成功交互传译学习者的口译学习策略个案研究(2)
Although most of the universities have interpretation courses (usually consecutive interpretation) and most students prefer mastering this skill well, many students cannot learn it well and they come across many problems. Sometimes they cannot understand what the speakers say or the speech speed is out of their control and they cannot remember what the speakers have said. If the speech consists of huge statistics, many interpreters will make no sense in the change process of two languages. Based on this status quo, the current paper tries to explore interpretation learning strategies of successful consecutive interpretation learners expecting to provide positive suggestions for interpretation learners.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to Interpretation and Consecutive Interpretation
Interpretation is a kind of communication behavior for conveying and exchanging messages in the way of oral expression, changing the target content from one language into another one. It is a basic language communication tool what people rely on in the process of cross-cultural and cross-regional communication activities (Mei Deming, 2000:6).
Interpretation process contains input, interpretation and output. Daniel Gile (1995) holds that interpretation consists of three steps, preparation step before in interpretation, understanding step and restatement step. In preparation part, interpreters should do well in the collection for topic, be familiar with background and related cultural knowledge. In understanding part, interpretation learners combine his mastered target language with culture to understand what the target content means and make an abstract assumption for restate the content. Then they try to prove the assumption to be true with the following formula:
CI=L+N+M+C (Gile, 1995:10-12)
L Listening and Analysis
N Note-taking
M Short-term memory operations
C Coordination
In restatement part, interpreters have proved assumption to be true and speak target content out with target language
CI=Rem+Read+P
Rem Remembering
Read Note-reading
P Production
As to its features, Wang Xiaoyan (2003) holds that interpretation features on five points: a. Impromptu bilingual exchanging activities; b. Pressure from live atmosphere; c. Inpidual operability; d. Language comprehensive ability; e. Universal information communication. The live, temporal, impromptu, immediate and interactive features of interpretation make its period short rather than long and make its pace tight rather than loose. These are all the standard of interpretation (accurate, smooth and quick).
According to the form of interpretation, it consists of simultaneous interpretation and consecutive interpretation. Simultaneous interpretation refers to the oral translation of the speaker’s words at the same time as he is speaking, which relies on the function of advanced equipment and is quite official. Consecutive interpretation refers to the process that in 5-10 minutes after the speaker, the interpreter interprets the above content in target language (Zhong Weihe, 2006). If the speech is too long, the speaker and the interpreter then make interactive speech. Consecutive interpretation usually applies to occasions involved with small size and two languages, such as diplomatic meetings, bilateral negotiation, inspection visits, press interviews, banquet addresses and press conferences. Consecutive interpretation gets widely used in daily work and lives, and most universities choose to teach consecutive interpretation also. Thus this paper mainly focuses on the learning strategies of successful consecutive interpreters.
There have been many studies on interpretation learning from predecessors. As a special form for translation broadcasting behavior (Liu Biqing, 2006), interpretation is to make people with different language background communicate together. In interpretation, apart from speaker A and B, the intermediary interpreter is also involved. Since the speakers cannot communicate with each other directly, the interpreter should guarantee the fluency of communication message (Li Kelei, 2011). In interpretation, the interpreter should memorize what the speaker says and make conversion in mind with different languages, conveying message immediately. Xing Xing (2011) holds that memory in interpretation is not some kind of simple memory while it is the kind that interpreter save the newly-get message in short-term memory and activate the relevant parts in long-term memory to make them participate in interpreter’s memory working. The effective memory for dialogue is more of understanding the meaning behind the words, as interpretation is a conveyance and expression of the meaning and thoughts of source language, not the rote memorization and reproduction of the signal of source language. The meaning of speech is not the summation of words and vocabularies, but an organic whole (Ma Yingmai & Sun Changyan, 2004).