An Empirical Study On The Correlation Between Methods Of Preparation And The Quality Of Consecutive Interpreting

It is a common sense that effective preparation is fundamental for interpreting.And corpus-aided preparation is said to be more efficient and more conducive to the production of the interpretation.This present paper has adopted a classroom-setting experiment to explore the correlation between methods of preparation and the quality of consecutive interpretation.The study has defined three methods of preparation:(1)traditional mode without corpus usage,(2)semi corpus-aided mode with restricted corpus functions,and(3)fully corpus-aided preparation with the inclusion of concordance function.30 graduateschool level interpreter trainees were instructed to complete three consecutive interpreting tasks by using each preparation mode.After each task,the subjects were also invited to finish a questionnaire and one semi-open survey at last on how they perceived various preparation methods.The one-way ANOVA analysis on subjects' graded performances,along with survey responses,demonstrated that consecutive interpreting quality was correlated to methods of preparation because corpus usage might improve its users' language availability according to the Gile's Gravitational Model.Particularly,the accuracy and fluency of the interpretation were significantly increased in the corpus-aided mode.Moreover,the analysis also showed that the concordance function could facilitate the terminology acquisition process through repetitious stimulation.And through the summary of survey responses,many users regarded the corpus as an effective source of ad hoc knowledge but with certain disadvantages.For the first time,this study has examined corpus-aided preparation's impact on the quality of consecutive interpreting and analyzed the contribution of a specific corpus function,the concordance.There are significant implications of this study,which enriches the research on interpreting preparation and raises interpreters' awareness of corpus usage in both interpreting practices and education.