KĨ NĂNG GHI CHÉP NHANH KHI DỊCH nối TIẾP

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA TIẾNG ANH - - KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐẠI HỌC KĨ NĂNG GHI CHÉP NHANH KHI DỊCH NỐI TIẾP TRƯƠNG NGỌC THANH THANH Ngành học : Phiên dịch Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Nguyễn Việt Khóa học: 2012- 2016 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Viet for his whole-hearted supervision and unlimited support, without which the thesis would not have been finished Also, I owe a debt of gratitude to Department of English of Hue College of Foreign Languages for giving me permission and creating me a favorable chance to finish this thesis My thanks would also go to the instructors and students majoring in interpreting at Hue College of Foreign Languages who kindly and willingly took part in the survey of this paper Last but not least, I would like to send my grateful thanks to my friends for their great encouragement and collaboration Hue, May 20th , 2016 Truong Ngoc Thanh Thanh Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting ABSTRACT The thesis was aimed to find out how interpreting students think about notetaking skill in consecutive interpreting From their viewpoints and their practical experience, the role of note-taking skill, the basic requirements for a good note and their way of solving some pecific situations during the process of taking notes would be revealed The survey was not planed to study how interpreter take notes in reality With the purpose of forming the basis of the study, data from 30 responses to the qualitative survey of interpreting students was collected and analyzed in detail All the ten questions were analyzed in the categorization of specific issues of note-taking including: the role of note-taking skill in consecutive interpreting, what to note, how to note and when to note It is obvious that the results of the qualitative survey can contribute to the growing body of research studies in the field of consecutive interpreting in general and note-taking skill in particular Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting TABLE OF CONTENT Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting LIST OF FIGURES Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting LIST OF TABLES ` Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Thesis In line with modern technological advances, the world is curently entering a new era of explosive globalization and intergration Countries all over the world have crossed all geographical and social borders to go hand in hand in various economic activities, cross-cultural exchange programs, scientific research, international sport events, etc However, there still exist several barriers with prevent people from different nations from coming closer to each other Such barriers have most likely led to a renewed interest in the field of interpretation worldwide Certainly, Vietnam is of no exception For the last few decades, the country has witnessed a dramatic increase in requirement for interpretation services Among the determinants of successful interpreting, note-taking skill is of great important Taking notes simply means quickly writing down information as a record or reminder Note-taking is normally seen as a crucial memory-supporting technique in interpreting, especially in consecutive mode When interpreting consecutively, interpreters utilize a system of abbreviations and symbols to take detailed notes during the speech These system are developed over time through a combination of training and experience, making for as many unique note-taking systems as there are individual interpreters In consecutive interpreting, note-taking skill plays a vital role, as it helps the interpreter improve concentration, relieve memory and call up the information in the speech (Hanh, 2006) Therefore, it is an overstatement saying that note-taking is the key of sucess in consecutive interpreting In consecutive interpreting, note-taking is an essential skill Although there is no abstract theory about it, there are a huge range of practical principles of previous generations of consecutive interpreters over time These principles have been built of both experiential studies and research books particilararizing main theoretical approaches to it This thesis only amied to contribute actively, effectively and Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting directively to the further research in terms of the development and the implementation of note-taking in consecutive interpreting The thesis gives student interpreters a general picture of elemental things about the skill and also understand what notetaking skill is in other beginners’ view point Students of foreign language universities which are interested in reading a detailed description of some background knowledge about note-taking skill will be this thesis’s audiences Therefore, first of all, this paper will hopefully provide them with an overview of note-taking Secondly, it can give becoming interpreter some useful advises More specifically, the thesis attemps to address the following research questions: 1) 2) 3) 4) What is the role of note-taking skill in consecutive interpretation? What to note? How to note? When to note? 1.2 Organization of the Thesis The thesis consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1, which is an Introduction to the thesis, briefly provides a summary of the background of the thesis, the task description and thesis structure Chapter is devoted to a Review of Literature The main purpose of this section is to synthesize a number of relevant materials leading up to the thesis through classification and comparision A specific description of a survey including the survey objective, survey participants, research design, research procedure and data analysis, is given in chapter 3- Methodology Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting Survey Results and Discussions will appear in chapter Suggestions for further study along with Conclusion will be revealed in the last chapter - chapter Moreover, the references and appendices including the list of questionnaire are attached at the end of the thesis Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 2.1 Introduction The following chapter is intended not only to demonstrate relevant information cited from previous studies on note-taking but also provide a synthesis and analysis of the literature The first part of this chapter presents an overview of interpreting, then