Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances

The present study describes my experience of teaching undergraduate translation and interpreting (TI) majors how to improve their performance in KoreanintoEnglish (KE) consecutive interpreting (CI). The present study i) offers an account of classroom interactions in a fourthyear KE CI course designated for advanced students in the English Interpretation Translation (EIT) Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS); ii) describes

통번역교육연구 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances*: 1) Looking for hints in student journals & interviews with students Nam, Won Jun (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) I Introduction: why identify causes of errors? The present study describes my experience of teaching undergraduate translation and interpreting (T&I) majors how to improve their performance in Korean-into-English (K-E) consecutive interpreting (CI) The present study i) offers an account of classroom interactions in a fourth-year K-E CI course designated for advanced students in the English Interpretation & Translation (EIT) Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS); ii) describes * This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2012 Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 49 how students performed CI in the classroom, focusing on the errors they committed; iii) analyzes student journals (retrospections of their CI performances) and interviews with students; and iv) attempts to identify the causes of the errors in student CI performances In essence, this paper draws on my experience of teaching a course titled Specialized consecutive interpreting for the past three years; however, the students and examples of their CI performances mentioned herein will all be from the spring semester (March to June) of 2012 In my experience, a student tends to repeat the same errors or mistakes in multiple occasions That is, a particular error committed by a certain student is repetitive regardless of the various factors involved in CI such as the subject matter of the speech, speech type, the speed and tone of the speaker, and level of difficulty of the speech Nonetheless, the majority of critiques given in most CI classrooms are focused on a simple enumeration of the student's errors and a straightforward advice not to commit them again However, if we view errors as the end result, that is, an effect or dependent variable of some kind, and there surely has to be a cause or independent variable that lies behind such errors And I have seen in numerous occasions how students can greatly improve just by being identified with the cause(s) of their errors; although, of course, this needs to be ensued by continuous efforts exerted on the part of the students to rectify or eliminate the cause(s) For example, a student interpreted as follows ST: 우리나라의 비약적 경제성장과 국가 발전은 나라를 위해 목숨을 던 진 우리 조상들과 참전용사자들의 희생이 밑바탕이 됐다고 볼 수 있습니다 하지만 이들에 대한 우리 정부의 예우는 턱없이 부족한 형편입니다 Back translation: Our nation's rapid economic growth and national development owe a great deal to the sacrifices our ancestors and war veterans made However, our government is not doing enough to honor them 50 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 Student CI: The Korean government’s not enough support to war veterans is definitely not helpful to promote/encourage/foster patriotism In the above, the errors student made are quite evident Although her understanding (in the passive forms of listening and reading) of English is relatively high, she expressed particular difficulties when having to speak and write in English And she blames her lack of overseas experience: she hasn't spent any time abroad as a child and only worked a year as an intern in the U.S in her twenties While most instructions given to her in most CI classes will tend to focus on correcting her grammatical errors, I took a different approach I requested for a retrospective journal so that she can invest time in thinking what caused her to make those errors The answer she provided was her obsession with the lexical items in the speech By all means, as Funayama (2007, p 97) puts it, "[t]rainees in interpreting courses tend to be concerned more about superficial linguistic expressions than the message, or what is conveyed by those expressions." As, at least, one of the causes of her errors was identified, I was able to advise her to i) visualize 1) during the reception phase (Dam, 1993, p 297), and ii) re-express using kernel sentences2) in the production phase (ibid) Kernel sentences: Korea has developed its economy very fast It has been able to enjoy rapid development Korea's ancestors and war veterans made great sacrifices Their sacrifice laid the groundwork for Korea's rapid development Suggested version: The Korean government is not supporting war veterans enough When we think of the nation’s economic advance and national growth, veterans have played a great role 1) Jones (1998./2002) advises that when interpreters encounter a word or expression she doesn't know, she has to remember "to understand ideas, not words"(p 11) 2) Kernals "are the basic structural elements out of which the language builds its elaborate surface structures" (Nida & Taber, 1969/2003, p 39) Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 51 Although not all may agree with the suggested version given in the above, my belief is that students make progress in phases, that is, they are not able to leap from one stage to another in a single