Pub Date : 2023-03-06DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2183452
Yinyin Wu
ABSTRACT Phrasal verbs (PVs), comprising a lexical verb and an adverbial particle, are a notoriously difficult category of multiword units even for advanced learners of English because of their syntactic peculiarity and semantic complexity. Non-native professional interpreters have also been found to use PVs much less often than their native counterparts in simultaneous interpreting into English. This study aims to generate a pedagogical list containing the most frequent PVs and their major meanings for conference interpreting purposes. A corpus-based approach was adopted to identify PVs in a 724,054-word corpus comprising transcribed speeches interpreted into or held in English during the European Parliament plenary sessions. Out of a total of 461 PVs, 169 PVs crossed the lowest frequency threshold. They make up 87.07% of all PV occurrences in the corpus, suggesting the dominance of the top 1/3 of the PVs. Semantic analysis showed that the 169 PVs have a relatively small number of key meanings (two on average), and that the primary meanings play a dominant role. Available as an online supplemental material, the European Parliament Conference English Phrasal Verb Pedagogical List (The EP-CE PHaVE List) contains these most frequent 169 PVs, their major meanings, and example sentences extracted from the corpus.
{"title":"Phrasal verbs in European Parliament conference English: a corpus-based pedagogical list","authors":"Yinyin Wu","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2183452","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2183452","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Phrasal verbs (PVs), comprising a lexical verb and an adverbial particle, are a notoriously difficult category of multiword units even for advanced learners of English because of their syntactic peculiarity and semantic complexity. Non-native professional interpreters have also been found to use PVs much less often than their native counterparts in simultaneous interpreting into English. This study aims to generate a pedagogical list containing the most frequent PVs and their major meanings for conference interpreting purposes. A corpus-based approach was adopted to identify PVs in a 724,054-word corpus comprising transcribed speeches interpreted into or held in English during the European Parliament plenary sessions. Out of a total of 461 PVs, 169 PVs crossed the lowest frequency threshold. They make up 87.07% of all PV occurrences in the corpus, suggesting the dominance of the top 1/3 of the PVs. Semantic analysis showed that the 169 PVs have a relatively small number of key meanings (two on average), and that the primary meanings play a dominant role. Available as an online supplemental material, the European Parliament Conference English Phrasal Verb Pedagogical List (The EP-CE PHaVE List) contains these most frequent 169 PVs, their major meanings, and example sentences extracted from the corpus.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"301 - 318"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47731428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2182590
R. Cai, Jiexuan Lin, Yanping Dong
ABSTRACT Psychological factors may play an important role in interpreting performance and its development during training; meanwhile, the development of interpreting competence may influence psychological factors reactively. We conducted two studies to assess the bidirectional relationship between three psychological factors (self-efficacy, motivation, and anxiety) and interpreting performance in interpreting students. Study 1 was a longitudinal study, assessing 51 undergraduate students of interpreting twice, at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of their first training year. Study 2 collected data from 40 Master’s students of interpreting to enable a cross-sectional comparison with Study 1. The correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses showed that in Study 1, learning motivation and self-efficacy decreased whereas anxiety remained relatively stable; interpreting-specific anxiety was negatively correlated with concurrent interpreting performance at both times; motivation at Time 1 significantly contributed to the development of interpreting competence. When the two studies were compared, Master’s students had higher learning motivation and self-efficacy but lower anxiety than undergraduate students (at both times). The findings illustrated the differential development of psychological factors and their relations to interpreting competence. The results have implications for research in interpreting competence and interpreting training.
{"title":"Psychological factors and interpreting competence in interpreting students: a developmental study","authors":"R. Cai, Jiexuan Lin, Yanping Dong","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2182590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2182590","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Psychological factors may play an important role in interpreting performance and its development during training; meanwhile, the development of interpreting competence may influence psychological factors reactively. We conducted two studies to assess the bidirectional relationship between three psychological factors (self-efficacy, motivation, and anxiety) and interpreting performance in interpreting students. Study 1 was a longitudinal study, assessing 51 undergraduate students of interpreting twice, at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of their first training year. Study 2 collected data from 40 Master’s students of interpreting to enable a cross-sectional comparison with Study 1. The correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses showed that in Study 1, learning motivation and self-efficacy decreased whereas anxiety remained relatively stable; interpreting-specific anxiety was negatively correlated with concurrent interpreting performance at both times; motivation at Time 1 significantly contributed to the development of interpreting competence. When the two studies were compared, Master’s students had higher learning motivation and self-efficacy but lower anxiety than undergraduate students (at both times). The findings illustrated the differential development of psychological factors and their relations to interpreting competence. The results have implications for research in interpreting competence and interpreting training.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"246 - 263"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45471659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-16DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2175128
K. Washbourne, Yingmei Liu
ABSTRACT In academic environments ruled by managerialist philosophies, learning as doing, as outcomes, prevails. This work complicates the equation by taking up learning as becoming. Through the prism of learning metaphors, which apart from construction and transmission have not been fully explored in our discipline, especially the potential of Bildung, we seek to make a case that naming an ontological turn helps us orient our priorities, even if the turn is already with us in translation and interpreting in such attributes and practices as affect, voice, creativity, identity, subjectivity, and self-reflection.
