The Time Constraint in Conference Interpreting: Simultaneous vs. Consecutive

The present paper focuses on the concept of time constraint in interpreting. The main aim of the study is to compare the two modes of interpreting, i.e. consecutive and simultaneous in terms of the temporal load imposed by the operations constituting each of them. The discussion centres on the issues of external pacing and processing capacity management, the two focal points of The Time Constraint. The paper also examines a range of strategies interpreters resort to in order to minimise the impact of time pressure in both CI and SI, such as EVS regulation, economy of expression, text-editing strategies, and notation techniques

The Effects of Multilingualism on Brain Structure, Language Control and Language Processing

This chapter reviews a small but growing body of research that examines neuroplasticity stemming from multilingualism, specifically discussing some similarities and differences in brain structure and function stemming from in processing three or more languages, as a departure from bilingualism. The evidence comes from studies using magnetic resonance imaging to examine patterns of grey matter structure across cortical and subcortical regions, and aspects of white matter microstructure. This chapter also highlights the functional activation and temporal information of various processes that occur during language processing in multilinguals, while accounting for the influence of language background factors. It then discusses conflicting and agreeing evidence in the literature and attempts to consolidate the findings with suggestions based on contemporary frameworks such as the Dynamic Restructuring Model (Pliatsikas, 2020). In closing, the chapter highlights gaps and pose questions for future research directions in the field of multilingualism and neuroplasticity

Are Interpreting Strategies Teachable? Correlating Trainees’ Strategy Use with Trainers’ Training in the Consecutive Interpreting Classroom

Since the early 1970s, interpreting strategies have aroused much interest among interpreting research scholars. Strategies should be recommended as components of interpreter training because they are useful for interpreters to solve or avoid problems resulting from cognitive and language-specific constraints. This paper reports on a small-scale study, investigating if undergraduates’ strategy use is positively related to their teachers’ inclusion of strategy training in the consecutive interpreting classroom. Forty-one undergraduate trainees and three of their teachers participated in the study. Retrospection was used to collect data on participants’ mentioning of strategy use immediately after performing consecutive interpreting from English into Chinese. Questionnaires were administered to elicit data on teachers’ inclusion of strategies in class. Data analysis shows that sixteen strategies were used by the students and that those strategies were taught by their teachers. A correlation analysis shows that there is a moderate correlation between student’s strategy use and their teachers’ inclusion of strategy training

A Brief Review of Interpretation Research in Japan

This paper reviews current empirical and theoretical research on interpreting in Japan. Though interpreting research in Japan is in its infancy, it is hoped that it will be activated by the effort of the Interpreting Research Association of Japan. One of the important themes of interpreting research in Japan is to find ways in which to overcome the difficulties that arise in the interpretation between Japanese, which is an SOV-type language, and SVO-type languages such as English

Predictors of ear-voice span, a corpus-based study with special reference to sex

This paper reports on a study on Ear-Voice Span (EVS) carried out on corpus data drawn from the European Parliament Interpreting Corpus Ghent, where sex is included as a predictor alongside several other variables. Ear-Voice Span is considered to be an indicator of cognitive processes in simultaneous interpreting and has therefore been selected to determine whether potential cognitive sex differences trigger different EVS patterns in men and women. Differences between men and women are reported in individual studies for tasks that are crucial to interpreting (Aerts, 2003; Kimura & Seal, 2003; Loonstra et al., 2001; Maitland et al., 2004 among others). However, meta-analyses tend to show that the reported cognitive differences between the sexes are exaggerated. This study uses corpus-based research methods to analyse the EVS of male and female interpreters in the European Parliament against the background of other known predictors of EVS. The data sample consists of 180 source texts and interpretations in six language pairs. The hypothesis was not confirmed as no sex differences were found. This research project helped identify relevant predictors of EVS: delivery rate, languages and interpreter’s disfluencies