attempt Thus, suggestions or advices also needs to befit the level at which the student is After reaching an agreement that her obsession with the lexical items in the speech was to be blamed for her errors, she has practised CI with the goal to eliminate the identified cause and has experienced significant improvements Therefore, identifying the causes of student CI errors is productive, which is the basic rationale and raison d'etre behind this paper Identifying the causes of errors significantly improves the set pedagogical effect: for instance, by pointing out what their next goal is (which is to eliminate or rectify the identified caus e) 3), students will know what their next aim should be In almost all occasions, it seems that students simply aim for perfection or at least believe that the original speech is their target, which is almost always met by disappointment when performing CI under such assumption Additionally, students will be able to undergo continued self-learning even long after the life of said course is over as Nam (2008, p 57) points out Lastly, instructors are able to systematically track student CI performance progress, and not just echo the same critique when the same errors are repeated Nonetheless, the causes identified in this study are far from conclusive and not bear the intention to generalize The findings are restricted to the particular students in my classroom In what is to follow, I will summarize the typical CI errors seen in the classroom and argue that causes of those errors can be traced back to the reception phase and not the production phase (Nam, 2008, p 63) Then, I will elaborate on my students' and my collaborative efforts to identify the causes of errors in student CI performances And lastly, I will go 3) As I've mentioned, any advice or suggestions to improve CI performances should consider the level the student is at Hence, when given a goal that the student can reasonably and realistically reach in a relatively short period of time, the student can avoid being discouraged and will be able to exert efforts to meet the next goal 52 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 over my plans for future research related to this theme II About consecutive interpreting Consecutive interpreting as a multi-tasking act In consecutive interpreting (CI), the interpreter sits at the same table with the delegates or at the speaker's platform and interprets a speech into the target language after the speaker has finished his/her remarks In this somewhat simple exercise, or at least what seems as so especially for those who have never tried it, a wide variety of tasks are involved Generally speaking, the literature has divided CI into two phases: reception and production Consecutive interpreting is basically an oral translation task divided into two separate phases: a reception and production phase In the reception phase, the interpreter listens to the original speech while taking notes In the production phase, immediately after the reception phase, the interpreter delivers the speech in another language, making use of his notes as well as his memory Dam (1993, p 297) The above-described definition and process of CI seems very obvious However, for the purpose of educating students and not professional interpreters for whom the above as well as other relevant processes of CI have already been internalized, such CI processes need to be further partitioned most importantly because what students need in the course of education is an understanding of how professional interpreters have arrived at such a point Maybe it was in line with such an effort that CI processes were further broken down into the following four sub-phases: Listening ⇒ Understanding ⇒ Analyzing ⇒ Re-expressing/Expressing Jones (1998/2002, p 11) Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 53 Although the above-described process may be still obvious, many, particularly students, seldom realize that such sub-phases are interlinked and thus force the interpreter to engage him/herself in a multi-tasking act And it is not difficult to imagine why For instance, i) in the reception phase alone, comprising the sub-phases of listening, understanding and analyzing, the interpreter needs to listen to the speaker and understand each core idea uttered and distinguish between what is essential and what is accessory In doing so, he/she must also try to connect the dots, if you will, between and among the bits and pieces of the speaker's ideas so as to grasp the overall context of the intended message At the same time, he/she analyzes and determines what to interpret And finally in the production phase of (re)expressing, the interpreter delivers the speaker's intended meaning in the target language during which she may continue to analyze and engage in decision-making postponed from the reception phase so that an integral discourse is delivered in her interpretation (Alexieva, 1998, p 182) In other words, although the literature has classified CI processes into reception and production phases, such phases (or sub-phases) are never carried out in isolation And thus, the pie graph below illustrates firstly the overall capacity required for performing CI, and secondly into what sub-phases such capacity is further divided And such sub-phases are conducted in both the reception and production phases, hence comprising the multi-tasking act of CI Therefore, it should be highlighted in the classroom that each of the sub-phases of listening, understanding, analyzing, and (re)expressing not exist as separate and thus isolated units, but as intertwined and interlinked entities that influence one another and eventually form the entirety of a CI performance 54 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 Analyze: What to Note Analyze: When to Note Analyze: Where to Note Listening Understand Figure CI as a multi-tasking act In spite of the fact that causes of errors can be traced to the reception phase (Nam, 2008, p 63), the majority of the critiques in the classroom or at least those given in CI group study sessions with peers are overwhelmingly focused on the production phase In recognition of this, the present study draws on Dam (1993, p 297) and Jones (1998/2002, p 11) when identifying causes of errors Typical CI errors & the suggested student journal In Nam (2008, pp 58-60), an illustration of typical CI errors are offered To summarize, he draws on Ficchi's (1999, p 202) analysis of her students' CI performances and analyzes his students at the postgraduate level Ficchi enumerates omissions, hesitations, faux-sens4), contre-sens5), TL mistakes, pauses, and unfinished sentences as typical errors seen in her classroom Choi, J Y (2005, p 210), when proposing a performance assessment tool for CI, suggests to evaluate students' accuracy, opposite sense, false sense, no sense, imprecision, expression, terminological/lexical errors, grammatical errors, 4) "[I]ncorrect reproduction of verb tenses, incoherence and lack of cohesion" (p 213) 5) A mistranslation i.e., an incorrect reproduction of the ST Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 55 presentation, speed, and overuse of pause fillers/backtracking Additionally, Riccardi (2002) considers equivalence, accuracy, appropriateness, and usability; and Dam and Schjoldager (2005, pp 227-228) suggests to consider the interpreter's voice quality, accent, intonation, fluency of delivery, grammatical correctness, stylistic and terminological adequacy, etc Bartlomiejczyk (2007, pp 259-261) identified faithfulness, coherence, style, lexis, presentation, completeness, and grammar And lastly, Lee, J (2008, 172), when exploring the use of rating scales as a tool for CI performance assessment, focused on accuracy, TL quality, and delivery Drawing on the above-mentioned literature as well as my own observation conducting said course, I have drafted my own list of typical errors in CI and have used it as a journal format (see Table 1) so that my students can transcribe their CI performance, retrospect on their errors, and devise strategies or goals to eliminate the cause(s) of errors the next time they're asked to perform CI in the classroom Here is an example given by one of those students Student CI: Um, recently, there was one article that was pub… posted on one online bulletin board And the article was about the inventions Korea first, Koreans first invented There were many remarkable inventions But the most remarkable was, um, MP3 Korea first invented MP3, but Korean couldn’t make money out of it because the patent belonged to the U.S The U.S is called the patent monster, and the U.S made a lot of money from the loyalties If Korea had the patent, it could have made more than three trillions dollars of profit So being the first inventor is not important Having the patent is the most important factor For example, Kodak had invented, um, came up with inventions for the first time, but it delayed commercializing it So it lost the profit And Edison is known for inventing light bulb, but he is not famous for inventing it for the first time, but laying the foundation and infrastructure to commercialize it and make it a patent So when Koreans are more focused, and um, and more focused on making inventions and 56 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 making inventions, other countries are innovating by commercializing it and claiming patents Frequency Backtracking Published → posted, Korea → Koreans, Hesitation6) Fillers such as um or coughing Unfinished sentences It Completeness: Storytelling, Logic should be more focused on being the world ’s first and innovation, instead of having patents, wrong use the example Kodak TL mistakes Pauses Awkward pauses between words Light bult → the light bulb, famous for → well known for False sense Coverage Eye-contact Miscellaneous Ÿ Ÿ Summary Statement of Goal(s) Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ several backtracking although there was nothing wrong with the words originally used Repetition of fillers such as um or coughing Particularly coughing distracts interpretation Wrong logic Sentences are not linked well Frequent pauses between words Small grammatical mistakes regarding articles, and awkward usage of words in the context My goal of the interpretation was to talk slow and keep a steady pace Next time, I will try to reduce the number of backtracking and pauses because I found I made a lot of backtracking and pause mistakes after listening to my recorded performance Table Student journal of student After every CI performance made in class, students are required to fill out the above journal and submit it within two days as retrospection only works when the student can still remember what went on in her head while she was 6) Here, hesitation is defined as any signs of hesitant moves such as adding fillers or sighs before the student begins to utter her words On the other hand, pause is when nothing is being said I have differentiated them because hesitation tends to occur when students have a difficult time