A Report On Consecutive Interpreting For An Online Rehabilitation Medicine Lecture

This report is based on the author’s interpreting service for a lecture on the upper-limb rehabilitation of stroke patients during "Jinan Overseas Talent Plan—China-UK Rehabilitation Medicine Exchange Forum".The four-hour consecutive interpretation was challenging since it was loaded with technical information about the development of a functional electrical stimulation system.In the end,the cognitive challenges involved were overcome thanks to thorough pre-task preparation and the conscientious choice of interpreting strategies guided by the Effort Model.The report records the full process of interpreting from pre-task preparation to reflection.Following the framework of Gile’s Effort Model,it analyzes the causes for cognitive overload during the listening and analysis effort,short-term memory effort,and production effort,mainly including the intensity and extended length of source speech,undesirable remote audio transmission,and interlingual differences.The coping strategies,adopted in line with the five basic laws of interpreting associated with the Effort Model,such as using superordinates,omitting insignificant details,applying memory techniques and simplifying notes,are also analyzed and have proven effective to ensure that the available cognitive capacity meets the demand.This report explores the effectiveness of the Effort Model in guiding consecutive interpretation and summarizes the methods to tackle cognitive overload.It is expected to shed some light on remote medical interpreting and encourage more interpreters to engage in intensive technical interpretation.