A Research On Relation Between Quantity Of Notes And Consecutive Interpreter’s Performance

Note taking in Consecutive Interpreting, undoubtedly, has generated considerableattention from interpreting scholars and researchers. But in view of the quantity ofnotes, they have only delivered some opinions based on theories, for example, notetaking should be concise, the quantity of notes is influenced by the source language,and so on. That is, there are few empirical studies that are dedicated to qualitative andquantitative analysis of the influence of the quantity of notes on interpreter’sperformance. The thesis, therefore, wishes to focus on this aspect and find out theratio (of the quantity of notes to the quantity of words in the original text) whichwould optimize interpreter’s performance.After analyzing the role, possibility, contents and features of note taking inconsecutive interpreting, the thesis reviews the researches on note taking both at homeand abroad, citing the exposition on note taking by the interpreting scholars andresearchers. The opinions and ideas on how much to take down in consecutiveinterpreting proposed by Liu Heping, Bao Gang and Liu Minhua not only serve as thetheoretical foundations, but also provide reference for the breakthrough in theconclusions of the thesis.The thesis aims to verify the author’s hypothesis on the basis of the researchfindings of the interpreting scholars and an empirical study of students who major ininterpreting. With the aid of my supervisor, the author conducted the experiment on117undergraduate English majors in their fourth grade. Divided into two groups,every student in each group interpreted two passages (students in the same groupinterpreted the same passages), one from English to Chinese and the other fromChinese to English. Notes and interpreting records were collected right after theyfinished. Through initial evaluation of their interpretation,30students were selectedat random. Afterwards, the author calculated the quantity of notes of the30studentsand scored their interpreting performance based on the evaluation chart put forwardby Professor Yang Chengshu. At last, the thesis made an overall analysis of the relation between the quantity of notes and the students’ performance.The conclusion from the experiment shows that such a ratio does exist. To bespecific, the ratio of the quantity of notes to the quantity of words in the original textis1to3in English to Chinese interpretation and1to4in Chinese to Englishinterpretation. Under the given ratio, students’ performances are the best. Hopefully,this conclusion may bring some inspiration and influence to interpreters, especially tothe interpreting learners.With the researches and findings of the interpreting scholars and researchers asguidance, the thesis conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis on the relationbetween the quantity of notes and interpreter’s performance and comes to theconclusion. It is of some reference value to the forthcoming researches on note takingand also, some problems of the interpreting learners found along the way of analysis,can be conducive to the teaching of interpretation.