A Report On Interpreting For A Motorcycle Training Class From The Perspective Of Participation Framework

With the rising popularity of riding motorcycles in China,safe riding has become a major concern for riders.Therefore,a lecture titled "Italjet Academy:Motorcycle Safe Driving Training Class" was held by Jin Ping’an Trading Co.,Ltd on August 15th,2022,in Jinan.It was delivered by an experienced Spanish coach and participated by Chinese motorcycle enthusiasts in Shandong Province.The author served as the consecutive interpreter in the class and wrote this interpreting report based on the excerpts of the transcript of the practice.Traditional conventions prescribe that the interpreter should be invisible as a"talking machine" or "conduit".However,the interpreter was found to assume multiple roles proactively or reactively in real practice to facilitate the interaction,especially in educational settings such as this task.As a result,the interpreter not only translated the utterance but also got involved,together with the other participants in the interaction,in the discourse and meaning construction.In other words,interpreters play more roles than "talking machine".Therefore,it is necessary to explore the specific roles the interpreters play within certain context.Goffman’s Participation Framework redefines the roles of hearers and speakers in the interpreting process.Based on the practice,this report takes Participation Framework as the analytic tool to explore roles played by the interpreter,interpreting strategies applied to fulfill the roles,and the influence of the roles on the interaction.This report points out that the interpreter actually acted as "addressed hearer"and "unaddressed hearer" while listening,as "animator","author" and "principal"while speaking,with "principal" consisting of three sub-roles.Those roles helped facilitate the interpreting process and achieve satisfactory results in the interaction.It also demonstrates that the interpreter fulfills these roles by the strategies of summarizing,omitting,explicating the logic,managing turns,amplifying cultural connotations,among others.The findings can serve as a reference for future interpreting practice in similar fields and enrich the studies on the roles of interpreters.