Graduate Institute of Translation & Interpretation

The field of translation and interpretation has successfully established itself as an academic discipline in Taiwan for around one-fourth of a century. It’s high time we reviewed all the research up to this point so as to not only understand what we have already achieved and identify subfields that need follow-up examination, but also base ourselves on the current research findings and further our efforts in order to explore this discipline more comprehensively. Therefore, this study replicates the research of Liao(2007) and aims at reviewing as extensively as possible the research papers dedicated to the area of interpretation with a view to identifying key issues of the academic community’s concern and an overall research preference. A research method of content analysis was conducted on articles from two T&I journals in Taiwan, conference papers, and Master’s theses and Doctor’s dissertations on interpretation, all of which were analyzed and categorized based on their research themes, methods, languages studied, among others. By reflecting on the research literature published between 2004 and 2013, I seek to delineate the current state of research on interpretation and offer suggestions for possible directions for T&I scholars and researchers in the future.

This study aims to investigate the public sector demand for translation and interpretation (T&I) services. Results indicate that over 60% of the government units surveyed need translation and interpretation services; the total demand, which is diversified, is valued at more than NT$100,000,000. In fulfilling this need, many government units seek resources from within the organization while other seek to outsource. Moreover, it has been found that in the selection of translation and interpretation providers, the main criteria are experience, educational background and knowledge of the domain. The providing of stable, high quality translation and interpretation services to the public sector faces certain challenges, which include: (1) an insufficient budget; (2) a shortage of human resources. It is clear that T&I services, which include the translation of Chinese works and documents into foreign languages, need to be expanded to include more languages and to facilitate access to service providers. It is also clear that translation and interpretation services need to be enhanced by reviewing current policies and by continuing to facilitate the healthy development of this industry.

Sight translation (ST) is unique in that the interpreter relies solely on reading for information retrieval -- and therefore more easily influenced by distinct linguistic structures of different languages -- while under the pressure of instantaneously providing smooth oral rendition of the output (Chen, 2015). Unearthing the cognitive nature of ST will not only help to enrich our understanding of translation and interpreting as highly demanding communicative activities, but also has the potential of enlightening interpreter training, facilitating the development of ST skills. However, most ST studies to date, especially in the language pair of English and Chinese, are based on product analysis (for example, see). While we have accumulated valuable data on the differences between the performance of interpreters at different levels, what happens in the process-how experience leads to distinct behaviour of the experts-remains largely unknown; being able to identify the nuances may provide insights into boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of training. To complement product-based research, the current study used an eye tracker to examine English-Chinese ST. Through an integrated analysis of both the cognitive process and the final output, this study aimed to reveal the impacts of interpreting experience upon different stages of ST, including the behaviour of reading ahead and pausing and also how the output has been affected. Three texts of 175 words were adapted from three speeches by the same speaker. Rewriting was kept to a minimum to maintain the authenticity and features of formal speeches in a diplomatic setting. Each participant was asked to perform three different tasks: silent reading (SR), reading aloud (RA), and ST. Two senior AIIC interpreters were invited to rate the ST recordings of 17 experienced interpreters, all with more than 150 days of interpreting experience, and 18 interpreting students, who had undergone sight translation training within three years by the time of the experiment. In addition, six Chinese native speakers were recruited to listen to the recordings and mark observable pauses for further analysis.

This study aims to investigate the cognitive nature of sight translation by analysing the reading behaviour in the process and the output. Three tasks, silent reading, reading aloud, and sight translation, were included in the experiment, in which two groups of participants-interpreting students and untrained bilinguals-took part. The results show that the two groups were almost identical in the first two tasks, further substantiating the similarity of their language command, but were drastically different in how they tackle sight translation. Interpreting students provided much more accurate, fluent, and adequate renditions with much less time and fewer fixations. However, their efficiency at information retrieval was statistically similar to that of the untrained bilinguals', showing that the students were more efficient by being more "economical" during reading rather than by reading ahead faster, as some would intuitively expect. Chunking skills seem to have been at play behind their remarkable performance.

