Coping Tactics in Interpretation

Coping Tactics in Interpretation

1. Introduction

In spite of interpreters' preparation strategies, problems do arise in interpreting situations (see Gile 1989) because of processing capacity limitations (as explained in chapter 7), errors in processing capacity management, and gaps in the interpreters' Knowledge Base. Many of these problems can be said to be unavoidable, as shown by the fact that they are encountered regularly even by interpreters with a solid reputation and long professional experience. Interpretation has been referred to by some professionals as "crisis management," and in the light of interpreters' daily experience, these are apt words to describe an aspect of interpreting which is virtually unknown to the public at large.

Difficulties affect both comprehension and production, often through failure sequences as explained in chapter 7. When interpreters are aware of such problems, they tend to use a rather small set of tactics to limit their impact.

Coping tactics are a very fundamental practical skill in interpreting. Basically, they are taught within the framework of practical exercises. In most training programs, this is done by trial and correction, with trial on the student's part and corrections from the instructor. Such corrections are generally normative; instructors sometimes refer to the communication impact of the tactics in order to explain their preferences, but are not necessarily aware of other factors which influence them.

This chapter attempts to provide instructors with a list of basic coping tactics for a general view of the issue. It also presents a conceptual framework which spells out the advantages and drawbacks of each tactic, and discusses a few rules which may help explain what makes interpreters prefer one tactic over the other beyond their individual merits.

2. Tactics in simultaneous interpretation

2.1 Comprehension tactics

The following are the main tactics used when comprehension problems arise, and when they threaten to arise under time-related or processing capacity related pressure.

a. Delaying the response

When a comprehension difficulty arises, interpreters may respond immediately with one of the other tactics presented below. However, they may also delay their response for a while (a fraction of a second to a few seconds), so as to have some time for thought while they receive more information from the source-language speech. After a while, they may have solved the problem entirely, or else they may decide to resort to another tactic.

Because of its very nature, the Delay tactic involves an accumulation of information in short-term memory, and is associated with the risk of losing speech segments in a failure sequence as outlined in chapter 7.

b. Reconstructing the segment with the help of the context

When interpreters have not properly heard or understood a technical term, name, number, or other type of speech segment, they can try to reconstruct it in their mind using their knowledge of the language, the subject, and, the situation (their extra-linguistic knowledge).

The reconstruction process is an integral part of speech comprehension in everyday situations as well. It is defined as a tactic in the present context when it becomes a conscious endeavor, as opposed to an ordinary, subconscious process.

If successful, reconstruction can result in full recovery of the information. However, it may entail some waiting until more information is available and require considerable time and processing capacity. Like the Delay tactic presented above, it is associated with a high risk of saturation and individual deficits. Reconstruction from the context can therefore not be considered a high-priority tactic.

c. Using the booth mate’s help

In simultaneous interpretation, there are theoretically at least two interpreters in the booth at all times. One is active (producing a target-language speech), while the other is passive (listening, but not speaking). The passive colleague, who can devote full attention to listening, has a better chance of understanding difficult speech segments than the active interpreter, whose processing capacity is being shared by the three Efforts. Moreover, on the production side, the passive interpreter can consult a glossary or another document, which takes up much time and processing capacity, and then give the information to the active colleague, generally in writing. The presence of a passive interpreter in the booth is therefore a major asset to the active interpreter.

The active interpreter can ask for the passive colleague's help with a glance or a movement of the head. In teams that work well, the passive interpreter will sense a hesitation in the active colleague's speech and understand there is a problem. He or she can also anticipate problems and write down names, numbers, technical terms, etc., without even being asked for help. When the problem is terminological, the booth mate will generally indicate to the active interpreter the target-language term if possible, so that it can be used for reformulation. When the problem lies with a single word, name, or number, the passive booth mate can also write it down in the source language for the benefit of the active interpreter who did not hear it correctly. It is much more difficult, however, to explain an idea efficiently, because the active interpreter does not have time to read a long explanation.

This tactic is a very good one because it does not cost much in time and processing capacity, and pooling the knowledge and intelligence of two persons, one of whom does not have to divide attention between listening and other tasks, provides a better chance of finding the information than using the resources of only one person.

However, in order for the tactic to work, the passive interpreter must be not only physically present in the booth, but also available and willing to make the effort and help the active colleague. This situation does not always occur:

• Because of the intense effort involved in interpreting, interpreters strongly feel the need for rest. In teams composed of two members per target language, when conditions are difficult, interpreters tend to leave the booth as soon as they have finished their active duty and only return when they are on again, or else they may stay in the booth but shut themselves out and rest. • In conferences in which papers are to be read, documents are often given to the interpreters at the very last moment, and presentations are allocated individually to each member of the team. In such a case, all interpreters are busy reading their paper or interpreting, and no help is available to the active interpreter from other team members. • For psychological and sociological reasons, including the awareness of one's weaknesses and some associated frustration, interpreters may feel vulnerable and not want other colleagues to sit with them and listen while they are working. It is important for teachers to point out the practical value of cooperation between interpreters, as well as its importance in the framework of professional ethics aiming at offering clients better service. The practical aspects of such cooperation, involving in particular large and legible handwriting, should also be stressed.

d. Consulting documents in the booth When there is no passive colleague in the booth, interpreters can look for solutions in documents they have before them.

The efficiency of this tactic varies greatly: looking for a term in a commercial dictionary may require much time and processing capacity, but finding an important word in a document that was read and marked before the conference can be very fast. This is why it is important to pay attention to both the preparation of documents and their management in the booth. Instructors should show students how to make important names and terms stand out for quick reference, using highlighters or other means. Writing important technical terms and names on a sheet of paper in front of the interpreter (beside the glossary prepared for the conference) is another way of making them readily available. In particular, documents should be laid out in the booth, sorted, and marked in such a way as to minimize the time needed to access them and to recognize their identification numbers or titles, possibly with different stacks for each language, sorted by numerical sequence, type of document, etc.

