Consecutive Interpreting From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

The 21^st century is an era of global integration featuring knowledge-based economy and information revolution with increasing international interactions.Therefore,interpreting plays an important role in facilitating communication.Interpreting is a communicative behavior achieved through the form of language and a complex process of mental activities.Schema theory is a theoretical mode,which explains the mental process in cognitive psychology,describes the construction of mental models for human cognition and,hopefully,provides insights into the mental process of the interpreter.Based on the schema theory,this paper is a report of the author’s field practice as a consecutive interpreter for a political lecture.The author aims to analyze the consecutive interpreting from the perspectives of formal schema,linguistic schema,content schema,and cultural schema.The author finds that the operation of schema theory in consecutive interpreting can be divided into three stages:comprehension,memorization,and expression.Firstly,the stage of comprehension.At this stage,the major function of schema is to activate the interpreter.And then,the speaker’s phonetics,intonation,vocabulary and grammar will invoke the interpreter’s background linguistic schema.By recognizing and perceiving language,the interpreter can comprehend the source text through the formal schema and content schema.Secondly,the stage of memorization.After the activation of the previous stage,the interpreter can properly retain key information and reasonably predict what the speaker would say next.Thirdly,the stage of expression.At this stage,the interpreter stimulates his or her background cultural schema according to the relevant cultural background,communication purpose and occasion,finally completes the production of the target text by means of the linguistic schema application.This study has the theoretical significance that can make consecutive interpreting more acceptable for the audience,as well as the practical value of enhancing the accuracy and integrity of the target text expression.