Translation and interpreting are different in many aspects. For the former, the source and target text remain available and communication between participants happens asynchronously; the latter demands immediate interaction and speech signals are fast fading. The two activities and their respective contexts, including working conditions, are also dissimilar in the professional world. A quick glance may leave an impression that entirely different training is in order. However, translation and interpreting as a profession also share tremendous similarities-the European Master's Translation competence framework adequately applies to interpreting. This action research study aimed to motivate beginning interpreting students to overcome challenges in interpreting practice via translation activities. A two-stage translation workshop was designed, and the results show that students became more engaged in the workshop when the authenticity of the tasks and the relevance between translation practice and interpreting performance were elucidated.

This study investigated the impact of professional experience on the process and product of sight interpreting/translation (SiT). Seventeen experienced interpreters, with at least 150 days' professional experience, and 18 interpreting students were recruited to conduct three tasks: silent reading, reading aloud, and SiT. All participants had similar interpreter training backgrounds. The data of the SiT task have been reported here, with two experienced interpreters (both AIIC members) assessing the participants' interpretations on accuracy and style, which includes fluency and other paralinguistic performance. The findings show that professional experience contributed to higher accuracy, although there was no between-group difference in the mean score on style, overall task time, length of the SiT output , and mean fixation duration of each stage of reading. The experienced practitioners exhibited more varied approaches at the beginning of the SiT task, with some biding their time longer than the others before oral production started, but quality was not affected. Moving along, the practitioners showed better language flexibility in that their renditions were faster, steadier , and less disrupted by pauses and the need to read further to maintain the flow of interpretation.

林慶隆,國家教育研究院編譯發展中心研究員,E-mail: [email protected]。 陳子瑋,國立臺灣師範大學翻譯研究所副教授,E-mail: [email protected](本文通訊 作者)。 彭致翎,國家教育研究院編譯發展中心副研究員,E-mail: [email protected]。 何承恩,國立臺灣師範大學翻譯研究所博士候選人,E-mail:[email protected]。 張舜芬,國立臺灣師範大學翻譯研究所,E-mail: [email protected]。 吳培若,國家教育研究院編譯發展中心研究助理,E-mail: [email protected]。 本文係國家教育研究院編譯發展中心研究計畫:臺灣翻譯產業調查研究(NAER-10012-F-2-01-2-02)之部分研究成果,特此致謝。 臺灣政府單位翻譯需求及人力資源問題分析

Translation and interpreting are different in many aspects. For the former, the source and target text remain available and communication between participants happens asynchronously; the latter demands immediate interaction and speech signals are fast fading. The two activities and their respective contexts, including working conditions, are also dissimilar in the professional world. A quick glance may leave an impression that entirely different training is in order. However, translation and interpreting as a profession also share tremendous similarities — the European Master’s Translation competence framework adequately applies to interpreting. This action research study aimed to motivate beginning interpreting students to overcome challenges in interpreting practice via translation activities. A two-stage translation workshop was designed, and the results show that students became more engaged in the workshop when the authenticity of the tasks and the relevance between translation...

This study investigated cognitive aspects of sight translation by analysing the reading behaviour in the process and the output. In our empirical study, two groups of participants – interpreting trainees and untrained bilinguals – carried out three tasks: (a) silent reading, (b) reading aloud, and (c) sight translation. The results show that the two groups were almost identical in the first two tasks, further substantiating the similarity of their language command, but were drastically different in how they tackled sight translation. Interpreting trainees provided much more accurate, fluent, and adequate renditions with much less time and fewer fixations. However, their efficiency at information retrieval was statistically similar to that of the untrained bilinguals. Thus, interpreting trainees were more efficient by being more “economical” during reading, rather than by reading ahead faster, as some would intuitively expect. Chunking skills seem to have also been at play behind the...

This study investigated the impact of professional experience on the process and product of sight interpreting/translation (SiT). Seventeen experienced interpreters, with at least 150 days’ professional experience, and 18 interpreting students were recruited to conduct three tasks: silent reading, reading aloud, and SiT. All participants had similar interpreter training backgrounds. The data of the SiT task are reported here, with two experienced interpreters (both AIIC members) assessing the participants’ inter­pretations on accuracy and style, which includes fluency and other paralinguistic performance. The findings show that professional experience contributed to higher accuracy, although there was no between-group difference in the mean score on style, overall task time, length of the SiT output, and mean fixation duration of each stage of reading. The experienced practitioners exhibited more varied approaches at the beginning of the SiT task, with some biding their time longer ...