Nonverbal Behaviors' Role In Interpretation Thinking

Nonverbal behaviors are indivisible parts of interpretation, but they have not received enough attention from the interpretation field. This is because many people believe that most nonverbal behaviors only exist in informal interpretation such as escorting interpretation. Such a belief is influenced by the traditional translation and interpretation research which focused on language itself. People thought there were just two procedures in translation and interpretation, comprehension and production. However, going deep to the cognitive process of interpretation, we are finding that interpretation is involved with very complicated procedures, where nonverbal behaviors play an important part.This essay begins with the differences between written language and spoken language, also the differences between interpretation and translation, and points out one important difference between interpretation and translation is that interpretation has to pay more attention to nonverbal behaviors. After introducing nonverbal behaviors'basic information, it analyses the role of nonverbal behaviors in interpretation from the perspective of cognitive psychology and the interpretive theory which holds that interpretation consists of three procedures: comprehension, deverbalization and production. In this chapter, the author goes into the three procedures in detail to analyze the role of nonverbal behaviors and also cites many examples and other scholars'experiments. In the fourth chapter, it investigates nonverbal behaviors'role in the memory system of interpretation. The working memory of interpretation is different from the traditional short-term and long-term memory, and the basic process of memory is closely related to the process of interpretation. Since nonverbal behaviors can be helpers and barriers in interpretation, it is necessary to find out methods to maximize the favorable factors and minimize the unfavorable ones. Therefore, in the fifth chapter, it presents some suggestions for interpreter training concerning nonverbal behaviors based on Liu Heping's teaching theory. This essay aims to emphasize the importance of improving the interpreters'knowledge about and awareness of nonverbal behaviors in interpretation and suggests some coping strategies to maximize the favorable effects and minimize the unfavorable ones of nonverbal behaviors.