An Analysis Of The Factors Influencing The Quality Of Liaison Interpreting

Liaison interpreting is the most widely used among all interpreting activities. Thus, it is worthy to discuss how to improve the quality of liaison interpreting. Every liaison interpreting task concerns speakers, the interpreter and the audience. Each of them can affect the quality of liaison interpreting. Besides, speakers'speech and circumstances are also factors that may influence the quality of liaison interpreting.This paper is a report on the authors'field practice as a liaison interpreter. By analyzing the problems in the task, the author categorizes the influencing factors into four types-the factors of speech and circumstances, speakers, the interpreter and the audience. The factors of the interpreter include pre-task preparation, bilingual abilities, knowledge, memory abilities and psychological quality. Accordingly, the author comes up with some possible coping strategies-full pre-task preparation, improvement of professionalism and contingency plans. Only if the interpreter has good bilingual abilities, is fully prepared before task and is able to adjust to changing circumstances can he or she do an excellent job in the task.