2.2 Preventive tactics

The following tactics are used when time or processing capacity pressure is such that the interpreter believes a problem may arise or is about to occur. The idea is to limit the risks of failure.

a. Taking notes When the speech contains figures and names that interpreters feel they may forget and that they cannot reformulate right away for syntactic reasons, they may take them down in notes. While affording greater security as regards the items which are taken down, this tactic entails a high cost in time and processing capacity, which increases the risk of losing other items of information that come before or after those written down (this is an interference phenomenon, as explained in section 3). The risk is reduced significantly when it is the passive colleague who writes the information for the active colleague.

It is interesting to note that when translating in simultaneous from and into Japanese, some Japanese interpreters take down not only numbers and names, but also other information which Westerners generally do not write (in this case, it is often the passive interpreter who takes down the information for the active colleague). The reason given by them is that syntactic structures differ greatly between Japanese and other (mostly Western) languages, which leads to much waiting before the reformulation of any specific part of a sentence, hence a possible overload of short-term memory and an increased risk of losing information (see chapter 9).

b. Changing the Ear-Voice Span

By changing the Ear-Voice Span (EVS), that is the time lag between comprehension and reformulation, interpreters can control to a certain extent the processing capacity requirements for individual Efforts. By shortening the lag, they decrease short-term memory requirements, but deprive themselves of anticipation potential and run the risk of misunderstanding a sentence and driving themselves into target-language sentences which will be difficult to complete. By lagging further behind, interpreters increase comprehension potential, but may overload short-term memory.

Teachers sometimes advise students to try to lengthen or shorten their EVS in specific cases, but there does not exist a clear-cut, consistent theory or set of operational rules on the subject. It seems that EVS regulation is learned with experience; I believe that this is the single largest benefit derived from practice in simultaneous interpretation during initial training.

c. Segmentation

When faced with potential overload of memory, as with a source language and a target language that are syntactically very different, with embedded structures in the source language, or with unclear sentence structures, interpreters may choose to reformulate speech segments earlier than they would normally do, sometimes before they have a full picture of what the speaker wants to say. In such cases, they may resort to neutral sentence beginnings or segments in the target language that do not commit them one way or another. For instance, in a source-language sentence expressing a causal relationship such as:

Because of the complex character of equation (2) as shown above, compounded by the difficulty of finding a unique solution to equations (3) and (4) which correspond to a steady state system ...

the interpreter can say in the target-language something like:

Equation (2) as shown above is complex. Equations (3) and (4) describe a steady system. It is difficult to find a unique solution to them.

While interpreting these segments, he or she will keep in mind the causal nature of the relationship, which will eventually be expressed by "Therefore ...." Segmentation can save short-term memory capacity requirements by unloading information from memory faster. On the other hand, the very formulation of several grammatically complete short sentences instead of one may involve higher processing capacity requirements in the Production Effort. Recommendations should be given on a case-by-case basis.

d. Changing the order of elements in an enumeration

Enumerations are high-density speech segments that impose a high load on short-term memory. One tactic often observed consists of reformulating the last elements first so as to free memory from the information, and then to move on to other elements. To my knowledge, no analysis has yet been performed as to why this should reduce Memory Effort load. One possible explanation is that by reformulating the last elements first, it is possible to pick them up before they have been processed in depth and integrated fully into the semantic network, thus saving processing capacity. This tactic may work best with names, which can be reproduced from echoic memory (memory of the sound), or with terms which are easily transcoded; it may not be very effective if such elements cannot be transcoded or reproduced phonetically and require more processing capacity anyway.

2.3 Reformulation tactics

The following are tactics used in reformulation in order to eliminate the potential consequences of production problems or short-term memory problems. The first three are the same as presented in section 2.1 on comprehension tactics.

a. Delaying the response

This is the same tactic as used in comprehension; the idea being that the waiting period is used for a subconscious (or conscious) search for the missing term or sentence structure. As with the case of comprehension, the waiting entails a risk of short-term memory overload, as well as a possible increase in processing capacity requirements in the Production Effort when the information is eventually reformulated-because of the backlog that has accumulated in the meantime.

b. Using the boothmate's help

As can be inferred from the descriptions in section 2.1, the boothmate's help is more often given in the form of indications for reformulation than as explanations of what was said, which is reasonable in view of the strict time constraints involved.

c. Consulting documents in the booth

Whenever possible, documents are used in the booth for reformulation, in particular where glossaries and dictionaries are concerned.

d. Replacing a segment with a superordinate term or a more general speech segment

When interpreters find themselves incapable of understanding a speech segment or reformulating it in the target language, one possible solution is to reformulate the message in a less accurate manner by using a superordinate in the case of a single word, or by constructing a more general segment in the case of a whole clause or sentence: "la streptokinase" may be reformulated as "the enzyme," "Monsieur Stephen Wedgeworth" as "the speaker," "deux cent trente trois millions" as "about two hundred and thirty million," "DEC, IBM, Hewlett Packard et Texas Instruments" as "a number of computer vendors," etc.

This tactic, which requires little time, implies loss of information in the target-language speech. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the information is lost for the delegates; it may be repeated in another sentence in the speech, or be already known to the delegates.

e. Explaining or paraphrasing

Interpreters may understand a term but not know the appropriate equivalent in the target language, in which case they can explain it. For instance, in one conference, the data processing term "tableur" (spreadsheet) was interpreted as "the program which defines rows and columns and allows calculations to be made."