{"title":"‘To study is not to create something but to create oneself’: an ontological turn in translator education and training","authors":"K. Washbourne, Yingmei Liu","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2175128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2175128","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In academic environments ruled by managerialist philosophies, learning as doing, as outcomes, prevails. This work complicates the equation by taking up learning as becoming. Through the prism of learning metaphors, which apart from construction and transmission have not been fully explored in our discipline, especially the potential of Bildung, we seek to make a case that naming an ontological turn helps us orient our priorities, even if the turn is already with us in translation and interpreting in such attributes and practices as affect, voice, creativity, identity, subjectivity, and self-reflection.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"177 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48479681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170052
J. Hlavac
ABSTRACT Aptitude is a hypernym used in training and practice-based contexts to refer to a person’s natural or acquired ability to do something. It tends to be an attribute that is ‘forward-looking’, i.e. referring to a person’s probability of achieving success in the future. This paper adopts a retrospective perspective in looking at the ‘success achievement’ of (would-be) interpreters and employs the term knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). The research questions that this paper addresses relate to frequency of KSAs referred to across four ‘stakeholder areas’ relevant to interpreter performance: studies from pedagogues on training and (pre-qualification) testing; testing/credentialing authorities; industry-based organisations; and trainee and practising interpreters themselves. Comparison across the four stakeholder areas shows that the training and testing, and credentialing stakeholder areas most frequently identify linguistic and transfer-based KSAs, with moderate attention afforded to intercultural skills, discourse analysis skills, social interactional skills and knowledge bases across different thematic areas, and demonstration of knowledge of ethics. The industry-based stakeholder area records high levels of frequency for KSAs to do with research, terminology, business, self-assessment and ICT skills, alongside linguistic, and interactional KSAs. Overall, however, the broadest spread of frequently identified KSAs is recorded amongst the trainee and practitioner stakeholder group.
{"title":"Knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) as a metric to re-conceptualise aptitude: a multi-stakeholder perspective","authors":"J. Hlavac","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170052","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Aptitude is a hypernym used in training and practice-based contexts to refer to a person’s natural or acquired ability to do something. It tends to be an attribute that is ‘forward-looking’, i.e. referring to a person’s probability of achieving success in the future. This paper adopts a retrospective perspective in looking at the ‘success achievement’ of (would-be) interpreters and employs the term knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). The research questions that this paper addresses relate to frequency of KSAs referred to across four ‘stakeholder areas’ relevant to interpreter performance: studies from pedagogues on training and (pre-qualification) testing; testing/credentialing authorities; industry-based organisations; and trainee and practising interpreters themselves. Comparison across the four stakeholder areas shows that the training and testing, and credentialing stakeholder areas most frequently identify linguistic and transfer-based KSAs, with moderate attention afforded to intercultural skills, discourse analysis skills, social interactional skills and knowledge bases across different thematic areas, and demonstration of knowledge of ethics. The industry-based stakeholder area records high levels of frequency for KSAs to do with research, terminology, business, self-assessment and ICT skills, alongside linguistic, and interactional KSAs. Overall, however, the broadest spread of frequently identified KSAs is recorded amongst the trainee and practitioner stakeholder group.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"29 - 53"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48928218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170043
Yubo Liu, Wei Zhang
ABSTRACT As a replication in the Chinese context of previous aptitude testing validation studies, this research aims at exploring the validity of an interpreting aptitude test battery, composed of the Logical Memory Test (LMT), the Scale of Language Anxiety (SLA) and the Achievement Motivation Test (AMT), in the prediction of consecutive interpreting performance of Chinese interpreting trainees. A quasi-experimental and correlational research design was adopted. The aptitude test battery was administered at the beginning of the first semester for 48 post-graduate interpreting trainees, and English-Chinese (E-C) and Chinese-English (C-E) consecutive interpreting (CI) tests, used to measure the interpreting proficiency of the subjects, were conducted at the end of the semester. Scores from the aptitude tests and consecutive interpreting tests were subjected to parametric correlation analysis as well as multiple linear regression analysis. The results indicated that a) the LMT scores enjoyed a statistically significant positive correlation with C-E CI; b) the SLA scores had a statistically significant negative correlation with both E-C and C-E CI; c) there was no statistically significant correlation between the AMT scores and CI in either direction. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to interpreting candidate screening and admission testing.
