Application Of Schema Theory In Business English Interpreting

With the economic globalization, especially after entering WTO, China, as a powerful economic nation, has stood out to attract more and more foreign investment and international cooperation. Business English has gained much more attention than ever. Under such circumstance, business English interpreters, the intercultural bridge, are constantly demanded. However, there is a conflict between the demand and supply of professional business interpreters. Compared to other types of interpreting, business English interpreting is a specialized and highly-skilled task. Business English interpreters should not only possess good knowledge of at least two languages, basic skills of interpreting, but also acquire professional business knowledge, as well as the capacity of mediating in various situations. The urgent demand of professional business English interpreters makes us consider how to solve the conflict between the demand and supply and how to modify the traditional ways of business English interpreting training.Schema, the concept, was firstly put forward by German philosopher Immanuel Kant in1781, and then British psychologist F. Bartlett applied schema in psychology research in modern psychology study. American artificial intelligence expert Rumelhart finally developed it into a system theory. From1970up to now, schema, an active organization of past interaction or experience, is frequently applied in second language acquisition and has gained countless fruits in English reading and writing. In recent years, many researchers and scholars have turned their attention to the relations between schema theory and business English translation but few studies have been done on the application of schema theory to business English interpreting. From business English interpreters’ perspective, this paper firstly treats business English interpreting as a mental process and conducts examples analysis in comprehension, memory, expression and coordination, the four stages of business English interpreting. The results prove that schema, the mental sections and scripts beard in business English interpreters’ mind, unconsciously plays a positive role in helping the interpreters complete every stage of the interpreting process and it’s necessary to apply schema theory in business English interpreting.Finally, according to Carrell’s classification, schema can be classified into linguistic schema, content schema and formal schema. These three types of schemata are separately applied in business English interpreting examples and activities. From the vocabulary and syntax angle, linguistic schema is used to lay a solid foundation for business English interpreters to comprehend and memorize the source language, and express the target language fluently. Content schema, including professional knowledge, cultural background and intercultural awareness, ensures qualified business English interpreting. And style schema, facilitating business English interpreting in a macro-scope, defines how the materials are organized and determines business English interpreting standard and strategies. After the discussion and analysis, conclusion could be drawn that application of the three types of schemata will make contribution to business English interpreting.