A Practice Report On English-Chinese Consecutive Interpreting From The Perspective Of The Schema Theory

Interpreting is the way of translating one language into another language orally and quickly.It is not merely the simple transition between two linguistic symbols,but a complicated cognitive process where source language information should be processed to convey the meaning more accurately.It is often combined with cognitive psychology,like the schema theory.The schema can be regarded as an active organization storing knowledge in the human brain.When it is stimulated,it will activate the existing knowledge similar with new information to help people understand information better.Consequently,by constructing different categories of the schema,interpreters can understand and convey information better and improve interpreting quality.Based on the relationship between the schema and interpreting,this practice report will apply three categories of the schema,that is,the linguistic schema,the content schema,and formal schema,to problems analysis and solutions in the case.It is found that the lack of the linguistic schema,the content schema and the formal schema,that is,the lack of the linguistic knowledge,extra-linguistic knowledge and discourse knowledge,will cause the problems such as misinterpretations,omissions and illogical and redundant expressions.While the corresponding schemata can be constructed by accumulating the three categories of knowledge.Some strategies for construction of schemata are put forward based on it.The first one is to construct the linguistic schema by accumulating vocabulary from breadth and depth and doing listening practice;the second one is to construct the content schema by accumulating encyclopedia knowledge and preparing thematic knowledge;the last one is to construct the formal schema by accumulating the discourse styles and integrating information within discourse.It is hoped that this report can not only give interpreters some tips for analyzing problems and their coping strategies after interpreting practice,but bring some references for application of the schema theory to interpreting.