{"title":"Discourse-based recall, language anxiety and achievement motive: revisiting interpreting aptitude testing in the Chinese context","authors":"Yubo Liu, Wei Zhang","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170043","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As a replication in the Chinese context of previous aptitude testing validation studies, this research aims at exploring the validity of an interpreting aptitude test battery, composed of the Logical Memory Test (LMT), the Scale of Language Anxiety (SLA) and the Achievement Motivation Test (AMT), in the prediction of consecutive interpreting performance of Chinese interpreting trainees. A quasi-experimental and correlational research design was adopted. The aptitude test battery was administered at the beginning of the first semester for 48 post-graduate interpreting trainees, and English-Chinese (E-C) and Chinese-English (C-E) consecutive interpreting (CI) tests, used to measure the interpreting proficiency of the subjects, were conducted at the end of the semester. Scores from the aptitude tests and consecutive interpreting tests were subjected to parametric correlation analysis as well as multiple linear regression analysis. The results indicated that a) the LMT scores enjoyed a statistically significant positive correlation with C-E CI; b) the SLA scores had a statistically significant negative correlation with both E-C and C-E CI; c) there was no statistically significant correlation between the AMT scores and CI in either direction. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to interpreting candidate screening and admission testing.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"54 - 72"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43186564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170054
Xiaoqi Shang, Guixia Xie
ABSTRACT Sight translation has been widely used in aptitude testing to screen prospective trainee interpreters at leading interpreter training schools, including ESIT, ISIT, and EMCI. However, it has also been criticised for its lack of validity and reliability. No empirical study has thus far been conducted to explore its power to predict interpreting performance. To fill this gap, the present study adopts a data-driven approach to explore the predictive validity of sight translation for interpreting performance in both consecutive and simultaneous modes. A total of 33 graduate trainee interpreters (A language: Chinese; B language: English) enrolled in an interpreting programme of a leading Chinese university were tracked over the course of one and a half academic years. Two raters (A language: Chinese; B language: English) were asked to assess their performance based on the criteria of fidelity, language, and delivery. Statistical analyses suggest that, irrespective of language direction, the participants’ performance in sight translation was not predictive of their performance in either consecutive or simultaneous interpreting. This study provides much-needed empirical evidence for the development, administration, and assessment of aptitude testing for interpreting and interpreter training at large.
{"title":"Investigating sight translation as a predictor of interpreting performance","authors":"Xiaoqi Shang, Guixia Xie","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170054","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Sight translation has been widely used in aptitude testing to screen prospective trainee interpreters at leading interpreter training schools, including ESIT, ISIT, and EMCI. However, it has also been criticised for its lack of validity and reliability. No empirical study has thus far been conducted to explore its power to predict interpreting performance. To fill this gap, the present study adopts a data-driven approach to explore the predictive validity of sight translation for interpreting performance in both consecutive and simultaneous modes. A total of 33 graduate trainee interpreters (A language: Chinese; B language: English) enrolled in an interpreting programme of a leading Chinese university were tracked over the course of one and a half academic years. Two raters (A language: Chinese; B language: English) were asked to assess their performance based on the criteria of fidelity, language, and delivery. Statistical analyses suggest that, irrespective of language direction, the participants’ performance in sight translation was not predictive of their performance in either consecutive or simultaneous interpreting. This study provides much-needed empirical evidence for the development, administration, and assessment of aptitude testing for interpreting and interpreter training at large.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"73 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46056638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170045
Shuxian Song, Dechao Li
ABSTRACT Cognitive factors have been recognised as important in the interpreting process, but whether they could serve as valid components of interpreting aptitude still awaits further investigation. This study explores the predictive value of cognitive fluency in the simultaneous interpreting (SI) performance of trainee interpreters. Cognitive fluency measures of lexical access, lexical retrieval, linguistic attention control and working memory capacity were tested at the beginning of SI training. Simulated SI tasks were conducted at the start and the end of an intensive training period of one academic term. Results of the analyses suggest that (1) cognitive fluency measures could predict a large degree of variance in trainee interpreters’ SI performance at the initial stage of SI training, but could only predict the SI performance when the cognitive load was comparatively high after training; and, (2) cognitive fluency constructs that were significantly related to SI performance differed before and after training. It is concluded that constructs of cognitive fluency might serve as predictors for interpreting performance, but the predictive value of cognitive fluency was influenced by cognitive load and interpreter training. Findings of the study provide empirical evidence for the inclusion of cognitive fluency tasks into interpreting aptitude tests.
