The Role Of Pre-task Preparation In Technical Interpreting

In a technical interpreting task,the biggest challenge an interpreter may encounter is the insufficient background knowledge,which sets higher requirements for interpreters to make pre-task preparation,especially in terms of terminologies,thematic knowledge and the dynamic industrial trends.This report is based on a real interpreting task.Being an interpreter for a company promotion and new battery launch,the interpreter finds that inappropriate expression and loss of information are prominent mistakes she made.The author reverses back to the pre-task preparation and tries to find the role it plays in technical interpreting.She finds that some inappropriate expressions could have been avoided if she had prepared terminologies more flexibly instead of rote learning.The negligence of some industrial knowledge leads to information loss.The interpreter thereby puts forward three strategies—putting the terms in the context,building up thematic knowledge and learning industrial trends—that are helpful in memorizing terminologies more efficiently and accumulate thematic knowledge more comprehensively.Finally,the author summarizes three roles of pre-task preparation,which are glossary expansion,thematic knowledge accumulation and confidence booster.