Identifying the language skill of consecutive interpreters. Towards the development of recommendations on language choices in interpreters’ notes

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Published: Apr 12, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ijltic.16165
Keywords:
consecutive interpreting note-taking language combination source language target language multi-language interpreting
ANNA SASAKI
Research Associate of SILS Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan); Doctorate student of GSICCS Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan)
Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale empirical study on note-taking in consecutive interpretation. Present-day interpretation labor market has faced a number of changes, as nowadays interpreters challenge themselves to work with different language combinations. A sufficient level of an in-demand language skill is now critical for employability of young trainees in the labor market. The present research illustrates the way interpreter trainees with different language skill sets carry out similar tasks in different interpretation settings.

For primary research data, the study uses results of a background survey, complete with audio recordings of the performance and the notes produced by eight subjects while interpreting an English source text consecutively into Japanese. The aim of the study is to explore the differences in consecutive interpretation of interpreters in classical settings (L2 to L1) and in emerging new trends in the labor market (L2 to L3). The article argues that the language skill required for each trend in the interpretation labor market is defined by the specific interpretation settings.

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Author Biography
ANNA SASAKI, Research Associate of SILS Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan); Doctorate student of GSICCS Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan)
Anna SASAKI (Doctorate Student of GSICCS Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan; Doctor of Philology, Moscow, RF) is a Research Associate of School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University (Tokyo). Her Doctor of Philology Thesis was written on the topic of translation of onomatopoeia proper names in children’s literary fairy tales of 20th century. Her main research interests are in the field of translation and interpretation, bilinguals, code-switching and mental lexicon. She has been working as an interpreter since 2010 and as a translator since 2015.
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