improper pauses caused by language-organizing and self-repair have the highest frequency,and the average pause time of reading notes is the longest.In response to these related causes,the author has offered three coping strategies:strengthen bilingual input,optimize the notes system and enhance public speaking skills,with the purpose of making better the interpreter's performance as well as the quality of the interpretation.