Empirical Research On The Impact Of Image Schema On Consecutive Interpreting Performance

As a significant concept in cognitive linguistics, image schema has been roughly explored beyond China, yet it is underdeveloped in interpreting in China. Against this background, the author carried out an exploratory experiment to probe into the impact of image schema on English-to-Chinese interpreting performance. The subjects of this experiment were 24 second-grade interpreting trainees with Chinese as their A language and English B language. All of them were entrusted with two English-to-Chinese interpreting tasks related to different technologies(Speech 1 and Speech 2 with speech 2 being more difficult than speech 1). In this experiment, the independent variable is accessibility to image schema while the dependent variables are the performance(accuracy score) of consecutive interpreting, and student interpreters’ comments on their performance while interpreting speech 1 and speech 2. Above all, this experiment attempts to answer the following three research questions:(1) In the experiment, do interpreters with more activated image schema outperform those with less activated image schema in a significant manner?(2) To what extent does image schema affect interpreting process?(3) In the light of the experiment findings, what pedagogical implications can be drawn?The thesis adopted a questionnaire and the computer software SPSS 16.0 for data analyses. The data shows that(1) students with more activated image schema did not significantly outperform those with less activated image schema while interpreting speech 1; by comparison, students with more activated image schema significantly outperform those with less activated image schema while interpreting speech 2;(2) image schema affects interpreters’ listening comprehension, short-term memory, note-taking, reading notes, delivery, and efforts coordination to varying degrees, most notably in listening comprehension; yet students with externally activated image schema may face difficulties in terms of efforts coordination, note-taking, and reading notes;(3) drawing upon the above-mentioned findings from the experiment, the thesis puts forward suggestions on incorporating image schema introduction into the teaching syllabus of consecutive interpreting. Students are also advised to apply image schema, visualization in particular, to interpreting practice for better listening comprehension, note-taking, reading notes, and efforts coordination.