The Interpreter's Role In Business Conference

This report is based on the interpreting practice of the author on the Tanzania Promotion Conference held on September 13,2018.During the conference,the author provided consecutive interpreting service for eight senior government leaders from both China and Tanzania,including Vice Chairman of CPPCC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee and Tanzanian Ambassador to China.This report first takes you through the whole interpreting practice,including introduction of the task,purpose of the event and participants of the conference,after which follows a review on the pre-task preparation,interpreting performance and posttask reflection.In Case Analysis,major outcomes of previous studies on role theory and the role of interpreter are summarized,which serve as the theoretical guidance for this report.Based on the audio-transcription of the practice,the author lists the challenges she encountered,analyzes the tactics adopted and concludes the roles she assumed during the conference.Through case analysis,it is found that the author played three-fold roles,namely the text-organizer,gate-keeper and turn-manager.The author acted as a text-organizer by addition and ellipsis when there are poorly structured sentences and confusing logic.The role as a gatekeeper comes into play by rectification when obvious mistakes are made by the speaker.The role as a turn manager is relevant by creating or delaying a turn when there is unnatural long silence and when the interpreter's turn got interrupted.Therefore,the role of interpreter in business conference goes far beyond “necessary evil” and a “conduit”,but instead an active participating party of the dynamic interaction in interpreting who co-constructs the interaction through linguistic and communicative tactics.