{"title":"Aptitude for interpreting: the predictive value of cognitive fluency","authors":"Shuxian Song, Dechao Li","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Cognitive factors have been recognised as important in the interpreting process, but whether they could serve as valid components of interpreting aptitude still awaits further investigation. This study explores the predictive value of cognitive fluency in the simultaneous interpreting (SI) performance of trainee interpreters. Cognitive fluency measures of lexical access, lexical retrieval, linguistic attention control and working memory capacity were tested at the beginning of SI training. Simulated SI tasks were conducted at the start and the end of an intensive training period of one academic term. Results of the analyses suggest that (1) cognitive fluency measures could predict a large degree of variance in trainee interpreters’ SI performance at the initial stage of SI training, but could only predict the SI performance when the cognitive load was comparatively high after training; and, (2) cognitive fluency constructs that were significantly related to SI performance differed before and after training. It is concluded that constructs of cognitive fluency might serve as predictors for interpreting performance, but the predictive value of cognitive fluency was influenced by cognitive load and interpreter training. Findings of the study provide empirical evidence for the inclusion of cognitive fluency tasks into interpreting aptitude tests.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"155 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49412097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170056
Yi Xu
ABSTRACT The research on interpreting aptitude has focused on the abilities, skills and personal traits of individuals in order to predict their future interpreting performance. However, an important variable between the personal characteristics and success of trainee interpreters in interpreter training, which is instructional practices, is overlooked. Consequently, the different outcomes that were seen in trainees with various characteristics could be attributed to their adaptations to different instructional conditions. In order to address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study used the aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) paradigm to examine the interactions between individual differences in trainee interpreters and feedback treatment. The findings of regression analyses suggested that working memory capacity predicted interpreting improvement under explicit and mixed feedback conditions rather than implicit conditions, and motivation predicted performance in the mixed group. Working memory capacity also predicted trainees’ awareness in the explicit and mixed feedback groups, but not the implicit group. The results also showed that feedback awareness predicted interpreting progress, and error awareness predicted an improvement in the mixed group. Based on these findings, this study highlighted the importance of instruction-related factors in the relationship between aptitude and interpreter training success.
{"title":"Exploring individual differences in the prediction of awareness and improvement in trainee interpreters: an aptitude-treatment interaction approach","authors":"Yi Xu","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170056","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The research on interpreting aptitude has focused on the abilities, skills and personal traits of individuals in order to predict their future interpreting performance. However, an important variable between the personal characteristics and success of trainee interpreters in interpreter training, which is instructional practices, is overlooked. Consequently, the different outcomes that were seen in trainees with various characteristics could be attributed to their adaptations to different instructional conditions. In order to address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study used the aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) paradigm to examine the interactions between individual differences in trainee interpreters and feedback treatment. The findings of regression analyses suggested that working memory capacity predicted interpreting improvement under explicit and mixed feedback conditions rather than implicit conditions, and motivation predicted performance in the mixed group. Working memory capacity also predicted trainees’ awareness in the explicit and mixed feedback groups, but not the implicit group. The results also showed that feedback awareness predicted interpreting progress, and error awareness predicted an improvement in the mixed group. Based on these findings, this study highlighted the importance of instruction-related factors in the relationship between aptitude and interpreter training success.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"133 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44838653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170048
Xinchao Lu, Xiuling Xu
ABSTRACT Developing effective aptitude test batteries for conference interpreting is highly relevant for China given its large and fast-growing interpreting trainee population. This paper reports on the aptitude tests implemented to 23 first-year students at a CIUTI member and UN MOU university in China. We compared the validity of recall, a test commonly used in interpreting aptitude testing, with that of the lexical-syntactic flexibility test (LSFT) newly developed at the university, in predicting the students’ subsequent performance on simultaneous interpreting (SI) exams. The quantitative analyses of recall, LSFT and SI data using correlation and multiple regression analysis were backed up by qualitative analyses of students’ output and interview data. The results suggest that recall, believed or found to be a predictor of interpreting aptitude by some studies, is not predictive of the Chinese (A)-English (B) SI performance, while the LSFT significantly predicts the performance of bidirectional Chinese (A)-English (B) SI and could be a potential SI-specific aptitude predictor and a new testing option to add to the existing pool of text-based tests. The study is expected to inform the discussion and practice of aptitude testing for conference interpreting in China and to shed light on aptitude testing worldwide.
