影响对英汉同声传译理解的认知因素的实证研究
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摘要
近年来,随着中国经济的快速平稳发展,中国已日益融入国际社会,因此,各种级别的国际会议日益增多。但是,在中国,能够胜任同声传译的人员相对于这一市场来说极为有限。以笔者生活和学习的城市长春为例,随着各种国际活动的日益增多,如东北亚国际博览会、中国长春农业博览会等,可胜任这些国际活动的同声传译译员却十分短缺。同声传译是一种即时性的跨文化交际活动,要求译员不仅能在有限时间内处理大量信息,而且能有效地保持信息,这就对译员本身的能力有着较高的要求,除了专业人士,一般的英语学习者和英语爱好者很难胜任这一职业。
     就其实质而言,口译本身是一个复杂的认知过程,包含三大方面:理解,记忆和输出。由于理解是翻译的基础,因此口译的理解过程是保证口译的质量,促进口译顺利进行的至关重要的前提。在口译理解过程中,除了语音听辨、语义经验、句法经验等语言因素,能有效地帮助译员完成理解的还有重要的心理因素。它们不但可以帮助译员完成听辨,还同时起着揭示原语词义、帮助建立“意义单位”乃至帮助语篇理解等重要作用,这样口译译员才能保证在听辨的同时向语义理解过渡。
     基于以上原因,作者提出了两个研究问题:1、背景知识和逻辑分析能力等认知因素是否与同传理解有关系?2、如果有关系,这两个认知因素是如何影响同传理解的?
     本研究中的研究对象为吉林大学外国语学院MTI专业二年级的学生(2010级)。本研究中涉及到的研究工具有:外国语学院419室同传设备、录音设备、根据所考察认知因素而设计的调查问卷等。文中所采用的调查方法有调查法、实验法、个例研究法。作者从哈佛大学公正公开课系列演讲中选取三篇作为实验材料。这类材料对于普通英语相关专业的研究生会略为困难,但更加适合MTI专业二年级学生。
     根据本研究中所要考查的认知因素,实验中将研究对象分为两组,A组和B组,每组10人。A组用来观察背景知识对同传理解的影响如何,B组用来考查逻辑分析能力对同传理解的影响如何。为避免实验中出现意外情况,作者多准备了几份材料,以防出现因设备故障或人为操作失误而需要重新操作,从而保证实验的顺利进行。
     每组分别进行试验,均包括三大步骤:同传录音、相关考查因素问卷调查、听众满意度调查。在进行实验的三天前,作者安排A组实验对象观看哈佛大学公正公开课的前三课,查阅关于约翰·洛克(英国哲学家,A组实验材料与其哲学观点有关)哲学观点的资料。在实验当天,请A组同学观看哈佛大学公正公开课第四课(10分钟节选)并进行同传和录音。在录音结束后,请A组同学填写《背景知识问卷调查表》。B组研究对象不需事先查阅相关内容,直接在实验当天进行哈佛大学公正公开课第六课同传(10分钟节选)进行同传并录音。在录音结束后,请B组同学填写《逻辑分析能力测试》。为衡量每组研究对象的同传质量,作者在实验结束后在B组中任选三名实验对象听A组各个实验对象的录音,填写《听众满意度调查表》并计算得分;同理,作者也在A组实验对象中任选三人听B组实验对象的录音,填写《听众满意度调查表》并计算得分,然后分别取A组和B组的每个实验对象所得平均分作为其最终得分。最后,将A组实验对象《背景知识问卷调查》所得分数与其《听众满意度调查表》所得分数进行比较分析,将B组实验对象《逻辑分析能力测试》所得分数与其《听众满意度调查表》所得分数进行比较分析,得出以下结论:背景知识和逻辑分析能力与同声传译的理解有着较为紧密的联系:背景知识越丰富,同声传译的理解越好,同传的质量也相对较高,反之亦然;逻辑分析能力越强,同声传译的理解越好,同传的质量也相对较高,反之亦然。
     由于心理因素包含范围很广、对同声传译理解过程影响复杂,仅仅通过一个实验很难将各个心理因素一一衡量并进行分析,因此,在本次调研中,笔者选取了两项对口译理解过程影响较为明显,对笔者来说研究起来切实可行的认知因素:背景知识和逻辑分析能力。本次调研的目的就是通过口译学习者对不同材料进行同声传译的情况,分析影响口译理解过程中的认知因素,背景知识和逻辑分析能力对口译理解产生的影响。以此为今后的口译学习者提供参考,以便他们能够通过注意这些因素,而提高自身的口译认知能力进而成为一名优秀的口译译员。尽管本文对影响口译理解的认知因素进行了一定的调查和研究,但对问题的解决还是远远不够的,我们仍有很多任务需要完成。作者通过本文的研究成果以及研究局限,希望能够为对此课题感兴趣的研究人员提供些许建议和参考,以做出更深入更具有创新性的成就,为外语教学做出更大的贡献!
As politics, economy, culture and society are rapidly developing, there appear numerousinternational conferences globally. Interpreting, especially simultaneous interpreting (SI), nowplays a key role in achieving the cross-cultural communication of people from differentcountries and regions. SI features with simultaneity, time-saving and directness. It is obviousthat simultaneous interpreters are in severe shortage now in China, particularly in themetropolitan cities. Moreover, this kind of shortage is rather outstanding in the city ofChangchun in recent years.
