Interpreters’ Perception of Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Factors Affecting Quality: A Survey through the World Wide Web

Abstract

This paper will present and discuss the results of an empirical study on perception of quality in interpretation carried out on a sample of 286 interpreters across five continents.Since the 1980’s the field of Interpreting Studies has been witnessing an ever growing interest in the issue of quality in interpretation both in academia and in professional circles, but research undertaken so far is surprisingly lacking in methodological rigour. This survey is an attempt to revise previous studies on interpreters’ perception of quality through the implementation of new Information Technology which allowed us to administer a traditional research tool such as a questionnaire, in a highly innovative way; i.e., through the World Wide Web. Using multidimensional scaling, a perceptual map based upon the results of the manner in which interpreters ranked a list of linguistic and non-linguistic criteria according to their perception of importance in the interpretative process, was devised.Cette étude présente et examine les résultats d’une enquête sur la qualité en interprétation auprès d’un échantillon de 286 interprètes distribués à travers cinq continents. Depuis les années 1980, l’étude de la qualité en interprétation soulève de plus en plus d’intérêt, aussi bien dans la recherche universitaire que sur le plan professionnel. Toutefois, cette recherche manque encore de rigueur méthodologique. La présente enquête représente une mise à jour des études précédentes sur la perception de la qualité, grâce à l’apport innovateur de l’informatique. L’Internet rend plus efficace un instrument traditionnel comme le questionnaire, dont il permet la distribution et la restitution sous forme de fichier électronique. Les échelles à plusieurs dimensions, utilisées pour décrire la perception de la qualité dans notre questionnaire, ont permis d’examiner l’ordre des priorités en matière de critères linguistiques et non linguistiques

A Comparison of Simultaneous Interpretation and Delayed Simultaneous Interpretation from English into Korean*

“…As Chiaro and Nocella (2004) argued "both the complexity and the interaction of the various factors involved in the course of interpreting are not easy to manage," and "it is human beings themselves who are responsible for the quality of the process in question." They should remember that SI is a process of continuous crisis management and optimal distribu-tion of limited processing capacity to each module is key to ensuring quality SI.…”

El uso de la encuesta de tipo social en traductología: características metodológicas

“…Moreover, two of the surveys were intended to fulfil more specific objectives: a pragmatic objective of setting up a directory of translators and interpreters in Catalonia (Golden et al 1998) and a methodological objective, i.e. that of validating the computer as an instrument for collecting data (Chiaro and Nocella 2004). Due to the time and cost usually involved in conducting surveys, several different purposes and types of goals are very often combined within the same project.…”

“…We grouped these studies into two broad subject areas: surveys aimed at helping training to fit the requirements of the labour market (Golden et al 1992, Mackenzie 2000, Li 2000, Calvo Encinas 2004, Lim 2005, and surveys whose purpose is to gather information about the perception of social groups as regards the quality of interpreting and subtitling (Chiaro andNocella 2004, Widler 2004).…”

“…The studies that were conducted addressed written translation (Golden et al 1998, Mackenzie 2000, Li 2000, interpreting (Calvo Encinas 2004, Chiaro and Nocella 2004, Lim 2005) and audiovisual translation (Widler 2004). …”

“…Chiaro and Nocella (2004) In October 2000, Chiaro and Nocella (2004) of the University of Bologna (Italy) launched a global online survey among professional interpreters in order to examine their perception of quality criteria in interpreting. It should be remarked that the theoretical framework drawn up by these authors prior to beginning the survey was very good.…”