The Influence Of Extra-Linguistic Knowledge On Interpreting Quality

Interpreting is a complex cognitive activity which requires not only the interpreter's bilingual competence and interpreting skills,but also his/her extra-linguistic knowledge including common knowledge accumulated in daily life as well as in-depth study of a given field.The interpreter is able to grasp the accurate idea of the source language and interpret more fluently and confidently if he/she is familiar with the contents to be interpreted.On the contrary,the interpreter may find it difficult to grasp the true meaning of the source language.Therefore,quality of his /her interpreting shall be largely undermined by omission or even distortion.He/she may feel less confident and nervous.In this sense,extra-linguistic knowledge plays an important role in influencing interpreting quality.Previous discussions on criteria of interpreting quality evaluation mainly come from two perspectives The first one only involves the interpreter himself/herself while the second one involves all the participants in interpreting.Main criteria taken in this paper is the first one.This report discusses the influence of extra-linguistic knowledge on interpreting quality based on her own practice as consecutive interpreter for 2015 Program(Autumn Session)for Civil Servants from Pacific Islands Countries.The whole task lasted about a month covering three major areas while the author was responsible for the interpreting of the fishery group which included a series of lectures and field visits.By recording the whole process,and analyzing the transcript,the author explored different interpreting quality with or without the help of extra-linguistic knowledge.She found that extra-linguistic knowledge can influence interpreting quality in terms of accuracy,completeness,delivery and effectiveness of interpersonal communication.The author hopes that this report can provide some reference for future studies about the influence of extra-linguistic knowledge on interpreting quality.