building sentences (production phase problem); however, pauses occur when students find it difficult to remember what was said by the speak (reception phase) Of course, whether or not the above is actually the cause of hesitation or pause of a certain student can only be told by the student in question Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 57 interpreting She needs to transcribe and count the frequency of each CI error Then, after thinking about the cause of such CI errors, she will set up a goal(s) for herself that she will aim to achieve the next time she interprets in class III Attempting to identify causes of CI errors The class: Specialized consecutive interpreting The class in question is titled Specialized consecutive interpreting, which is offered for fourth-year students It is considered to be the most difficult CI course in the department as most students attend to familiarize themselves to and thus be better prepared for the second-phase interview of the entrance exams of various graduate schools of T&I at home and abroad The department offers a total of 11 interpreting courses of differing language combinations and levels of difficulty, and said course is considered to be at the highest level Although English-into-Korean (E-K) CI is practised from time to time, we mostly focus on K-E CI since students undergo the most difficulty in elevating their abilities to perform CI into their foreign language Subject matters dealt with in the class range from general topics to those on aging society, information technology, global warming, education, cultural diversity, etc One thing noteworthy is that the subject matters in the course were coordinated yet with another course titled Advanced English discussion and debate taught by an international faculty member The rationale behind such coordination was to enable students to attend both courses: they read particular English articles on a given subject matter and present and discuss/debate with classmates so as to become familiar with the subject matter as well as the frequently used vocabularies and expressions relevant to it; and then, they come to my class on K-E CI and use such vocabularies and expressions 58 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 Possible causes of CI errors A total of 21 students attended the course (16 enrolled and audited), at the beginning of which a survey was given so that their general background information be gathered and taken into consideration Because CI performance levels already acquired at the beginning of the course and CI field experience 7) are particularly relevant at a K-E CI undergraduate course, students are grouped into either: i) group A with lower level CI performance skills; ii) group B either middle level CI performance skills; and iii) group C with high level CI performance skills Although such a blunt grouping of students may seem arbitrary at first, my experience tells me that each group of students tend to commit similar errors, that is, group members have a tendency to repeat similar errors In an effort to identify the causes of CI errors, I will describe the CI performances of three students (one from each group) 2.1 Group A: lower level The first student is in group A The speech given was regarding aging society ST: 대한민국이 10년 새 부쩍 늙었습니다 2000년 당시 국민 평균 연령 은 33세였는데 이제는 39세로 올라갔고 10년 후면 40대 후반에 들 어설 예정입니다 전국에서 약 200여 개 초등학교가 신입생을 받지 못했고, 4000개 초등학교가 문을 닫았습니다 이제는 중고교도 문을 닫기 시작하고 있답니다 노령화에 대한 예측은 많이 나오고 있지 만 어느 누구도 어떻게 될지 정확하게 알 수는 없습니다 노령화에 대한 우리 사회의 반응은 엇갈리고 있습니다 우선은 노령화를 미 래 사회에 대한 어두운 경고로 보는 것인데 늙어가면서 활력을 잃 7) Many would gain real-life CI experience at the undergraduate level through various part-time job opportunities or through a course titled T&I field training, which is also offered for fourth-year students at EIT, HUFS Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 59 고 시들어가는 사회로 가고 있다는 것입니다 다른 하나는 노령화 를 새로운 세상을 향한 새로운 도전과 기회로 보는 것입니다 Back translation: The Republic of Korea has aged much in the past decade The average age of the nation was 33 in 2000, but now it has reached 39, and is expected to be more than 45 in the next decade Around 200 elementary schools were not able to admit first-year students, and 4,000 elementary schools had to close down Now, middle and high schools are starting to close down Although there are many forecasts on aging, nobody can accurately predict what the future will be like In our society, there are two contradictory views on how to see aging society The first view is to take aging society as a dim warning of the future; they worry that our society will gradually lose vitality as it ages The other view is to see aging society from a positive light; they take this as a new challenge and an opportunity for a new world Student CI: Now, Korea is aging The average age of Korea has increased, so in ten years, average age of Korea would reach 40s Elementary schools are closing down 200 elementary schools didn’t admit the new students, and 3000 elementary schools has closed down So Korea is growing to the aged society, but there are two different reactions to this Some people see this as a negative trend They think Korea is growing old, and it would, that would be not active as we did in the past But the other reaction is very positive They think this trend could be a new method to raise Korea in the next level In the above example, most critiques will focus on the production phase That is, for instance, the ungrammatical use of the definite article in average age, the new students; the