The Effects Of Text On Trainees’ Performance In English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting Of Fast Speeches

The effect of text on simultaneous interpreting(SI)performance has been a subject of interest for researchers for a long time.However,there is a lack of consensus in their findings,necessitating further empirical investigation,particularly when source language input variables change.High speech rate is recognized as a significant challenge in SI,and it deserves more attention among the source language input variables.To address the research gaps and challenges in practice,a mixed approach is adopted,combining SI experiment and retrospective interview to investigate the effects of text on SI performance in a high speech rate scenario.Eight trainee interpreters’ SI performance was assessed based on fidelity,delivery,and language quality under Yang’s rating rubrics,and the barriers and causes of between-group differences were analyzed based on retrospective interviews.The results indicate that text has an overall facilitating effect on trainee interpreters’SI performance(English to Chinese)under fast delivery.Interpreters with text performed better in terms of fidelity,whereas no significant differences in delivery and language quality were identified between interpreters with and without text.Specifically,interpreters without text reproduced less information,resulting in more omissions and generalizations,due to difficulties in comprehension,speech production,and imbalanced effort allocation.In contrast,text facilitated interpreters’ performance by providing the framework of source speech,reducing acoustic barriers and speeding up speech production.However,text also caused over-reliance on visual input,increasing the eye-ear coordination challenge,leading to unbalanced allocation of cognitive resources and loss of important speech segments.This research provides new insights into the effects of text on SI quality by introducing high speed rate and presenting an in-depth analysis of between-group differences in SI quality.The research addresses challenges in interpreting practice and contributes to the on-going research of SI.