Problems and Strategies in Consecutive Interpreting: A Pilot Study at Two Different Stages of Interpreter Training

Abstract

This article is a contribution to the study of strategic competence in interpreting. After a brief overview of the main contributions dealing with the concept of strategies and problems in interpreting, the article presents a pilot study which analyses the interpreting problems encountered by two groups of students at two different stages of training and the strategies they apply. It details and classifies the strategies used to resolve the difficulties and assesses the students’ perception as to whether and how they have successfully completed the task. A number of commonalities and differences between the two groups have been observed. In the conclusions, it is stated that the more we learn about how the processes involved in interpreting are acquired and developed, the more successful we shall be in establishing a basis on which to design training parameters that address the strategic competence and the reflective practice.Le présent article vise à contribuer à l’étude des compétences stratégiques en interprétation. Après un survol des principaux travaux liés aux concepts de stratégies et aux problèmes en interprétation, nous présenterons une étude pilote qui analyse les problèmes d’interprétation rencontrés par deux groupes d’étudiants à des étapes différentes de leur formation, ainsi que les stratégies utilisées par ces derniers. Les stratégies de résolution de problèmes sont présentées et classifiées, puis est analysée la perception qu’ont les étudiants de leur réussite ou de leur échec, de même que les stratégies qu’ils ont utilisées. Nous avons étudié les traits communs et les différences pour les deux groupes. Nous proposons, en conclusion, que mieux comprendre comment les processus d’interprétation sont acquis et développés nous permettrait de mieux mettre en avant l’élaboration de paramètres de formation qui tiendraient compte des compétences stratégiques et des réflexions pédagogiques

A Psycholinguistic Approach to Consecutive Interpretation: Identifying Problems Among Saudi Interpreters

“…Grounded in Gile's (1995) Effort Models, the present study presents a comprehensive examination of the challenges faced by both trainees and professionals in CI. The findings of this research align with previous empirical studies conducted in the same field, such as Ribas (2012), Staes (2016), Pratiwi (2016), and Al-Harahsheh et al (2020. Similar to these studies, the present study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the problems encountered by interpreters, emphasizing the significance of understanding the cognitive and practical difficulties inherent in interpretation.…”

“…The study by Ribas (2012), which is closely related to the scope of the present study, involved the provision of an initial and post questionnaire to 15 participants of different proficiency levels of translation from novice undergraduates to advanced postgraduates in Spain. In addition to questionnaires, he utilized speech recordings of authentic consecutive interpretation.…”

How does interpreting performance correlate with note-taking process, note-taking product and note-reading process? An eye-tracking and pen-recording study

“…Previous research has found a preference for the ellipsis strategy among student interpreters (Albl-Mikasa, 2006), and the present study demonstrates the same strategy preference among professional interpreters. It is also frequently reported that interpreters had problems in note-reading, such as illogical notes that caused restarts in interpreting (Shen & Liang, 2020), and unrecognizable notes that caused omissions and repetitions in interpreting (Arumí Ribas, 2012). Taken together, these results indicate that the strategy of note-taking affects the effort of notereading; while the effort of note-reading further determines the amount of processing capacity that is available for target speech production and monitoring.…”

Communication in Persons with Acquired Speech Impairment: The Role of Family as Language Brokers

“…In order to produce an accurate rendition, the interpreter is required to previously fully understand the source speech. Arumí (2012) points out that one of the main problems interpreters have to face in this stage is the lack of full understanding of the source speech they need to render. In our case, since the primary speaker’s speech is severely damaged, the interpreter needs to make a greater effort in order to fully understand what has to be interpreted.…”