Interpreting As Communicating--An Analysis Of Work Mechanism Of Interpreting With The Help Of Advanced Interpreting Exams

With its focus on teaching interpreting, this thesis takes into account such perspectives as qualifications of an interpreter, the gap between expectations of an interpreter trainee and a future client and the result of a survey on advanced interpretation certificate exam in Shanghai to analyze pedagogical implications. The current practice tends to over-estimate students' proficiency in English while under-estimating their Chinese proficiency, concentrating on Chinese-to-English listening practice with little attention to students' weakness in listening comprehension from English to Chinese and subsequent reformulation in Chinese. Furthermore, the insufficient use of role play results in stage fright and lack of experience in interpretation examinations.Chapter 1 introduces the current situation and survey of interpretation training in China, especially the demand for more interpreters with latest development under the context of WTO accession, Beijing's successful bid of Olympics and Shanghai's 2010 Exposition. Chapter 2 first analyzes similarities and differences between translation and interpretation, then comes to theories of Nida's 'dynamic equivalence', Newmark's 'communicative translation' and Nord's 'functional translation'; lastly, four influential theories on interpretation, namely, information-processing paradigm, interpretive theory, neurophysiological approach and Gile's 'Effort Model' are discussed. Chapter 3 further analyzes information-processing paradigm from psychological point of view, how it works in interpreting and communicating in interpreting. Chapter 4 analyzes qualifications of an interpreter from Gile's model, concludes expectations of interpreting trainees and future clients (including the audience) from the questionnaire, and put in comparison the expectations of interpreting trainees and future clients (including the audience); while taking into account specific problems among Chinese students, the author offers tentative pedagogical implications to interpreting training or teaching in China. Chapter 5 deals with some hints from the survey and statistics of the advanced interpretation examination in Shanghai by analyzing exam-takers' strength and weakness, hence calls attention to Chinese proficiency, English-to-Chinese listening comprehending and expressing as well as the function of role play in training courses upon the final interpretation examination. Chapter 6 concludes this paper with the author's wish for more research on and concern over interpreting training in terms of students' Chinese proficiency, English-to-Chinese listening comprehending and expressing as well as application of role play in training courses, and proposals of more ways to better the teaching of interpreting for qualified interpreter trainees to serve the market needs.The author of the thesis hopes, as a green hand in interpreting and teaching practice, to propose some problems remaining to be solved in interpreting teaching; she points out tentatively the over-estimation of students' English proficiency and under-estimation of their Chinese proficiency, concentration on Chinese-to-English listening practice with little attention to students' weakness in listening comprehension from English to Chinese and subsequent reformulation in Chinese as well as insufficient use of role play. From the angle of interpreting as communicating, the author offers some tentative views and solutions concerning aforementioned problems for the final and perfect solution from the experts in this field.