This tactic can be efficiently informational but has two drawbacks: one is the large amount of time and processing capacity it requires, and the other is the fact that it may draw the delegates' attention to the fact that the interpreter does not know the proper term in the target language, possibly lowering his or her credibility and reducing the impact of the speech accordingly.

f. Reproducing the sound heard in the source-language speech

When encountering a name or technical term which is not known or recognized, the interpreter may try to reproduce the sound as heard. This is not an "intelligent" tactic insofar as it does not call for complex cognitive operations, but it can be efficient: if they know the name or term, delegates may hear it as it should have been pronounced, without even noticing that the interpreter has a problem. On the other hand, the approximation may also be heard and perceived as a distortion of the information, which may not only generate loss of information, but also discredit the interpreter.

g. Instant naturalization

When interpreters do not know the appropriate term in the target language, they may naturalize the source-language term, adapting it to the morphological or phonological rules of the target language. For instance, in a conference, the term "télédétection" (remote sensing) was rendered in English as "teledetection." Similarly, the English computer term "driver," as applied to a software program that helps operate a device such as a printer from a computer, or as applied to the physical unit that runs floppy diskettes, was translated into French as "driver" (pronounced "dreevair"), and into Japanese as "doraibâ."

This tactic may prove very effective in three cases:

1. When the source-language and target-language lexicons are morphologically similar, as for example is the case in English and French medical terminology. 2. When there is much borrowing of terms in the particular field from the source language to the target language. This is the case in particular of data processing, where English is a loan language for most other languages. In these first two cases, the tactic often results in terms that actually exist in the target language, as such naturalization may have been conducted previously by experts who needed the terms for their daily activity (as in the case of the naturalized French version of "driver" cited above), and may have produced the same target-language creation. 3. When delegates read much material in the source language. In such a case, they often recognize the naturalized terms, which are likely to sound similar to the way they pronounce the words in the source language when reading.

h. Transcoding

Transcoding consists of translating a source-language term or speech segment into the target language word for word. For example, in the field of accounting, the English term "maturity date," the equivalent of which is "date d'échéance ", was interpreted as "date de maturité".

This tactic can be very efficient in the same cases as naturalization. Like naturalization, it can also lead to existing target-language terms; in various fields, many terms have been created by such transcoding by experts, just as many terms have been created by phonetic naturalization. Even when transcoding does not lead to an existing target-language term, it may facilitate comprehension for the delegates because of the semantic indications the newly created term carries. For instance, in the field of dentistry, the English term "mandibular block" (a type of anesthesia) was interpreted as "bloc mandibulaire", whereas the appropriate term was "tronculaire". Delegates said afterward they had no trouble understanding "bloc mandibulaire", even though it bore no similarity at all with the appropriate French term.

i. Informing delegates of an interpretation problem

When interpreters believe they have missed an important piece of information, they may decide to inform the delegates of the loss by stepping out of their role as the speaker's alter ego and saying for instance "... and an author whose name the interpreter did not catch," or "... the interpreter is sorry, he missed the last number." When this happens, delegates may fail to react, but they can also ask the speaker to repeat the information, either during the session itself or during a break.

This tactic is not used very often. One of the problems is that it takes up much time and processing capacity, and may therefore jeopardize the reformulation of other speech segments. Moreover, it draws the delegates' attention to the interpreter's problems. This has two drawbacks: first, delegates are interested in the speech, not the interpreters and their problems; second, by drawing the delegates' attention to his or her problems, the interpreter may lose credibility, and therefore also indirectly weaken the impact of the speaker's message.

To sum up, if important information is missed, interpreters consider it their ethical duty to inform delegates rather than gloss over it, but if the information is insignificant, or if informing the delegates may do more harm than good, they choose another tactic.

j. Referring delegates to another information source

In specialized conferences, much of the information is given not only by the speaker, but also in written handouts and on screen, via slides and overhead transparencies. When encountering comprehension or reformulation difficulties, the interpreter can refer delegates to "the figures/names/equation etc. on the screen/in your handout," etc.

k. Omitting the information

Interpreters may miss information without even noticing it because they did not have enough processing capacity available for the Listening and Analysis Effort when the speech segment carrying it was being uttered. They may also omit it because it disappears from short-term memory. The omission tactic refers to the case where an interpreter deliberately decides not to reformulate a piece of information in the target-language speech.

Again, not all the information which was omitted in the target-language speech is necessarily lost as far as the delegates are concerned, since it may appear elsewhere or be known to the delegates anyway.

l. Parallel reformulation

When working conditions are particularly bad, and when interpreters feel it is imperative to continue speaking despite inability to listen, understand, and reformulate properly, they may invent a speech segment compatible with the rest of the source-language speech but not a faithful reflection of the problematic source-language speech.

This tactic is obviously an extreme one, to be used exceptionally and with the uttermost caution. I believe it should not be taught at the same time as other tactics. It is probably best left to the very end of training, when it is introduced

very carefully, with explicit examples and strong emphasis on ethical considerations.

m. Switching off the microphone

This is another extreme tactic. Some purists advocate its use when working conditions are poor and interpreters feel they cannot do a decent job. In actual practice, this is a very rare attitude. For all intents and purposes, it can be said that this tactic is only implemented when working conditions are so bad that interpreters believe they can do no useful work at all, meaning that interpretation would be worse than non-interpretation.

Translation Skills

Translation Skills

Translation is an art, and, like all other arts, it is difficult to master, for it seeks to convey the exact meaning of what is expressed in one language into another. Its very nature, therefore, requires an intimate knowledge of both the languages concerned – a requisition not easily to be met with. Knowledge is here intended to imply capacity to comprehend and express. We must first be able to understand exactly what is intended to be conveyed, and then to express the very same thought in the other language.

So the whole art of translation lies in expressing exactly and precisely without either omitting thought from the original passage or adding any unnecessary or superfluous idea to it, the sense and meaning of the Vernacular passage in simple, idiomatic English.

