An Experiment Report On The Impact Of Familiarity With Accents On Student Interpreters’ Performance In C-E Consecutive Interpreting

With a vast territory,China is home to abundant accents,and each accent has its characteristics.As a result,Putonghua in different regions is inevitably influenced by local accents and is featured with local characteristics.Compared with standard Putonghua,Putonghua influenced by accents may differ in pronunciation.Such regionally accented Putonghua is common in speeches at conferences,which hinders interpreters’ listening comprehension.According to Gile’s Effort Model,if the process of listening and understanding occupies too much effort,the interpreting quality will decrease.At present,there are few studies on the influence of Chinese accents on interpreters’ performance in C-E consecutive interpreting.This thesis aims to examine the impact of familiarity with Chinese accents on student interpreter’s performance in C-E consecutive interpreting through an experiment.The material for this experiment is an excerpt from Li Zhaoxing’s Qingdao accented Putonghua speech at the Taihe Culture New Year Summit and High-end Forum in 2017.The participants for the experiment are divided into two groups;group A is familiar with the Qingdao accent,while group B is not.The performances of the two groups are recorded and transcribed.The data are analyzed in qualitative and quantitative means and the findings of this thesis are as follows: First,interpreters who are familiar with a local accent perform better than those who are not in terms of accuracy and logic,and the former can adapt to the accent more quickly with more stable performance,and the latter will gradually get used of the accent and his interpreting quality will increase.Second,the farther the interpreter’s hometown is from the speakers’,the poorer the interpreter’s performance is.Third,the shorter the paragraph with an accent is,the more difficult it is to be interpreted accompanied by the poorer performance of interpreters.Forth,names of people and places in accented speeches are difficult to be interpreted correctly.In this regard,interpreters can adopt the following strategies when interpreting for speakers speaking with strong accents.First,before the conference,interpreters should pay special attention to the local culture of the speaker’s hometown,and know the pronunciation of important people and place names that might be mentioned in the conference in advance.Second,interpreters are advised to communicate with the speaker before the conference if possible and remind the speaker of avoiding making pauses within very short discourses.Third,generalization and omission are common strategies for interpreters when they cannot handle accents.Fourth,organizers of conferences could avoid inviting interpreters whose hometowns are far away from the speaker’s if the speaker speaks with a strong accent.