Problems Of Interpretation Course Book Compilation From The Perspective Of The Nature And Skills Of Interpreting

In a world of growing communication between different peoples in the arenas of culture, politics, economics and foreign affairs, interpretation is becoming increasingly important.In China, the study on interpreting did not start to develop as an established discipline until the last two or three decades of the 20th century. In recent years, owing to the growth and development of communication between China and other countries, the demand for professional interpreters has been increasing, and a lot of language learners are eager to take interpretation as a career. This has brought an urgent need to study interpreter training and the relevant problems. In 2000, interpreting was made a compulsory course in all BA programs for English majors in China on the understanding that the ability to interpret is also a measure of the language proficiency.The course book plays an important role in the process of interpreter training. It can influence many aspects of teaching and learning. In recent years, many interpretation course books have been published. Among these books, some are topic-centered, while others are skill-based, with the former in the majority.Due to the time pressure and high demand for the psychological resources of interpreters at work, the process of interpreting has it own traits, thus making interpreting a multi-task process under the limited resources of human processing capacity and posing a great challenge to interpreters. As a result, in interpreter training, the practice that emphasis is put on the teaching of languages is not congruent with the nature of interpreting.The thesis applies Gile's Effort Models in a comparative study of the two course books and proposes that course books suitable for interpreter training should be skill-based instead of being topic-centered. Furthermore, in order to become highly professional interpreters who are qualified to work at international conferences, students need to receive professional interpreter training. Through analysis of the involved factors, this thesis particularly advocates the introduction of psycho-physiological training, for instance, the strategy to deal with burnout in interpreting, in interpretation course books.