Some Important Hints:

Study carefully the following hints:

(1) First read the vernacular passage carefully, marking all such words or phrases as you do not clearly understand. Remember that words do not have a fixed meaning. They have more than one meaning, and you have to find out exactly the meaning intended by the writer. Then and then only will you be able to translate exactly into English the main thought of the writer given in the vernacular passage.

(2) Now you are in a position to translate the vernacular passage into English. In translating try to express as a whole the sense of the vernacular passage into English, employing exact English equivalents for vernacular words, phrases and idioms.

(3) But avoid literal translation. You are never required to give a word-for-word translation. If you do so, you will not be able to convey exactly the meaning and intention of the writer. We do not think or speak in words: we think and speak in sentences. Translate a sentence as a whole; do not translate words.

(4) But if too literal and translation is to be avoided, at the same time you should guard yourself against too free a translation An excessively free translation sometimes lacks the essential thought without which the whole translation looks absurd.

(5) Do not use either unfamiliar or archaic words. Choose only such words as you know well. The use of bombastic, high-sounding words, and of foreign words and terms does not in any way add to the beauty of translation.

(6) Try to avoid the use of many words when a single word, rightly chosen, will do. The whole art of translation lies in the careful choice of exact words.

(7) If a sentence is inconveniently long or bears an involved construction, break it up in your mind in three or four shorter sentences, and then translate them into English but see that in doing so you have not sacrificed or mutilated the sense of the original.

(8) Lastly, see that your English translation reads like a continuous piece of prose, written in simple, idiomatic English. It should give exactly the same impression as the vernacular passage.

Test of a Good Translation

What are the tests of a good translation? Your translation is a success if:

1.  It is a faithful translation of the original into English.

2.  It conveys exactly the sense and meaning of the original.

3.  It reproduces all the details, omitting nothing.

4.  It is a translation as a whole.

5.  It is a continuous piece of good English.

6.  Its total impression is the same as that of the original.

Interpreting and translation are two closely related linguistic disciplines. Yet they are rarely performed by the same people. The difference in skills, training, aptitude, and even language knowledge are so substantial that few people can do both successfully on a professional level.

On the surface, the difference between interpreting and translation is only the difference in the medium: the interpreter translates orally, while a translator interprets written text. Both interpreting and translation presuppose a certain love of language and deep knowledge of more than one tongue.

The Skill Profile of Technical Translators

However, the differences in skills are arguably greater than similarities. The key skills of the translator are the ability to understand the source language and the culture of the country where the text originated, and, using a good library of dictionaries and reference materials, render that material clearly and accurately into the target language. In other words, while the linguistic and cultural skills are still critical, the most important mark of a good translator is the ability to write well in the target language.

An interpreter, on the other hand, has to be able to translate in both directions on the spot, without using dictionaries or other supplemental reference materials. Interpreters must have extraordinary listening abilities, especially for simultaneous interpreting. Simultaneous interpreters need to process and memorize the words that the source-language speaker is saying now, while simultaneously outputting in the target language the translation of words the speaker said 5-10 seconds ago. In addition, interpreters have to posess excellent public speaking skills, and the intellectual capacity to instantly transform idioms, colloquialisms and other culturally-specific references into analogous statements the target audience will understand.

 

INTERNATIONAL'S INTERPRETERS POSSESS THE FOLLOWING SKILLS:

·  Thorough knowledge of the general subject of the speeches to be interpreted

·  Intimate familiarity with both cultures;

·  Extensive vocabulary in both languages;

·  Ability to express thoughts clearly and concisely in both languages;

·  Excellent note-taking techniques for consecutive interpreting;

·  At least 2-3 years of booth experience for simultaneous interpreting.

Principles in training interpreters

One of the first deficiencies which notices is a lack of experienced interpreters working as experienced instructors (Pearl 1995: 162, 181). There are some basic reasons for that: like good athletes, even very good interpreters are themselves quite non-analytical and oblivious in their modus operandi, which means that not all good interpreters (or athletes) can work successfully as good instructors. Secondly, the practice of simultaneous interpreting is significantly more financially rewarding than the teaching of it. (Pearl 1995: 181)

The first principle is:

Before starting to work with any new training exercise, explain its potential value or psycholinguistic and professional reasons and explain how it can be used or adapted by interpreters later in other circumstances.

Example: a self-training exercise to improve or achieve full attention and concentration and to make both hemispheres work synchronically. It can be used in any environment with moving or parked cars.

The most simple exercise is to go along any street, trying to repeat all the digits and letters of all the car number plates (going either in the same or the opposite direction).

Next level of difficulty: do the same and simultaneously translate or convert the same number plates from language 1 (L1) into language 2 (L2).

Next level of difficulty: do the same, simultaneously translating the plates into L2 and counting the number of cars in each colour in either L1 or L2 (e.g. 5 reds, 7 whites, 4 cherry, etc.)

Final level of difficulty: do the same simultaneously translating the plates into L2 and counting the number of cars in each colour in both languages (e.g. five reds, siete blancos <"7 whites" in Spanish>, 4 cherry, ocho negros <"8 blacks" in Spanish>, etc.)

The second principle is:

Increase the self-confidence of my students particularly where their memory is concerned. This is definitely necessary because almost all of them complain about not being able to memorise new information or retain certain pieces of important data in their short- and long-term memory (STM and LTM).

Example: an exercise with interesting or funny data which is used in order to demonstrate to my students that they can easily remember quite complicated data so long as it is important or interesting to them. Here I explain how our memory works and how it deals with important and non-important information which we intend to memorise.

The exercise is called “Very Interesting” or “Muy Interesante” and it is a dictation of short texts containing interesting figures, dates or plusmarks, etc. For example: “The American fast-food chain Macdonald's, appeared for the first time in 1955, but it had no tables or chairs until 1966.” The dictation may be in either language or may swap between the two languages once self-confidence is gained and the exercise is being used purely to train STM and LTM.