omissions of several propositions in the ST such as the current average age of Korea is 39; mistranslations of numbers in 3,000 schools closing down when only 2,000 did; and the TL mistakes in the latter two underlined parts above Such a focus on the production phase would indeed 60 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 carry significance since she does as a matter of fact need to improve her English She only has a six-month long experience studying in Arkansas and has admitted that her biggest problem in K-E CI is her frequent errors in grammar However, in her retrospective journal, she also admitted that she had a hard time coping with so many facts or propositions Because she became obsessed with memorizing the facts in the ST, she lost focus and was not able to grasp the overall message As Alexieva (1998, p 181) argues, CI is a decision-making process: the interpreter needs to constantly make decisions during the reception phase as well as the production phase (as some decision-making moves are postponed from the reception phase) (p 182) According to Alexieva (p 183), decision-making moves in the reception phase include content processing moves (e.g ST content analysis, building of propositional constructs, inferencing), retaining moves (e.g Which part should be retained in memory?), moves as to whether to use any kinesthetic signs, and the consideration of the interpreter's role as mediator In essence, during the reception phase, she was not able to process the ST content, build propositional constructs, and infer the overall message Because of her lack of attention on the above decision-making moves, she simply focused on memorizing each proposition without ever connecting the dots In her journal, she admits that she simply uttered sentence after sentence without making any connections between them At our talk during class, she also revealed that she tends to focus on memorizing ST propositions and lose focus on ST content because she thinks about how to build her English sentences during the reception phase, which would obviously pose a significant limit on her capacity management (Gumul and Lyda, 2007, 171) Therefore, it was suggested to her that she needs to have a traffic cop, if you will, inside her head that tells her to better allocate her resources (i.e better capacity management or attention-sharing)(ibid) so that she does not think too much about building English sentences and focus more on her decision-making moves (ST content analysis, building of propositional constructs, inferencing) To enable her to Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 61 that, the first goal set out for her was to use simple sentences or kernel sentences in the production phase so that she doesn't focus too much on building sentences in the reception phase 2.2 Group B: middle level The second student is in group B The speech given is the same as in the above Student CI: Everyone knows that Korean society is aging The average age of Korean society has increased over the ten years, which is now in the 40s In elementary schools have lack of students; 3,000 schools are currently closing down With this unsure outlook in Korea's aging society, there are two perspectives that people take The first one is a negative one People think that Korean society is facing very unsure conditions as people are aging And the second one is that people look at it with a brighter perspective In the above, student rendered a rather colloquial version of the ST by using expressions like everyone knows that or repeating the pronoun one She is a second-generation Korean Canadian and has lived in Toronto for years between the ages of 14 and 23 Because of her background, she faces difficulties in understanding and processing Korean and tends to speak colloquially in English as she was mostly exposed to such a form of English while attending middle and high schools there But what was not shown in the above transcription was her pace: she simply tried to speak too fast and was making a lot of errors while doing so An examination of her journal revealed that she was suffering from a time lag when receiving the ST message In other words, while trying to grasp the meaning of a particular preceding proposition, she was unable to fully understand the ensuing proposition, thus, a time lag in her reception phase (이광 호, 2009, 185-186) This explains the omissions in her CI performance (e.g the 62 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 average age being 33 in 2000 and now, 39) During our talk in class, she explained that she was experiencing difficulties swallowing constant flows of information and that she was racing to finish her CI performance in fear of forgetting any ensuing message For instance, when she was interpreting one proposition, she was already thinking about ensuing several propositions not for the sake of logic but for the sake of not losing memory In other words, she was having problems with her working memory during the production phase Thus, time lag in the reception phase and lack of working memory management skills in the production phase were identified as the causes of her errors Accordingly, I suggested conducting attention-sharing exercises such as deliberately processing two propositions at the same time (e.g process preceding proposition while listening to ensuing proposition); and practising drawing mind maps of the ST message before beginning to interpret 2.3 Group C: high level ST: 중국 학생들에게 까오카오 즉, 중국 수능은 기회일 수도 있는 반면 저주일 수도 있습니다 시험에서 좋은 