{"title":"Testing aptitude for simultaneous interpreting: the predictive validity of recall and lexical-syntactic flexibility test","authors":"Xinchao Lu, Xiuling Xu","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170048","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Developing effective aptitude test batteries for conference interpreting is highly relevant for China given its large and fast-growing interpreting trainee population. This paper reports on the aptitude tests implemented to 23 first-year students at a CIUTI member and UN MOU university in China. We compared the validity of recall, a test commonly used in interpreting aptitude testing, with that of the lexical-syntactic flexibility test (LSFT) newly developed at the university, in predicting the students’ subsequent performance on simultaneous interpreting (SI) exams. The quantitative analyses of recall, LSFT and SI data using correlation and multiple regression analysis were backed up by qualitative analyses of students’ output and interview data. The results suggest that recall, believed or found to be a predictor of interpreting aptitude by some studies, is not predictive of the Chinese (A)-English (B) SI performance, while the LSFT significantly predicts the performance of bidirectional Chinese (A)-English (B) SI and could be a potential SI-specific aptitude predictor and a new testing option to add to the existing pool of text-based tests. The study is expected to inform the discussion and practice of aptitude testing for conference interpreting in China and to shed light on aptitude testing worldwide.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"97 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43658751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170044
Wei Su
ABSTRACT Past studies on aptitude for interpreting have investigated the correlation between personal traits and achievement, yet relatively few have singled out students’ emotional state as an important aptitude constituent or tracked its developmental patterns. To address this gap, the present study followed 116 Chinese students of interpreting for five months (one semester) and examined their emotional reports as well as interpreting proficiency. The study differentiated learner-internal (positive and negative emotional traits) from learner-external emotional aspects (positive and negative emotional experiences), then administered questionnaires at three time points (the 1st month, the 3rd month, the 5th month) to determine the emotion-proficiency relations. Based on the regression analysis of the questionnaire data and qualitative analysis of students’ emotion reports, the study found that: 1) As students’ proficiency matured, they experienced growing positive and negative external emotions yet their internal emotions remained relatively stable; 2) While students’ internal emotions were only moderately related to proficiency, their positive emotional experience was always the most reliable proficiency indicator; 3) Positive external emotions could stimulate students’ long-term engagement with learning, and negative emotions such as anxiety could also promote learning by prompting students to use anxiety-reduction strategies. Specific suggestions are thus formulated for interpreter education.
{"title":"Investigating student interpreters’ emotional component of aptitude: a mixed method approach","authors":"Wei Su","doi":"10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2170044","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Past studies on aptitude for interpreting have investigated the correlation between personal traits and achievement, yet relatively few have singled out students’ emotional state as an important aptitude constituent or tracked its developmental patterns. To address this gap, the present study followed 116 Chinese students of interpreting for five months (one semester) and examined their emotional reports as well as interpreting proficiency. The study differentiated learner-internal (positive and negative emotional traits) from learner-external emotional aspects (positive and negative emotional experiences), then administered questionnaires at three time points (the 1st month, the 3rd month, the 5th month) to determine the emotion-proficiency relations. Based on the regression analysis of the questionnaire data and qualitative analysis of students’ emotion reports, the study found that: 1) As students’ proficiency matured, they experienced growing positive and negative external emotions yet their internal emotions remained relatively stable; 2) While students’ internal emotions were only moderately related to proficiency, their positive emotional experience was always the most reliable proficiency indicator; 3) Positive external emotions could stimulate students’ long-term engagement with learning, and negative emotions such as anxiety could also promote learning by prompting students to use anxiety-reduction strategies. Specific suggestions are thus formulated for interpreter education.","PeriodicalId":45693,"journal":{"name":"Interpreter and Translator Trainer","volume":"17 1","pages":"119 - 132"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41530034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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