An Analysis Of The Errors Committed In Mock TEM-8Interpreting Test And Their Causes

With China’s rapid economic development and frequent communication andinteraction with foreign countries, interpreting has played its significant role in its shorthistory in China. As a consequence, a number of interpreting tests appear in China. Amongthese tests, the TEM-8speaking and interpreting test is unique. This is mainly becauseTEM-8Interpretation Test is a proficiency test designed for English majors, and it isdrawing attention from universities across China as a way of accessing English majors’ability of interpretation and evaluating English language teaching. So, lots of Englishmajors take part in this test every year. However, some students usually make errors insuch interpreting test. Actually, although some scholars have carried out some relevantresearches on TEM-8speaking and interpreting test from different perspective, the authorhave not found systematic studies concerning interpretation errors in TEM-8interpretingtest. Therefore, it is necessary to make a research on interpretation errors in TEM-8interpreting test.TEM-8speaking and interpreting test includes three parts: interpreting from Englishinto Chinese; interpreting from Chinese into English; making a comment on a given topic.Here, the author just discusses the first two parts. On November2013, the author organizedthe mock TEM-8interpreting tests (2009-2012) which15undergraduate English majorsfrom Jilin University took part in. The students’ audio recordings and textual materials inmock TEM-8interpreting tests constitute the major part of this thesis’ corpus. Based on theanalyses of mock TEM-8interpreting test’s examination papers, this thesis will probe intoEnglish majors’ errors in the “interpreting from English into Chinese” process and“interpreting from Chinese into English” process. Besides, the author also talks about thecauses of interpretation errors and presents some advices to improve interpreting teachingquality and undergraduates’ interpretation level.The major body of this thesis includes six parts. The introduction briefly tells the significance and objectives of this study. Besides, this part also discusses the theoreticalframework of this thesis–Gile’s model (Comprehension Equation). Chapter one gives anoverview on TEM-8interpreting test and interpretation errors. Chapter two introduces thescheme and data collection of mock TEM-8interpreting test. Then comes the main part ofthe thesis—chapter three. In this chapter, the author gives a detailed analysis of the errorscommitted in mock TEM-8interpreting test and their causes. In Chapter four, the authoranalyzes the problems existing in present undergraduate interpreting teaching and proposessome advice for universities’ interpreting teaching. At last, the conclusion gives a summaryabout the major findings and limitations of this paper.