To Probe Employed Consecutive Interpreting Strategies of One Equivalent Terms among Iranian Translation Learners

Abstract

In the third millennium, the role of interpretation seems vital for several purposes like education, politics, commerce, healthcare, and so on. So, the performance of interpreters would definitely influence on further success in above mentioned objectives. In the present study, the researchers tried to investigate employed strategies in Persian to English consecutive interpreting of medical and healthcare terms with only one equivalent word by interpreting learners across gender. To this end, twenty four male and female interpreting learners were selected based on the obtained scores in a proficiency test and an interpreting exam. Then, they were asked to listen and interpret consecutively a Persian medical audio file. All interpreters were free to take notes or any kind of techniques they deemed necessary. While they were involved in the process of interpreting consecutively, their voices were recorded for further analysis. Next, the collected data were analyzed thoroughly to identify the employed strategies by consecutive interpreters as they were encountered with terms with only one word equivalent in English. As the results indicated, among six common employed strategies, both male and female interpreting learners employed approximation/ attenuation as the most frequent strategy and transcodage/ calque as the least one. Also, further statistical analysis showed no difference between male and female interpreting learners in strategy employment. The results of the present study could be helpful for novice interpreters, interpreting training courses, interpreting syllabus design, and workshops.