     Simultaneous interpreting is a kind of cross-cultural communication conveying a largeamount of instant information, which needs to be processed efficiently by an interpreterduring limited time. Essentially, simultaneous interpreting itself is a sophisticated cognitiveprocess which consists of comprehension, memorization and expression. Sincecomprehension is the foundation of the whole interpreting process, it's a critical premise for asuccessful simultaneous interpreting. What can help an interpreter's comprehension not onlyincludes such linguistic skills as phonetic recognition, semantic analysis, and syntax analysis,but also includes certain cognitive factors. And these cognitive factors can facilitate theinterpreter’s understanding of semantic meaning of original language, and thus help smooththe way for the construction of sense group and getting the overall meaning of the wholediscourse.
     The research questions of this thesis can be concluded into two parts:1. Do the cognitivefactors, background knowledge and logic analysis capability have relationship with theinterpreting comprehension?2. And if they do, how would they affect the interpretingcomprehension?
     The subjects of this research are identified to be the second grade students of the Masterof Translation and Interpreting (MTI) major (orientation of Interpretation, Grade2010) inCollege of Foreign Languages of Jilin University. Their English language competences are almost at the same level. The tools involved in this research include simultaneousinterpretation equipments in Room419of College of Foreign Languages, Jilin University,voice recording devices, questionnaires accordingly designed for different cognitive factors,and Microsoft Office Excel. And the investigation methods applied in this research are surveymethod, experimental method, and case study method. The author selects three lectures fromthe Harvard University’s Justice with Michael Sandel’s series of lectures, which arecomparatively too professional for general postgraduate of English-related majors but aremuch fitter for the subjects in this research, second grade MTI students.
     The research is designed as follows: According to the two cognitive factors that areintended to research in this study, the subjects are randomly divided into two groups, each ofwhich consists of10subjects, respectively abbreviated as Group A and Group B hereafter.The ten subjects of Group A are used for observing and studying if the cognitive factor,background knowledge, can affect interpreting comprehension, and those of Group B are usedfor observing and studying how the cognitive factor, logic analysis capability, can affectinterpreting comprehension.
     In case that the set research had to be done again and the prepared material(s) is (are) notnew for the subjects any more due to the interpreting equipment’s malfunctions or personnel’smisoperations, the author prepared extra similar materials for each group accordingly toensure a smooth research process with reasonable results.
     There are totally three steps for each group: recording of the interpretation, post-testsurvey and evaluation.
     As for Group A, the steps are as follows: Firstly, three days before the research theauthor required the subjects to watch the videos of the first three lectures from the HarvardUniversity’s Justice with Michael Sandel’s series of lectures and look up the relatedinformation of John Locke, an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the mostinfluential Enlightenment thinkers. And his philosophical views would be discussed in detailsin the material that the subjects in Group A would interpret in this research. Secondly, on theday that the research is conducted, the fourth lecture of Harvard University’s Justice withMichael Sandel’s series of lectures. You’re your Motive&The Supreme Principle of Morality, would be played in the experiment and the subjects would interpret it simultaneously, andtheir voice would be recorded respectively. Lastly, after the interpreting process, every subjectwould do a survey specially designed on background knowledge with questions askingwhether they had already done the preparations as the author told them and their opinionsabout background knowledge and so on.
     Experiment process for Group B: The investigation subjects would not be told to prepareanything before the experiment and on the day that the research is done, the sixth lecture ofHarvard University’s Justice with Michael Sandel’s series of lectures, Hired Guns, would beplayed in the experiment and the subjects would interpret it simultaneously, and their voicewould be recorded respectively. And then, after the interpreting process, every subject woulddo a Questionnaires of Logic Analysis Capability specially designed to examine the level thatthe subjects’ logic analysis capability can reach.
     In order to evaluate the interpretation qualities of the subjects in each group, threesubjects of Group B would be chosen randomly to listen to the records of Group A andcomplete the Questionnaires of Audience Satisfaction, and in the same way, three subjects ofGroup A would be chosen randomly to listen to the records of Group B and complete theQuestionnaires of Audience Satisfaction. At last, the average score of each subject of bothGroup A and Group B would be calculated.
     This paper, in the way of analyzing the data of Group A and Group B and the results ofthe Questionnaires of Audience Satisfaction,shows that the cognitive factors, backgroundknowledge and capacity of logical analysis,can affect the interpreting comprehension in apositive way, using descriptive data.
     In conclusion, background knowledge exerts a significant effect on interpretingperformance. The activation of background knowledge facilitates the interpretingperformance.And the logic analysis capability would play the key part in it when theinterpreter lacks the support from his background knowledge. While doing the logic analysistowards the contents he is listening, including longitudinal analysis and horizontal analysis,the interpreter can understand the logic implied among the sentence and quickly grasp themeanings that the speaker wants to express in his speech.
     As cognitive factors are rather complicated, which are hardly measured and analyzed injust one research, in this research the author elects two cognitive factors that can affect theinterpretation greatly and are feasible for the author to measure and analyze,backgroundknowledge and logic analysis capability. This research aims to analyze how the cognitivefactors, background knowledge and logic analysis capability, can influence thecomprehension in English-Chinese simultaneous interpreting and it can be helpful forinterpreting students.
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