An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Simultaneous Interpreting With And Without Text On The Performance Of Student Interpreters

Simultaneous interpreting is frequently used at international conferences.At times interpreters may obtain the speech beforehand for preparation and complete the interpreting task with text at hand.Text reduces cognitive load and takes pressure off interpreters,but also adds complexity to the job.Indeed,the processing capacity and energy allocation requirements trouble interpreting students very often.Regarding the impact of simultaneous interpreting with and without text on students’ interpreting performance,academics vary and more empirical research is awaited.In this context,the study explores how the presence of text impacts the interpreting performance of student interpreters and looks into the reasons behind the differences under the theoretical framework of Gile’s Efforts Model.Sixteen interpreting students were asked to interpret a speech simultaneously with and without text.The experiment results and findings from post-task interviews were used to explain the effects of text.The results find a facilitating effect of text on the overall interpreting quality of student interpreters,particularly on accuracy.Student interpreters having access to text yield a longer ear-voice span（EVS）than those without text.On the other hand,interpreting with text sets higher demands for energy allocation and interpreters are likely to fall behind the speaker,generate pauses in delivery and miss departures from the text.As for the reasons,on the one hand,text lightens listening and memory burdens and avoids cognitive overload,thus reducing interpreting difficulties and allowing interpreters to listen and find proper sentence structures with more time;on the other hand,interpreters with text have to appropriate efforts for concurrent visual and auditory inputs,which is a special challenge for novices.The findings are hoped to add to a growing body of literature on this topic and provide useful insights for interpreting students and teachers.