Directionality Effect On Novice Interpreters’ Processing Of Numerals In Sight Translation Between Chinese And English

Directionality has emerged as a focal research topic in interpretation research,with more attention on simultaneous and consecutive interpretation.However,there remains a dearth of studies focusing on directionality in sight translation.This study aims to investigates the influence of directionality on the quality of numerals interpreting in sight translation.Employing an empirical research approach,this thesis seeks to identify whether there is a significant difference in numerals interpreting between Chinese-English and English-Chinese sight translation,ascertain which direction produces better quality,and explore the factors affecting numerals interpreting and ways of interpreting quality improvement.The study concentrates on numerals processing and explores the quality of numerals processing in sight translation through two-way experiments involving English-Chinese sight translation and reciprocal retrospective interviews.The influence of direction on the quality of sight translation and the numerals processing output of novice interpreters is examed through data analysis and SPSS paired t-test.Three interpreting experts are invited to assess the quality of sight translation,with a focus on key quantitative indicators of interpretation output,such as the number of correct numbers,accuracy rate,pauses,filler words,and delivery duration.These efforts are undertaken to shed light on the processing of numerals in sight translation and facilitate a comparison of quality.The results of the experiment indicate that the quality of numerals sight translation by novice interpreters is better when translating from English to Chinese compared to translating from Chinese to English.It is observed that the processing of Arabic numerals requires less cognitive efforts than Chinese numerals processing.Additionally,the overall quality of Chinese-to-English sight translation surpasses that of English-to-Chinese sight translation.These conclusions are drawn from the analysis of these aforementioned quantitative indicators and expert scoring.The production of numerals sight translation is found to be influenced by subjective and objective factors,as evidenced by the analysis of questionnaires,surveys,and interpreting performance.Subjective factors comprise cognitive load,limited memory capacity,unreasonable allocation of processing efforts,numerical insensitivity,the strain caused by oral errors,and lack of frequent practice.Objective factors include language differences,cultural disparities,aggregation of large numbers,and low predictability of numbers.Furthermore,the author proposed methods to improve numerals sight translation competence,with the aim of improving novice interpreters’ understanding and cognition in this domain.This thesis offers some suggestions in improving numeral interpreting capacity and pertinent teaching activity design,thereby providing underlying inspiration for future research endeavors in this field.