The Relationship Between Utterance Fluency Measures And Perceived Fluency Ratings In English To Chinese Consecutive Interpreting And Simultaneous Interpreting

Fluency is an important indicator of interpreting quality,yet little is known about the predictors that underlie the perception of fluency.This study explored the relationship between utterance fluency measures and raters’ perceived fluency ratings of English to Chinese consecutive and simultaneous interpreting.The results indicated that inter-correlations between utterance fluency measures and their relationship with perceived fluency ratings are intricate and multifaceted,varying under different conditions.Temporal measures that showed stronger than moderate correlation with fluency ratings differed between interpreting modes.For English to Chinese consecutive interpreting,it was found that effective articulation rate has the strongest correlations,while for simultaneous interpreting,mean length of filled pauses appeared as the best predictor of perceived fluency ratings.Among 15 regression models that were built to predict raters’ fluency ratings on consecutive interpretations,two models were comparatively reliable and economical,one of which included effective articulation rate and number of filled pauses,the other using effective articulation rate and effective speech rate as predictors,accounting for about 59% of the variance of fluency ratings.In terms of simultaneous interpreting,one combination of utterance fluency measures,including number of filled pauses,standard deviation of length of runs and effective speech rate,appeared to be the optimal alternative out of 31 regression models constructed,which explained about 54% of the variance of fluency ratings.Findings of the study are expected to provide empirical evidence for improving current assessment rubrics of fluency scales and to lay foundations for further research on automated scoring of fluency in interpreting.