점수를 얻어 대학에 입할 할 수도 있지만 시험을 통과했다고 해서 별반 달라지는 것이 없을 수 도 있습니다 올해 고등학생 9백5십만 명이 2틀 동안 진행되는 이 험난한 시험을 치렀습니다 6백5십만개의 대학생 자리를 놓고 경쟁 하기 위해서였습니다 통과의례가 된 이 까오카오의 고득점자는 일 명 스타가 됩니다 더욱 놀라운 점은 여기 있습니다 바로, 이 고득 점자들 중 제2의 빌게이츠나 마크 주커버그 같은 인물이 탄생한다 는 것은 하늘의 별따기 라는 것입니다 Back translation: For Chinese students, the Gao Cao or the Chinese SAT can be either an opportunity or a curse Students can acquire high scores and advance into university, but they may not experience any big changes in their lives just because they have passed the exam This year, 9.5 million high school students took the difficult two-day long exam They were competing for the 6.5 million positions in the university The Gao Cao has become rather a rite of passage for Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 63 many, and high scorers in the exam become stars And here's the more surprising part The possibility of these high scorers becoming the next Bill Gates or the next Mark Zuckerburg is almost next to none Student CI: Uh The Chinese SAT is a very big deal in China Uh, (pause) millions of high school students take the Chinese SAT every year and hope, hoping, uh with hopes of, getting a spot in college This exam takes two straight days, and if a student, a student receives a very high grade, he or she becomes a star in China But not a lot of people get accepted to universities The most surprising fact would be that even though the Chinese SAT is really difficult and long, the results is not that great Because we cannot expect the next Bill Gates or the next Mark Zuckerburg from this test In the above, student in group C committed many errors especially in terms of backtracking, adding fillers, pausing, etc The student in question has a very high fluency in English as he grew up in Australia, Canada, and the U.S Virtually, he spent his entire life except his collegian years in English-speaking countries At the beginning of his CI performance-building efforts, his biggest weakness was his coverage, i.e., he couldn't remember much from the ST That was two year ago Now, as he has continued to practise CI, his memory span has increased and now is able to render most parts in the ST However, he has not been able to reduce his bad habits of backtracking, adding fillers, pausing, etc After reviewing his journal, we had a talk and agreed that he has now arrived at a stage where he needs to premeditate how he's going to structure his discourse in the reception phase and not solely rely on building sentences in the production phase The relevant slogan we came up with was plan before you speak By premeditating his discourse while listening to the speaker as well as while interpreting a preceding proposition, he will be able to know what is to follow and reduce his backtracking, fillers, and pauses As has been shown, the cause(s) of errors for student in group A was her 64 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 lack of understanding and, thus, ill-practice of decision-making moves (ST content analysis, building of propositional constructs, inferencing) in the reception phase; that is, she was obsessed with memorizing the ST propositions and was already building her English sentences, which was taking too much of her attention For student in group B, the cause(s) of errors she committed was time lag in the reception phase and working memory in the production phase For student in group C, he was backtracking, adding fillers, and pausing because he was never premeditating his sentences in the reception phase As student is in a high-level group, he was deemed to have entered a stage where he needs to allocate his attention on production even during the reception phase 8) By presenting the above three students' (representing each group divided by degree of advancement) CI performance and the relevant analyses of their student journals and interviews with students, what I would like to argue is that customized feedback needs to be given in accordance with the levels of advancement students are at as well as in consideration of the cause(s) of the CI errors they frequently commit Although the present paper only describes the analyses of three representative students, the other students in their respective groups shown similar difficulties in CI due to similar causes By giving students customized feedback, instructors can offer advice on what's the next step they should aim for and not just aiming for perfection Thus, students can ponder upon what actually goes on in their minds when performing CI and exert sincere efforts to rectify or eliminate the causes of errors 8) Citing Gile (1997), Gumul and Lyda (2007, p 171) enumerate the listening and analysis effort, the production effort (production of notes), and the short-term memory effort as the three efforts involved in the reception phase Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 65 IV Concluding remarks The present study has thus far argued the need to identify causes of CI errors students frequently commit in the classroom so that they can continue to make progress in their CI performances A lot of times, critiques or advice in the CI classroom focuses almost entirely on the production phase of CI Nonetheless, as I have shown in the above examples, a CI error in the production phase is almost always the effect of a certain cause that can be traced back to the reception phase To find out what goes on in the student's mind during the reception phase, this study has used the means of analyzing student journals and conducting interviews with