An Analysis Of Simultaneous Interpreting From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

As the storage unit of knowledge in our brain, schema is the foundation of cognition. Any kind of cognitive information processing in our brain involves the activation of relevant schema. Human beings rely on the existed information schema in decoding and encoding the new information. Since its proposal, schema theory has been widely applied into artificial intelligence, linguistics, and second language teaching for its explanative ability in reading and listening comprehension. However, the scholar circle has paid little attention to the application of schema theory into interpreting research, especially into simultaneous interpreting study. The author intends to make a schematic study of simultaneous interpreting and its instruction in this thesis. After reviewing the interpreting research as an interdisciplinary subject and the introduction of schema theory in terms of definition, classification and features, this thesis elaborates on the application of schema theory to simultaneous interpreting from the perspective of comprehension and production respectively. The author analyzes the feasibility of the application of schema theory from the typical features of simultaneous interpreting and the role of text in facilitation our comprehension process and how schema theory helps to improve language comprehension and production. The author further explores the related instruction matters with regard to simultaneous interpreting from theoretical perspective and the problems in china. By analyzing the way of experts coping with simultaneous interpreting, the author hopes to provide reference for the simultaneous interpreting instruction in which schema is of vital importance. To sum up, schema theory plays a positive role in the improvement of comprehension and production in simultaneous interpreting. It is of the author's intention that this thesis would be beneficial to the current interpretation training and further research in this field.