The third principle is:

Work hard on the students' concentration and level of attention from the very beginning.

Example: An exercise with distractions, like extra sounds, excessive gesticulation, etc. This kind of “distractive modelled environment" I call “training in obstacled conditions”. Any instructor can create his or her own list of distractions, depending on the level of the group or the specific aim. For more information about my approach to training in difficult conditions, see my article in Rusistica magazine.

The 4th principle is:

A new exercise has to be very clear and straightforward in order to be understood and worked through the first time (with a short debriefing afterwards). Next time, the training exercise has to be difficult (an authentic or nearly real-life level of difficulty). A “real-life level of difficulty” refers mainly to the speed of presentation or the sentence complexity, or a lot of specific vocabulary.

The 5th principle is:

It is not my task to teach vocabulary.

Firstly, this is because the trainee interpreters studying the MA in Interpreting de facto have to have a “sufficient” level of proficiency in L2 and L3. It is the primary criterion for admission to such MA courses. The aim is clear: we do not teach languages, we teach “interpreting”.

Secondly, in any case I think that it is a waste of time to teach new vocabulary on a word-to-word level on MA courses. It is the student's responsibility to do it all the time if they want to be professional interpreters. At the same time the “ideal course” may include some specific hours of training dedicated purely to word-to-word drills (not teaching) from L1 into L2, altering both languages all the time.

Intuition is considered by some Russian psychologists (see Granovskaya Rada, et al, 1991) as a simultaneous interaction between the right and left hemispheres in our brain. When “intuition” is activated, a kind of "bridge" is established in order to secure an interchange of information stored in the two different “storage rooms”, or hemispheres. Each "room" contains unique material. The “bridge” is necessary in order to be able to make them work simultaneously. A very similar mechanism is required for interpreting, where a person has to be able to “switch” between the different “language storage rooms” where L1, L2 and L3 are focused. The exact location of each one does not matter; what counts is the ability to build a successful “bridge” between them as quickly as possible.

People can be divided into three groups of differing sizes: the majority are right-handed, a smaller group are left-handed and finally an even smaller group is made up of ambidextrous individuals (equal dexterity in both hands). Why is this information relevant to interpreting? Each hemisphere responds to certain specific "duties" of human activity: analysis, synthesis, speech, co-ordination, emotions, etc. Therefore, in general terms, according to whether we are right or left handed we can be divided into "analysts" and "creators" or, in other words, into "mathematicians" and "poets" or "executives" and "artists". For the purely practical purpose of interpreter training it is not so important to know the exact location of the speech zones in our hemispheres, i.e. right or left. What is of great significance is the ability to make both hemispheres co-ordinate their active functions almost at the same time, by building a kind of "bridge". It is in fact more important for Simultaneous Interpreting than for Consecutive Interpreting because of the time factor.

It is no less significant as one of the factors that we can observe and measure when testing the ability of future interpreters to perform their future professional duties on a purely cerebral level without any language interference. Therefore some NON-verbal tests were adopted for that purpose.

I would like to focus on the NON-verbal character of the tests because it demonstrates a person's ability to perform a certain type of brain activity, which, in general terms, is similar to the cognitive process that takes place in our head while interpreting (mainly simultaneously).

The first test measures the velocity of cognitive (or creative) processes while solving NEW non-verbal problems. It is based on a test developed by the famous Russian pedagogue Boris Nikitin, who formulated the universal law of“Irreversible Extinction of the Possibility for Effective Development of Abilities: IEPEDA”. He worked a lot with “normal” children and adults, observing their creativity level "growing" while using the so-called “developmental games”. There is a clear correlation between the speed of exchange between hemispheres and the velocity of creative problem-solving. The greater the speed, the better the creative performance of the tested person and the higher the chance of them becoming a good simultaneous or consecutive interpreter. I consider that near-native fluency in two or more languages (source and target) is a necessary requirement but by no means the only or the most important element to be developed by the future interpreter. As far as I know, language skills can be developed and improved, but the capacity for fast and effective hemisphere exchange is more of an innate capability, so it is essential to know from the very beginning what we are dealing with. As Boris Nikitin states, it is never too late to learn, and a training exercise which includes “developmental non-verbal games” can help improve the professional interpreter's performance considerably. Different types of puzzle games like Rubik cubes can help the future interpreter increase the hemispheres' interaction.

The second test determines the group to which the tested student belongs: left- or right-handed. This knowledge may be important if the instructor is to offer different “tasks” to his or her students according to their left or right hand preference. Nobody questions the difference between “Western” and “Oriental” models of learning, but there is a gap in research into mechanisms that make a difference to our learning processes depending on our hand dominance.

Attention

As research has shown, it is impossible to divide someone's attention between two independent actions when both require the maximum level of concentration. Even long and persistent training cannot help overcome such a problem (See Granovskaya, 1997: 52).

Concentration

Concentration vs Dispersed Attention

Dispersed attention can be compared with light, which passes through a matte crystal and illuminates a large square. If we use lenses instead of a matte crystal, the illuminated spot with light focused on it would be considerably smaller but brighter. The concentration of attention focuses our perception on one item, while other - peripheral - objects disappear from it. Research on the cerebral activity in a state of deep concentration reveals that there is no asymmetrical activity at that specific moment and that both hemispheres work together simultaneously (See Granovskaya, 1997: 60).

Interconnectability between activities

Interconnectability is defined by the speed of transition from one type of activity to another. The dispersed attention allows us to maintain several different objects within our field of attention. The more "passive" or "relaxed" the condition of a person, the better the result of our "dispersed" attention activity. The instructor's role is to explain this and create the necessary conditions while teaching. Self-confidence can help considerably to create a "relaxed" condition during the process of SI (See Granovskaya, 1997: 62, 63).