zooms in consecutive interpreting in particular The focus is finally shifted onto the skill of note-taking, in terms of note-taking definition, process and strategies 2.2 Interpreting The best way to comprehend the definition of interpreting might be to refer to a notion for which interpreting is normally mistaken: translation Despite interpreting appeared much earlier than translation, to some extent, it has always been confused with translation, and interpreters have lived in the shadows of translators for a long time (Jones, 2002) There is a general assumption that if one could translate, he or she could also easily interpret and vice versa However, Jones also said that interpreting has firmly built of itself a complete profession separate from translation for the last several decades Obviously, interpreting and translation both share the same goal but different methods Each requires a distinct set of skills, aptitudes, and a person might be much more suitable for this one rather than the other Translation is often explained simply as the expression of the same idea in a different language, maintaining logically the original sense Since 1985, Edmond Cary (1985)’s first definition of translation, as cited in Lederer, 2003 on page 7, has been advocated by many linguists over time: Translation is a process which attempts to establish equivalents between two texts expressed in two different languages Nolan (2005) in his review of interpretation techniques and exercises, he drew a clear distinction between translators and interpreters First, a translator studies 10 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting This question was aimed at finding out: how helpful does note-taking provide for interpreters The surveyed figures demonstrated that the majority of the students said notes could help them to picture the outline of the speech in their mind, which 17% completely agreed and 70% fairly agreed with the statement In contrast, only 3% out of 30 students said that notes could not help them imagine the speech outline There are 10% of students found them in between As Hanh (2006) said “good notes can serve as a skeleton outline of a speech”, they draw the structure of the speech so that interpreters can clearly know what is important and what can be ignored without changing the meaning of the original speech Notes also show the interpreter the connections between ideas, what the relationship between them is Notes can be similar to a mind map which shows the location of main ideas as well as minor ideas, and the association routes from one idea to another In addition, a colorful images mind map can help call to mind not only information, but also that the links between ideas more effectively than words However, in reality, interpreters may find it hard drawing a mind map during the interpreting process Hence, it only appears in interpreters’ mind to help them clearly visualize the logical ralation between ideas of the speech Let see an example taken from Hanh (2006) to know what a mind map is: “Chinese President Hu Jintao has arrived in the United States for talks with President Bush and key business leaders Mr Hu's first stop on his four-day American visit was to the north western state of Washington, where he held talks with Bill Gates, the chairman of computer software giant Microsoft The Chinese president's visit with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates comes after years of battling widespread software piracy in the lucrative Chinese market The software developer and representatives of one of the world's largest computer companies, Chinese-based Lenovo, agreed on Monday to pre-install Microsoft's Windows operating system on its computers 29 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting Later Tuesday he is to attend a dinner with 100 business, government and community leaders to be hosted by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire On Wednesday, he is scheduled to tour a Boeing commercial aircraft plant before heading to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with President Bush Mr Hu's tour of the aircraft factory comes following this month's agreement for Beijing to purchase 80 Boeing aircraft, a deal worth $4.6 billion The Chinese president is to meet with Mr Bush at the White House Thursday Officials say the two leaders will discuss a variety of issues, including U.S demands that China reform its currency and the Asian country's $200 billion trade surplus with the United States Mr Hu is likely to call on the United States to reaffirm its stance that Taiwan is part of mainland China, while President Bush is expected to bring up China's human rights record The two sides are also slated to discuss nuclear negotiations with North Korea and Iran.” (Source: VOA News 18 April 2006) Figure Mind Map Supports Note-taking 30 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting 4.2.2 What to Note In terms of taking notes, it is the more important to decide what to note than how to note and when to note Although this depends on individual, there are several principles introduced in Literature Review should be authenticated Two following questions aimed at finding out apart from main ideas and the links between those ideas, what are also important to be noted in surveyed interpreting students’ viewpoint? Strongly agree Noting verb tenses is not important 63% Agree 37% Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree 0% 0% 0% Obviously, taking note verbs is essential However, whether tenses of verbs needed to be noted? The third question of the survey was aimed at finding out the answer for that point As can be seen from the table, all surveyed students agreed that it is unnecessary to note verb tense The exact percentage is 63% strongly agreed and 37% fairly agreed that “Noting verb tenses is not important.” In some cases, this does not affect too much their interpretation but in others, it can totally destroy them When being asked why you think take note verbs tense is not important, S1, a final year student majoring in interpreting said “From the content of the speech, I can guess the tense” It means that students not neglect verb tenses, they just keep in mind and reproduce it according to particular circumstance For example, if the speech is about a story, past tense is used To conclude, no matter how interpreters can remember the tense of verbs, they must not be ignored to avoid regrettable misunderstadings during interpreting process 31 