Visibility Consciousness Of Interpreters In Liaison Interpreting

Since the reform and opening up, China’s rapid economic and social development has been driven by the surging foreign trade activities. The frequent foreign exchanges cannot be fulfilled without the contribution of liaison interpreters who facilitate the communication process and help reach consensus between two sides. An interpreter is often perceived as an invisible and transparent channel for mechanically transferring messages, but under some circumstances, in order to better achieve the communicative purpose, he/she would choose to be visible by consciously making translation shifts.The visibility consciousness displayed by an interpreter captures the attention of scholars. The past two decades have witnessed the emergence and flourish of research on interpreters’ visibility consciousness, which the author regards as a rewarding area of research.The report is based on the author’s liaison interpreting practice for Company S, a Foshan lighting company. It covers every step of the process of interpreting including pre-task preparation, on-site interpreting, and after-the-event evaluation. In the report,the author tries to explain the necessity of an interpreter’s visibility consciousness, its features and how it improves the performance of an interpreter. The difficulties encountered by the author are described in detail in the report. By analyzing these cases, the author explains how the interpreter gave full play to her visibility consciousness on some occasions by playing the role of a gate-keeper of information and expression, a conversation co-constructor and a communication coordinator.