Ear preference/hemisphere dominance

There is a clear dependence on the dominant hemisphere and the dominant eye. Is there any similar dependence between the dominant hemisphere and the dominant or “comfortable” ear for interpreters?

There is still no official final result on a right/left ear preference for professional interpreters, but some practising interpreters claim that removing one headphone slightly off one ear they manage to focus better on the incoming message with one ear next to the headphone and monitor their own delivery in L2 with the other, partially released ear.

It is still unclear whether it is the same ear as their so called “telephone ear” or whether right-handed and left-handed interpreters always release the same ear when interpreting from L1 into L2 and from L2 into L1, but one thing already is clear: each one of the trainees has to try to find his/her “comfortable ear” for each of the language combinations. In my practical classes I just inform my PG students, trainees in Simultaneous Interpreting, about such a possibility and ask them to try each ear with each language combination. Some of them realize immediately during the class training that one of the ears is “more comfortable” for them, others need more time and more self-observation.

So what should we teach future interpreters? My answer is: techniques of interpreting. What does this mean? What kind of skills do we need to teach them?

Those skills are:

1. to listen in L1;
2. to understand in L1;
3. to memorise the information in L1;
4. to mentally translate, compress and "edit" the message from L1 into L2;
5. a) for consecutive interpreting:

and finally to verbalise the message in L2;

5. b) for simultaneous interpreting:

and finally to verbalise the message in L2 while listening to the new portion in L1.

Separate training for each skill may include:

1.- listening A

This mainly requires a lot of attention and concentration, which is why it is necessary:

· to introduce some "distracting" or “annoying” elements such as sounds (background noises), flashing lights, excessive gesticulation, etc. in order to make it more difficult/impede aural recognition;

· to work simultaneously with two different texts both in L1;

· to work simultaneously with two different texts both in L2;

· to work simultaneously with two different texts: one in L1 and the other in L2;

· to use “shadowing”, i.e. reading the text aloud while the trainer reads the same text simultaneously, introducing some new elements (changing figures, names, tenses, verbs, adjectives, etc.) with the comparison of the two texts at the end;

· to introduce phonemic shadowing which involves repeating each sound exactly as it was heard without waiting for a complete meaning unit. This specific skill helps to develop the mechanical aspect of simultaneous interpreting, in other words the ability to listen and speak simultaneously.

1.- listening B: Selective Listening combined with phrase shadowing/paraphrasing

·  While practising the so-called “selective listening” , the trainee is exposed to two different verbal messages. Each incoming message is presented to one ear through headphones. In such a case, the trainee is receiving two different incoming messages simultaneously. The task consists in “switching off” one of the ears through which comes the “irrelevant” message and focusing all the attention on the “relevant” verbal text. This specific training concludes either with phrase shadowing of the “relevant” incoming message or with later paraphrasing it.

2.- understanding

requires mainly language guessing and predicting skills.

·  Speed of presentation in L1 is very important: train interpreters for the highest speed possible.

·  Dialects and individual particularities of articulation (including defective ones) is another area for training. It is especially important for European languages such as English, Spanish or French.

·  The capability for good linguistic guessing, predicting and anticipating elements in sequence can be trained by introducing unfinished sentences in both languages (L1 and L2). This training is also especially important to develop the interpreter's ability to "edit" unfinished or cut phrases produced by some people in their spontaneous speech.

3.- memorise the information in L1

This requires skills such as instant, short, medium and long term active memory. It is necessary to work on:

·  the capacity to encode and decode texts using any symbol system (for consecutive interpreting);

·  a good ear for any foreign names and toponyms;

·  a good ear for figures and measures;

Special training is required for all of these skills. Very useful exercises include:

· memorising poems, prose, radio news;

· regular dictation on figures, names and measures first in L1, then in L2 and finally mixing both languages in one dictation.

4.- translation A (mentally)

requires important skills such as the ability to compose edited texts based on certain key-words (or symbols for consecutive interpreting) or good "editing" and text compression. Such skills need special training using the key-words methodology. The main options might be as follows:

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in L1 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L1.

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in L2 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L2.

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in L1 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L2.

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in L2 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L1.

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in both L1 and L2 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L1.

·  No previous presentation of any text, key-words are given in both L1 and L2 and the task is to make an “edited” sensible text in L2.

4.- translation B (sight)

·  sight translation;

·  sight interpreting.

5.- verbalisation

This requires the following skills to be developed:

for simultaneous interpreting:

·  to speak while listening;

·  the simultaneous “editing” of texts (working with macro-blocks on a syntagmatic level and “finishing unfinished sentences”);

for consecutive interpreting:

·  immediate “editing” in L2 of large pieces of texts using encoded or encrypted key-words.

Verbalisation and “editing” imply the “re-telling” or paraphrasing ability training which starts in L1 using key-words and some common symbols and then continues in L2.

Conclusions.

The training of future interpreters should necessarily include some psycholinguistic training, taking into account the fact that a major part of the work depends on the self-training of the students. The instructor's role, to aid self-preparation, is to provide some useful guidelines and exercises that can be used outside the language laboratory, without an instructor and without any sophisticated equipment. The aim of this article is to offer some general ideas concerning the self-training of future interpreters and the role of the instructor. Some basic differences and similarities in the training of simultaneous and consecutive interpreters are analysed.

