Pre-task Preparation Under The Guidance Of Schema Theory

More and more scholars have recently begun to regard interpretation as a complex mental activity and introduced cognitive psychology into the interpreting study.As a crucial psychological theory,Schema Theory has been proven to be more than efficient in improving interpreting ability and fulfilling interpreting tasks.Unfortunately,there is still relatively little research on the application of Schema Theory to pre-task preparation by now.Preparation is quite a vital link of interpretation and exerts a significant weight on the interpreting result.Therefore,it is of great practical significance for interpreting teaching and practice to explore the auxiliary role of Schema Theory in pre-task preparation.This practice report is based on the Chinese-English simultaneous interpretation the author carried out for Microsoft Teams Training Session on September 9,2020.Under the guidance of Schema Theory,the author made meticulous preparation by constructing plenty of content schemas,linguistic schemas,and formal schemas.The thesis further investigates whether or not the preparation was truly conducive to the interpreter’s performance through typical cases from the perspectives of comprehension,memory,and reformulation.The analysis results indicate that various schemas were of great assistance in clarifying ambiguity,enhancing anticipation,strengthening memory,omitting redundant information,and explaining terms accurately,and thus can tremendously enhance the interpreting quality overall.Given this,it is recommended that interpreters make thorough pre-task preparation by building relevant schemas to perform interpreting tasks excellently.