Silent Pauses In C-E Consecutive Interpreting Of Advanced Trainee Interpreters

Fluency,among other parameters,is essential in assessing one?s output.Among factors constituting fluency,an important one is pause,which contains influent and fluent pauses with the latter being long overlooked.This study aims to confirm the positive effect of silent pauses and discover the parameter to best predict the interpreter?s performance.In respond to these purposes,this case study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the recordings of the 2016 Cross-Strait Interpreting Contest.Subjects are 16 advanced trainee interpreters in the final round of this state-level competition.The assessment of their performances relies on the judges?ratings,based on which the author divides them into three groups.This study only takes the top 5 and the last 5 contestants to make the results more representative.The thesis reorganizes various concepts of pauses in the field of interpreting by reaffirming the positive effect of silent pauses between phrases(SPBP)and silent pauses between clauses(SPBC)and redefining non-fluent pauses as consisting of filled pauses and silent pauses within phrases(SPWP).More importantly,the study finds that a higher percentage of fluent pauses in interpreting could predict a better perceived performance.