students Initially, I divided my students into three groups in accordance with their levels of advancement, and conducted classes, interviews, and analyzed student journals As I have shown in the previous chapter, students at different levels of CI were suffering due to different causes And together with students, we have agreed on what the next goal of improving CI should be as no one can advance from one level to another in a single leap Thus, by identifying the causes of CI errors, customized feedback could be given Although what was described hitherto was based on my three year experience teaching a fourth-year course as well as what I have learned from the literature, the causes of CI errors identified herein are suggestions and are far from being conclusive More research is needed so as to reach a definitive argument on what cause leads to a certain effect However, I hope that by displaying the benefits of identifying causes, a discussion is initiated in earnest on the causes of errors and eventually, and a better method is devised in our community to better track our students' progress 66 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 ￭ References Alexieva, B (1998) Consecutive interpreting as a decision process In A Beylard-Ozeroff, J Králová, B Moser-Mercer (Eds.), Translators' strategies & creativity: In honor of Jiří Levý & Anton Popovič Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 181-188 Bartlomiejczyk, M (2007) Interpreting quality as perceived by trainee interpreters: Self evaluation The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 1(2), 247-267 Choi, J Y (2005) Proposing a performance assessment tool for consecutive interpretation Conference Interpretation and Translation 7(2), 195-215 Dam, H (1993) Text condensing in consecutive interpreting In Y Gambier & J Tommola (Eds.), Translation & knowledge: SSOTT IV Centre for Translation and Interpreting, University of Turku, 297-316 Dam, H., J Engberg, & A Schjoldager (2005) Modelling semantic networks on source and target texts in consecutive interpreting: A contribution to the study of interpreters' notes In H Dam, J Engberg, & H Gerzymisch-Arbogast (Ed.), Knowledge systems and translation Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 227-254 Gile, D (1997) Conference interpreting as a cognitive management problem In J Danks, G.M Shreve, S.B Fountain, and M.K McBeath (Eds) Cognitive processes in translation and interpreting London: Sage Publications, 196-214 Gumul, E & A Lyda (2007) The time constraint in conference interpreting: Simultaneous vs consecutive Research in language 5, 165-183 Ficchi, V (1999) Learning consecutive interpretation: An empirical study and an autonomous approach Interpreting 4(2), 199-218 Funayama, C (2007) Enhancing mental processes in simultaneous interpreting training The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 1(2), 97-116 Jones, R (1998/2002) Conference interpreting explained Manchester: St Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 67 Jerome Lee, J (2008) Rating scales for interpreting performance assessment The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 2(2), 165-184 Nam, W J (2008) A causal relation between note-taking and CI performance Interpreting & Translation Studies 11(2), 55-79 Nida E & C Taber (1969/2003) The theory and practice of translation Leiden: Koninklijke Brill Riccardi, A (2002) Evaluation in interpretation: Macrocriteria and microcriteria In E Hung (Ed.), Teaching translation and interpreting 4: Building bridges Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins 이광호 (2009) 순차통역과 수행기억에 관한 인지심리학적 연구 (A cognitive psychological study of consecutive interpreting and working memory) 『통 번역교육연구』 7(1), 183-202 68 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호 [Abstract] Identifying the causes of errors in students' consecutive interpreting performances: Looking for hints in student journals & interviews with students Nam, Won Jun (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) The present study describes my experience of teaching undergraduate translation and interpreting (T&I) majors how to improve their performance in Korean-into-English (K-E) consecutive interpreting (CI) The present study i) offers an account of classroom interactions in a fourth-year K-E CI course designated for advanced students; ii) describes how students performed CI in the classroom; iii) analyzes student journals and interviews with students; and iv) attempts to identify the causes of the errors in student CI performances In essence, this paper argues the need to identify causes of CI errors students frequently commit in the classroom so that they can continue to make progress in their CI performances A lot of times, critiques in the CI classroom focus almost entirely on the production phase of CI Nonetheless, a CI error in the production phase is almost always the effect of a certain cause that can be traced back to the reception phase By providing customized feedback that befits the particular student's level, students will be able to aim for a reachable goal and make progress in phases >> Key Words Korean-into-English consecutive interpreting, students journals, undergraduate T&I education, consecutive interpreting as a multitasking act Nam, Won Jun ￭ Identifying the causes of errors in students’ consecutive interpreting performances 69 Nam, Won Jun Hankuk University of Foreign Studies wonjun_nam@daum.net Received: 2012 08 29 Revised: 2012 09 10 Accepted: 2012 09 15 70 통번역교육연구 ￭ 2012년 여름 제10권 2호