Coping Strategies Of Chinese-English Simultaneous Interpretation In Focus Group Discussion

This thesis, based on the collected practice materials, presents a study on an emerging type ofsimultaneous interpretation employed in a non-traditional conference setting, that is, Focus GroupDiscussion (FGD). Gile’s Effort Model is applied in analyzing in detail how an interpreterallocates his efforts during interpreting and how various challenges arise due to the limitation ofprocessing capacity, thus revealing the difference between FGD SI and Conference SI in terms oftheir working condition, listening&analysis, short-term memory and output production as well asits unique work flow in order to propose sound coping strategies including a well-thought mix ofcoping skills and preparation strategies.Focus Group Discussion, FGD is widely used as an approach to the market research, duringwhich investigators expect to explore the response of participants to a certain topic by observingboth their verbal words and body language. Therefore simultaneous interpreting is involved inmany international cases.(Adams, Karen and Brace,2006)Based on the analysis of unique working mode and practice materials, it was found the FocusGroup Discussion Simultaneous Interpreting has great complexity and varieties to itself in termsof work settings and text types as well as the overloaded information, rapid speech rate andcross-cultural awareness, all of which have posed multiple daunting challenges putting extraburden to interpreter’s workload. To better cope with this, it is suggested that interpreter shall walkthrough discussion guidelines, attend briefing meeting, shorten ear-voice span and employcompensatory strategies. As most of the research efforts on interpreting have been concentrated ontraditional forms of interpreting, such as conference interpreting and business negotiationinterpreting, the research on the latest forms of interpreting is somehow lagging behind. It isexpected that more attention be devoted to the research of non-traditional forms of interpreting,which will definitely contribute to further development of interpreting study as a whole and bettersatisfy society’s needs.