A Report On EST Interpreting For 2019 Overseas Innovation Projects Promotion Conference From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

With the development of economic globalization,scientific and technological innovation has witnessed a faster growth in recent years.EST(English for Science and Technology)interpreting plays an increasingly important role in promoting communication and cooperation within the filed of science and technology.Compared with other types of interpreting,EST interpreting is more logical,professional and complicated,so it proposes higher requirements to pre-interpreting preparation,and the combined use of interpreting strategies and the interpreter’s professional qualities.Skopos theory emphasizes that the purpose of interpreting plays a decisive role in the whole process and that source text can be divided into three types,namely informative,expressive and operative,among which the informative text stresses the precise and explicit statement of the fact.Since the source text of EST interpreting is typically informative,therefore,skopos theory is an appropriate theoretical guidance for EST interpreting which contains strong and stable natural purpose to use precise and terse language to state fact.This report is based on the author’s EST interpreting practice for 2019 Overseas Innovation Projects Promotion Conference held on October 31 in Jinan Funds Plaza.Typical interpreting cases are collected and analyzed in this report.Under the guidance of skopos theory,gains from successful interpreting examples and lessons learned from failed cases are all included so as to answer three questions:how to prepare for an incoming EST interpreting,what principles to be employed to ensure the efficacy of interpreting,and how to improve interpreter’s EST interpreting competence.EST interpreters are supposed to be familiar with the peculiarity and degrees of formality of source text,and to make full linguistic and non-linguistic preparation before interpreting;apply a flexible use of verbal explanation,gesture explanation and omission of irrelevant and surplus message to attain the skopos rule and maintain intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence through division of complicated sentences and logic arrangement of long paragraphs.Based on this interpreting practice and the analysis of successful and failed cases,it can come to a conclusion that EST interpreters are expected to have some guiding principles as directly and closely related to the task,in addition to such universal qualities as profound background knowledge,stable psychological status and efficient mastery of interpreting skills and strategies as a result of systematic long-term professional training.In terms of on-spot EST interpreting,skopos rule is proved to be appropriate to assure a precise and timing transmission of technical terms and scientific issues,even at the cost of secondary information.A reconciliation can be attained between the explicit delivery of communicator’s intention and full interpreting of all message in conversation with skopos rule as a benchmark when it is hard to satisfy these two interpreting requirements at the same time so as to promote a success of EST interpreting.Though as a conventional theory which has been proposed for years,skopos theory’ application to EST interpreting is an innovation and the proposal of reconciliation can help interpreters to grasp essential message under high pressure in on-spot EST interpreting,thus promoting a success of interpreting practice,which is useful and practical.