·  Qualities of an Simultaneous Interpreter

·  keep in mind what their qualities are, and value their hard work:

o  Knowledge: They master both the source and the active (also called target) language and they’re 100 per cent capable of communicating in such languages in verbal and written forms

o  Resourcefulness: They get the message across instantly, using not only their language skills but also their knowledge of the subject matter of the conference or meeting

o  Intuition: In order to perform better in their everyday activities, they develop abilities to improvise and to construe facts in fast manner

o  Education: Simultaneous interpreters and translators are college-educated professionals

o  Good Manners: Their voice is pleasant, and their manners are appropriate for interaction with one or dozens of people

o  Cultured: Their knowledge of the world allows them to act with tact and to sort many unexpected situations

Abstract: This paper discusses memory training in interpreting. According Gile's Effort Model (a Processing Capacity Account), short-term memory is an essential part in the process of interpreting. This paper analyzes the major characteristics of Short-term Memory (STM) and their implications for interpreters' memory training. The author believes that interpreting is an STM-centered activity, which includes encoding of information from the Source Language, storing of information, retrieval of information, and decoding of information into the target language. The training of STM skills is the first step in training a professional interpreter. Tactics for memory training for interpreters like retelling, categorization, generalization, comparison, shadowing exercises, mnemonics, etc. are presented in this paper.

Key Words: Interpreter Training, Memory Training, Short-Term Memory, Effort Model

1. Why Memory Training?

Interpreting is defined as "oral translation of a written text" (Shuttleworth & Cowie: 1997:83). Mahmoodzadeh gives a more detailed definition of interpreting:

Interpreting consists of presenting in the target language, the exact meaning of what is uttered in the source language either simultaneously or consecutively, preserving the tone of the speaker (1992:231).

Whether novice or experienced, all interpreters find this profession demanding and challenging. Phelan says that "when an interpreter is working, he or she cannot afford to have a bad day. One bad interpreter can ruin a conference" (2001:4). In discussing the qualifications required for an interpreter, Phelan mentions that:

"The interpreter needs a good short-term memory to retain what he or she has just heard and a good long-term memory to put the information into context. Ability to concentrate is a factor as is the ability to analyze and process what is heard" (2001:4-5).

Mahmoodzadeh also emphasizes that a skillful interpreter is expected to "have a powerful memory." (1992:233). Daniel Gile (1992,1995) emphasizes the difficulties and efforts involved in interpreting tasks and strategies needed to overcome them, observing that many failures occur in the absence of any visible difficulty. He then proposes his Effort Models for interpreting. He says that "The Effort Models are designed to help them [interpreters] understand these difficulties [of interpreting] and select appropriate strategies and tactics. They are based on the concept of Processing Capacity and on the fact that some mental operations in interpreting require much Processing Capacity."(1992:191) According to Gile, Consecutive Interpreting consists of two phases: a listening and reformulation phrase and a reconstruction phase (1992:191, 1995b:179):

Phase One: I=L+M+N

I=Interpreting, L=listening and analyzing the source language speech, M=short-term memory required between the time information is heard and the time it is written down in the notes, and N=note-taking.

Phase Two: I= Rem+Read+P

In this Phase Two of Consecutive Interpreting, interpreters retrieve messages from their short-term memory and reconstruct the speech (Rem), read the notes (N), and produce the Target Language Speech (P). Gile's Effort Model for Simultaneous Interpreting is:

SI=L+M+P

SI=Simultaneous Interpreting.

L=Listening and Analysis, which includes "all the mental operations between perception of a discourse by auditory mechanisms and the moment at which the interpreter either assigns, or decides not to assign, a meaning (or several potential meanings) to the segment which he has heard."

M=Short-term Memory, which includes "all the mental operations related to storage in memory of heard segments of discourse until either their restitution in the target language, their loss if they vanish from memory, or a decision by the interpreter not to interpret them."

P=Production, which includes "all the mental operations between the moment at which the interpreter decides to convey a datum or an idea and the moment at which he articulates (overtly produces) the form he has prepared to articulate" (1995a:93).

Gile emphasizes that the memory effort is assumed to stem form the need to store the words of a proposition until the hearer receives the end of that proposition. The storage of information is claimed to be particularly demanding in SI, since both the volume of information and the pace of storage and retrieval are imposed by the speaker (1995a:97-98).

In both models, Gile emphasizes the significance of Short-term Memory. It is actually one of the specific skills which should be imparted to trainees in the first stage of training. Among all the skills and techniques which are required for a good interpreter, memory skill is the first one which should be introduced to trainee interpreters.

2. Memory in Interpreting

2.1 Short Term vs. Long Term Memory

Psychological studies of human memory make a distinction between Short-Term Memory (STM) and Long-Term Memory (LTM). The idea of short-term memory simply means that you are retaining information for a short period of time without creating the neural mechanisms for later recall. Long-Term Memory occurs when you have created neural pathways for storing ideas and information which can then be recalled weeks, months, or even years later. To create these pathways, you must make a deliberate attempt to encode the information in the way you intend to recall it later. Long-term memory is a learning process. And it is essentially an important part of the interpreter's acquisition of knowledge, because information stored in LTM may last for minutes to weeks, months, or even an entire life. The duration of STM is very short. It is up to 30 seconds. Peterson (1959) found it to be 6 - 12 seconds, while Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and Hebb (1949) state it is 30 seconds. Memory in interpreting only lasts for a short time. Once the interpreting assignment is over, the interpreter moves on to another one, often with different context, subject and speakers. Therefore, the memory skills which need to be imparted to trainee interpreters are STM skills.

2.2 Major Characteristics of STM

Input of information: It is generally held that information enters the STM as a result of applying attention to the stimulus, which is about a quarter of a second according to the findings of both Sperling(1960) and Crowden(1982). However, McKay's (1973, in Radford and Govier, 1991: 382) findings do not fully support this, asserting that unattended information may enter the STM.

Capacity: As mentioned in the previous section, the capacity of STM is limited and small. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) propose that it is seven items of information (give or take two). Miller (1956) says it is seven "chunks." Another possibility may be that the limiing factor is not the STM's storage capacity, but its processing capacity (Gross:1990:55).

