Interpreting Performance
Interpreting is defined as a form of translation in which a first and final rendition in another language is produced on the basis of a one-time presentation of an utterance in a source language[1](Pöchhacker，2004).Community interpreting is a service that is invariably rooted in the communities and societies that require and provide it，and as such，reflects the practices，norms，standards，needs and policies of these communities and societies(Remael and Carroll，2015).
Professional interpreters have a responsibility to acquire the necessary language and interpreting skills，to gain an understanding of the settings in which they work and their requirements，the purposes for which language is used in each of these settings，and to abide by a code of ethics(Hale，2007:35).Their role is derived from observed behavior over time，and is comprised of the evaluation of behavior that is expected by professional associations and other occupational groupings(Gentile，Ozolins，and Vasilakakos，1996).Wadensjö(1998:102)splits the role of the interpreter into two roles that are not mutually exclusive，but complement each other.She relates to the two models as“relaying other’s talk”，and“co-coordinating others’talk”.The first model coincides with Cambridge’s one which contends that interpreters should not give personal advice or opinions，maintain strict confidentiality，abide by a strict code of ethics，and do their upmost to ensure the full，accurate transfer of information.The second of Wadensjö’s models(1998)is similar to the“advocacy”model of interpreting，in which the interpreter influences the interview，especially when the phrase from the source language is difficult to convey into the target language[2].Additionally，Hale(2007)contends that professional interpreters often hold an obligation and responsibility to acquire the necessary language and interpreting skills，so they can gain an understanding of the requirements of the settings that they work for，and the corresponding code of ethics(Hale，2007).Despite this，few training opportunities exist，and the lack of general understanding of the interpreter’s role and a lack of appreciation of the task at hand often places unwarranted pressure upon the interpreters，making it more difficult for interpreters to perform professionally.Interpreting requires a great deal of cognitive processing capacity，and an excellent knowledge of at least two languages(Ivars，Catalayud，and Forés，2014).Therefore，before examining how an MBL environment impacts interpreting performance，it is important to understand the cognitive underlying of interpreting performance.The three main steps of the interpreting performance process are comprehension，conversion and delivery(Hale，2007).
Comprehension involves the mutual understanding of two languages in communication.This involves a complex set of issues，which becomes even more complicated when the two cultures of the languages become involved.Pöchhacker (2004:119)states that “it is now an established fact that comprehension is not a passive，receptive process but depends crucially on what is already known”.He states that the processing of new information requires the“active construction”of mental representation，with the input of different sorts of pre-existing knowledge such as “lexical，syntactic and pragmatic”(Pöchhacker，2004:119).Conversely，Gile (1995)states that interpreters comprehend through the analysis of the sound waves carrying the sourcelanguage speech which reach the interpreter’s ears through the identification of words and the“utterance”of the word.Ma(2013)takes a similar approach，and contends that the interpreter comprehends information through auditory and visual perception.Through the fast-paced ever-changing environment in which interpreting occurs，such background factors will influence the quality of the interpreter’s listening ability(Ma，2013).Bajo et al.(2001)also stress the importance of comprehension in interpreting performance.They state that due to the different linguistic codes and temporal pressure experienced by the interpreter，“an interpreter must devote 80%of their effort or cognitive ability to listening and comprehension，and only 20%to speech production”(Bajo et al.，2001:28).
Conversion represents the phase of the mental translation process.During this stage，the interpreter makes strategic mental decisions in order to decide what the most accurate rendition of the chosen phrase is in the target language(Hale，2007:21).An emerging factor of difficulty which is not found in translation is the concept of real-time.Interpreters have little opportunity to contemplate their choices，and must act decisively.Ma(2013)describes this process as“encoding”，in which the long-term memory(LTM)is activated to acquire target language(TL)elements，such as syntactic and semantic word processing.The success of this procedure also depends on the interpreter’s second language proficiency，and his/her mastery of various kinds of translation skills.Bajo et al.(2001)explain the difficulty experienced by interpreters during this stage.During conversion，both translation and consecutive/simultaneous interpreting[3]share the analysis of linguistic input at different levels(phonological/orthographic，semantic/lexical)in order to achieve an adequate mental representation (Kintsch，1998).However，whilst the processes of comprehension and translation occur serially in translation，they occur simultaneously in interpreting，and these differences create qualitative changes in the way the information is converted and then later produced(Bajo et al.，2001).
The delivery phase comprises the end product，the verbal output after the previous two phases have been completed(Hale，2007:24).The information converted from the source language，after being mentally reformatted into the target language，is now orally articulated(Christoffels，de Groot，and Kroll，2006).However，the style of the delivery will depend on the type and mode of interpreting and for what purpose the interpreting is used for.The general purpose of interpreting is to convey the propositional content of the original speech to the target audience in the most succinct and coherent way，but other modes exist，including dialogue and whispering simultaneously into the mainstream language，which focus on both content and form.Ma(2013:1233)describes it as the“expressing procedure”，in which the previous combination of sound and effective expression directly influences the final output.He places a heavy emphasis on the preceding procedures as decisive factors in the success of the final procedures，yet still points out that interpreters must pay attention in the way they express the interpreted dialogue.It should be“loud enough for everybody to hear，smooth and even，and the pitch should be appropriate”(Ma:1233).
Through understanding how the process of interpreting performance occurs，an insight is provided into how the cognitive aspects of interpreting will affect student’s confidence and the completion of the interpreting task at an adequate level.As tasks in an interpreting classroom are primarily cognitive，goal-referenced，and context-specific(Lee，2014:185)，this provides invaluable information to teachers as it makes them to understand how students should be guided through their learning programme.