The Positive Effects Of Prefabricated Chunks In Chinese-English Simultaneous Interpreting

This practice report is to analyze the positive effects of prefabricated chunks in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting based on the mock simultaneous interpreting for the Boao Forum for Asia in 2013 and 2014.For such formal conferences as the Boao Forum for Asia,the positive effects of prefabricated chunks are particularly outstanding.Prefabricated chunks refer to "A sequence,continuous or discontinuous,of words or other elements,which is,or appears to be,prefabricated:that is,stored and retrieved whole from memory at the time of use,rather than being subject to generation or analysis by the language grammar."(Wray,2002,p.9).According to Nattinger&DeCarrico’s taxonomy,prefabricated chunks are classified into polywords,institutionalized expressions,phrasal constraints and sentence builders.Guided by the Effort Model of Daniel Gile,it is found that prefabricated chunks have greatly positive effects on the working memory and speech production in particular.In this report,detailed examples in different types of prefabricated chunks are given in both processes to explain how the full preparation and proper interpretations of prefabricated chunks successfully push forward the whole process of simultaneous interpreting.It is concluded that an active reserve of prefabricated chunks will ensure the high quality of the simultaneous interpreting activity.A large storage of polywords and institutionalized expressions can guarantee the accuracy and fluency of target languages,and prefabricated sentence builders can help the interpreter establish the basic sentence structures quickly without consuming much cognitive resources.Moreover,specific to some complex prefabricated chunks,such asphrasal constraints,several problem-solving strategies are also proposed,including anticipation,removal of prepositional phrase structures and subject retention.However,only these several proposed strategies cannot settle all difficulties.Therefore,more researches should be conducted on prefabricated chunks and more constructive suggestions should be put forward for the simultaneous interpreting teaching program.