Évolution de la recherche empirique sur l’interprétation de conférence

Évolution de la recherche empirique sur l'interprétation de conférence — Dans un historique de la recherche sur l'interprétation, les années 90 correspondent à une période de renouveau après une prise de conscience (années 50 et 60), une période expérimentale (années 65 à 75) et une période de stagnation due au protectionnisme de certains praticiens au pouvoir (75 à fin des années 80). Ce renouveau se traduit par une plus grande ouverture interdisciplinaire et inter-centres et par une sensibilisation à la recherche empirique, mais celle-ci reste faible : les chercheurs, surtout des interprètes-enseignants, sont peu nombreux et n'ont pas été formés à la recherche et aux disciplines cognitives pertinentes; les centres sont peu nombreux, petits, dispersés et sans infrastructure institutionnelle. Les perspectives d'évolution restent incertaines.Trends in Empirical Research into Conference Interpreting — In the history of research on conference interpreting, the 1990s represent a period of revival. This follows a period of awareness (1950s and 1960s), an experimental period (1965-1975), and a period of stagnation due to the protectionist attitude of some influential practitioners in the field (1975 to the end of the 1980s). The revival is characterized by a more open interdisciplinary and inter-centre approach, as well as by a greater, although still moderate, interest in empirical research. Researchers, especially interpreter-instructors, are few and are not trained in research or in the relevant disciplines. Moreover, the centres are few, small, far apart and are lacking in institutional infrastructure. The future of research in the field thus remains uncertain. (Trans, by Paul Bandia

Interpreting studies: a critical view from within

The paper describes and discusses the historical evolution of IS from a profession-driven, narrow-focused independent entity towards a wider academic discipline addressing all types of interpreting within the discipline of Translation Studies (TS). It explains its limitations and weaknesses in terms of size, environmental factors and human factors. It discusses the effects of the integration of IS into TS and concludes with a few suggestions to IS leaders in view to strengthen the discipline.El presente artículo describe y analiza la evolución histórica de los Estudios de Interpretación, que pasan de ser una entidad independiente de miras estrechas e impulsada por consideraciones profesionales a configurarse como una disciplina académica más amplia, que aborda todo tipo de interpretación en el ámbito de los Estudios de Traducción. En el texto se explican sus limitaciones y puntos débiles en términos de tamaño, factores infraestructurales y humanos, al tiempo que se trata el efecto de su integración en el marco de los Estudios de Traducción. El artículo concluye con una serie de sugerencias para la consolidación de la disciplina dirigidas a los responsables en este ámbito

Interpretation Research: A New Impetus?

Attitudinal changes are a salient recent development in the interpreting research community. They include an aspiration to science and to interdisciplinarity. However, such an aspiration is difficult to implement because of training- and motivation-related constraints, as well as difficulties in access to field data. The most promising avenues for development lie in research promotion policies in interpretation schools, and in the involvement of non-interpreting researchers in interpretation research

Sometimes we need to warn people about the illusion that mathematics or statistics will solve it all

En esta entrevista, Daniel Gile, uno de los referentes más importantes en el mundo de la interpretación, tanto en su faceta profesional como académica e investigadora, nos cuenta cómo llegó a ser intérprete tras haber estudiado Matemáticas y en qué medida este hecho ha influido en su forma de aproximarse a la investigación en interpretación. Además, nos ofrece un certero análisis sobre el estado actual de la disciplina, tanto en España como a escala internacional

Testing the Effort Models' tightrope hypothesis in simultaneous interpreting - A contribution

In a sample of 10 professionals interpreting the same source speech in the simultaneous mode, errors and omissions (e/o’s) were found to affect different source-speech seg-ments, and a large proportion among them were only made by a small proportion of the subjects. In a repeat performance, there were some new e/o’s in the second version when the same interpreters had interpreted the same segments correctly in the first version. These findings strengthen the Effort Models’ “tightrope hypothesis” that many e/o’s are due not to the intrinsic difficulty of the corresponding source-speech segments, but to the interpreters working close to processing capacity saturation, which makes them vulnerable to even small variations in the available processing capacity for each interpreting component

Variability in the perception of fidelity in simultaneous interpretation

In a series of distinct operations, an English speech made at a conference and its inter-pretation into French were presented auditorily and visually to professional interpreters, students and other assessors to study what they considered errors and omissions, as well as their assessment of the overall fidelity of the target speech. Results include high intra-group variability in all categories of assessors, marked differences between the number of errors and omissions reported after auditory vs. visual presentation, a generally more lenient assessment by interpreters than by other assessors, and a lack of clear correlation between the number of errors and omissions reported and the general fidelity rating given by assessors. These results suggest that fidelity assessment per-formed by single assessors and by very small groups of assessors may be very un-reliable, and that variability in fidelity norms may be an important factor in fidelity assessment

Useful Research for Students in T & I Institutions

The usefulness of research in T&I training institutions is not a matter of course, and some efforts to find the optimum cost/benefit ratio in each environment is desirable. Gains can be sought in modest findings, enhanced reasoning skills and increased familiarity with scientific texts for students, and in higher academic status for the relevant institutions. Student research should not demand unreasonable investment in time and efforts. Students should benefit from close guidance, and collective work may have a multiplier effect on the benefit to be reaped from their investment. Empirical studies may be generally more suited to the students’ needs than theoretical work, and interdisciplinary projects should be contemplated with caution. Potentially useful projects in the T&I training environment can be sought inter alia in the following axes: literature analysis, language exploration, information loss and errors in Translation, Translation strategies, training and learning, quality perception