A Review Of Interpreting Aptitude Research

The research on interpreting aptitude begins in the1960s and most research focus onthe abilities and qualities needed for success as an interpreter in the primary phase. Inorder to determine whether a successful interpreter is made or born, researchers began tofocus on the issue of aptitude testing. The present study will make a review on interpretingaptitude from international researchers‘perspective to fill the gap of literature study oninterpreting aptitude research, in the hope of giving some guidelines for the furtherresearch on interpreting aptitude.The study focuses on the79journal articles on interpreting aptitude research in thewestern world collected from1965to2012and makes an attempt to analyze the generalprofile and areas of interpreting aptitude research.By analyzing the general profile of the interpreting aptitude research in the westernworld, the interpreting aptitude research in the west has experienced the beginning stage,the transitional stage, the consolidating stage and the prosperous stage. A detailed analysisof the researchers on interpreting aptitude indicates that the researches of interpretingaptitude are divided into three types, namely, practicing interpreters, psycho-cognitivescientists and practicing interpreters and interpretation teachers.As to the areas of interpreting aptitude research, the profile of ideal interpretersshows that there‘s a wide agreement among researchers as to the skills and qualitiessought in an ideal interpreter. The introductory research of aptitude tests in universitiesindicate that more than two separate tests are often used to measure a series of aptitudecomponents, but those test procedures might show certain degree of subjectivity inassessing candidates‘performance. The major interpreting aptitude test models carried outin a longitudinal way are able to detect some statistically significant predictors ofinterpreting aptitude as the cognitive skills and verbal fluency, and the results obtained show that the production of synonyms seem to be a strong predictor for interpretingaptitude testing. But the problems of subjective rating and the assessment of validity stillexist in some of the models. The evaluation on the types of aptitude tests administered in18schools indicate that most interpreting schools select summary, translation and shortconsecutive as the complex type of test to detect several abilities and suggests to includesoft skills in exploring new testing methods. In the meantime, the study also probes intosome interesting new aptitude testing proposals for interpreting projects.The review of interpreting aptitude research brings some enlightenment as follows:empirical research turns to be the major approach of interpreting aptitude research; theinterpreting aptitude research in the western world shows an interdisciplinary tendency;some representatives such as B. Moser-Mercer and M. Russo have a major impact on thetrend in interpreting aptitude research; the production of synonyms appears to be a strongpredictor of interpreting aptitude and researchers are suggested to develop related tests onit; collaboration on aptitude testing among two or more schools with similar programswould enable them to improve the selection procedures.