A Report On The Consecutive Interpreting For A Musical Semiotics Forum

This report describes the author’s consecutive interpreting for a lecture by Prof.Tarasti at a Musical Semiotics Forum.Prof.Tarasti is a renowned expert in musical semiotics,who was invited to deliver a lecture on his latest findings at the Forum.This Forum was a professional exchange between scholars of similar research interests.Hence,as a non-musical professional,effective preparation to gain topic-specific knowledge was extremely necessary for such an interpretation.After a background review of the task,the author plans her task preparation,which involves extensive reading,building parallel texts on the topic,and communicating with the speaker.After reviewing the interpreting process,the author discovers that her interpreting quality was consistent and that existing topical knowledge plays a critical role in the overall interpreting performance.Such a finding corroborates with schema theory,which recognizes the critical link between existing schemata and comprehension.As comprehension is one of the complex cognitive processes in consecutive interpreting,the author decides to put her interpreting into study under schema theory.The report then chooses low-quality renditions and high-quality renditions by comparing the background schemata of SL and those of TL,to probe into the role of effective preparation.The report concludes that for similar interpreting assignments,efficient and effective advance preparation is needed,which can help improve interpreting quality.