Modality: To store information in STM, it must be encoded, and there is a variety of possibilities as to how this operates. There are three main possibilities in STM: (1) Acoustic (Phonemic) coding is rehearsing through sub-vocal sounds (Conrad, 1964 and Baddeley:1966). (2) Visual coding is, as implied, storing information as pictures rather than sounds. This applies especially to nonverbal items, particularly if they are difficult to describe using words. In very rare cases some people may have a "photographic memory," but for the vast majority, the visual code is much less effective than this (Posner and Keele: 1967). (3) Semantic coding is applying meaning to information, relating it to something abstract (Baddeley:1990, Goodhead:1999)

Information Loss: There are three main theories as to why we forget from our STM: (1) Displacement—existing information is replaced by newly received information when the storage capacity is full (Waugh and Norman:1965) (2) Decay—information decays over time (Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan, 1975). (3) Interference—other information present in the storage at the same time distorts the original information (Keppel and Underwood:1962).

Retrieval: There are modes of retrieval of information from STM: (1) Serial search—items in STM are examined one at a time until the desired information is retrieved (Sternberg:1966). (2) Activation—dependence on activation of the particular item reaching a critical point (Monsell:1979, Goodhead:1999).

3. Memory Training

The purpose of memory (STM) training in interpreting is to achieve a better understanding of the source language, which will lead to adequate interpreting. As Lin Yuru et al. put it, "Memory in consecutive interpreting consists of nothing more than understanding the meaning, which is conveyed by the words" (Lin et al., 1999:9). Understanding is the first step in successful interpreting; therefore, memory training is to be provided in the early stage of interpreter training. Memory functions differently in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, because the duration of memory is longer in CI than in SI. There are different methods of training STM for CI and SI respectively. Interpreting starts with the encoding of the information from the original speaker. According to Gile's Effort Model, interpreting is an STM-centered activity; the process of interpreting could be re-postulated into:

Encoding of information from the Source Language + Storing Information + Retrieval of Information + Decoding Information into the Target language.

In Consecutive Interpreting, there is probably up to 15 minutes (depending on the speaker's segments) for the interpreter to encode and then store the information. This is the first phase of Gile's Effort Model for CI. In the second phase of Gile's Model, the interpreter starts to retrieve information and decode it into the target language. In SI, encoding and decoding of information happen almost at the same time. The duration for storing the information is very limited. Therefore, in the first step of interpreting, encoding (understanding) information uttered in the SL is the key to memory training.

According to the previous description, there are three main possibilities of storing information in STM: (1) Acoustic Coding; (2) Visual Coding and (3) Semantic Coding. Visual coding may be used by interpreters in conference situations with multimedia. Notes in interpreting are to assist in such visual coding of information. But in most interpreting contexts, interpreters will depend on acoustic and semantic coding. Therefore, exercises should be designed for this purpose. The following methods are recommended:

Retelling in the Source Language: The instructor either reads or plays a recording of a text of about 200 words for the trainees to retell in the same language. The trainees should not be allowed to take any notes. In the first instance, trainees should be encouraged to retell the text in the same words of the original to the largest possible extent. The following tactics should be used by the trainees after a certain time of training on retelling: Categorization: Grouping items of the same properties; Generalization: Drawing general conclusions from particular examples or message from the provided text; Comparison: Noticing the differences and similarities between different things, facts and events; Description: Describing a scene, a shape, or size of an object, etc. Trainees are encouraged to describe, summarize, and abstract the original to a large extent in their own words in exercises (2) to (5). Shadowing Exercise: Which is defined as "a paced, auditory tracking task which involves the immediate vocalization of auditorily presented stimuli, i.e., word-for-word repetition in the same language, parrot-style, of a message presented through a headphone"(Lambert 1899:381). This kind of exercise is recommended for training of Simultaneous Interpreting, especially the splitting of attention skills and the short-term memory in SI.

There is another tool which is effective in memory training: Mnemonic to Memory. Mnemonic is a device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering. Mnemonics are methods for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall. A very simple example of a mnemonic is the '30 days hath September' rhyme. The basic principle of Mnemonics is to use as many of the best functions of the human brain as possible to encode information.

The human brain has evolved to encode and interpret complex stimuli—images, color, structure, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, spatial awareness, emotion, and language—using them to make sophisticated interpretations of the environment. Human memory is made up of all these features.

Typically, however, information presented to be remembered is from one source—normally words on a page. While reading words on a page reflects one of the most important aspects of human evolution, it is only one of the many skills and resources available to the human mind. Mnemonics seek to use all of these resources. By encoding language and numbers in sophisticated, striking images which flow into other strong images, we can accurately and reliably encode both information and the structure of information to be easily recalled later (Manktelow:2003).

It is also advisable that Exercises with Interference (e.g. noises) be provided in order to prevent information loss in the Short-Term Memory, since the environment and other information present in the storage may reduce the information encoded. Recording speeches with specially 'inserted' noises as a background is a recommended classroom practice, since this is a very effective method to enable the students to concentrate and thus strengthen their STM duration. 

4. Conclusion

Short-Term Memory is an essential part of interpreting, but memory training has long been ignored by professional trainers. From the above analysis, we can conclude that memory skills in interpreting could be acquired by effectively designed exercises. With a well-'trained' short-term memory, interpreters are actually equipped with an effective tool for the encoding and decoding information. It is, therefore, advised that institutions of interpreter training include "memory training" in the design of their courses.

Notes:

1. Training of professional interpreters has a three-part structure: the first stage is introduction to skills specific to interpreting, for example through memory training and note-taking exercises. This is followed by intensive classroom practice. The third stage involves work experience and observation where the main focus is on task achievement.   

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