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting Strongly agree I would immediately stop whatever I am noting in order to note numbers, proper names, lists of things and technical terms 30% Agree 37% Undecided Disagree 20% 13% Strongly disagree 0% This question was aimed at finding out whether the students consider noting down “non-contextualized information” important The result was showed in the table above It can be seen that two third of surveyed students found it is necessary to note numbers, proper names, lists of things and technical terms which 37% and 30% of them moderately agreed and completely agreed respectively with the point that they should stop writing everything in order to note these “precision words” On the other hand, there were 13% of the students fairly disagreed with the statement and 20% not sure about the truth of that view With beginners, they often try to write down as many words they heard as possible in order to help them in reproducing the speaker’s speech However, they might not recognize that during that time, speaker had make a list of things and since they were focusing on words only, consequently they missed that list As a result, that list could not be retold to the audiences or awfully the meaning of the speaker could be turned into another way For that reason, the need for noting down numbers, proper names, lists of things and terminologies has been recommended all experienced interpreters over time It is really hard to recall these words without taking notes 4.2.3 How to Note There were three questions designed to explore students’ point of view in terms of how to note The data was collected, calculated and analyed 32 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting Strongly agree It is not necessary for interpreters to develop their own symbols and abbreviations 0% Agree 0% Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree 3% 27% 70% The above question was focused on studying the students’ attitude towards the need for a system of abbreviations and symbols developed by interpreter themselves Each student should own a system of abbreviations and symbols for them only so that they can come to their pen automatically The findings clearly showed that only one surveyed student did not sure whether he need develop his own system of symbols and abbreviation while 97% of the students surveyed either fairly agreed or strongly agreed with the statement There was also a student surveyed who demur about the truth of the statement Although we need much space storing them in our memory, it can help interpreter focus on listening, understanding and analyzed the content of the speech Strongly agree Clear separation of main ideas in notes is important 20% Agree 60% Undecided Disagree 20% 0% Strongly disagree 0% This sixth question was to explore their viewpoint about the importance of clear separation between ideas It has received the response of 30 students, of which 18 students equivalented to 60% of the students surveyed moderately agreed that “Clear separation of main ideas in notes is important” and students or 20% strongly agreed with the statement, while no students opposed or completely opposed, and students or 20% found themselves in between of two thoughts The findings proved that separating lines is helpful with almost surveyed students According to the result, many students of the year 2012- 2016 and 2013-2017 have the thought to draw lines separating ideas in their note in order to avoid confusion when reading back 33 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting Strongly agree I note in either the target language or the source language which I feel comfortable with 27% Agree 44% Undecided Disagree 23% 3% Strongly disagree 3% The seventh question was to find out students’ opinion about the language used in notes According to the survey results, only two students did not think that they would take notes in the language that they favor, instead, they might choose source language or target language only While 71% of the students, of which 27% strongly agreed and 44% moderately agreed that “I note in either the target language or the source language which I feel comfortable with” And 23% had no opinion It could be seen from the findings: For two third of them, the beginners in interpreting area, it is really hard to use only target or source language to take note as it requires interpreters to master in both languages It may be easier if they can note in either A or B language that they feel comfortable with providing the meaning of the speaker not be changed 4.2.4 When to Note In order to find out, from surveyed students’ viewpoint, what is the right moment to take notes? Two following questions were raised up Strongly agree I start noting as quickly as possible to avoid being left behind by the speaker 10% Agree 50% 34 Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree 14% 23% 3% Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting “On the one hand, in order to keep pace with the speaker, the interpreter wants to start noting as quickly as possible On the other hand, it is impractical for the interpreter to note what he or she has not understood yet, hence logically, the interpreter should wait until he or she has grasped a complete idea before noting it down.” (Hanh, 2006, p.38) The survey results showed that while 26% of the students did not agree, of which 23% relatively disagreed and 3% strongly disagreed, 60% of the students surveyed agreed that they would start taking notes as quickly as possible to avoid being left behind by the speaker The statement did not mean interpreter should note every notion was said as it is no use keep noting down words without ideas and connections between them They would still be left behind the speaker until they got the ideas of what the speaker was saying Strongly agree When I can hardly understand what the speaker is saying, I still keep noting down any words that I can hear 7% Agree 30% Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree 27% 30% 6% In interpreting process, the interpreters must understand what the speaker says then they can know how to note correctively It is no use keep writing everything in spite of understanding nothing The interpreter cannot produce a meaningful message from entirely unrelated words having no connection with each other It could be seen from the survey result that the percentage between the number of students who kept taking notes even when they could not understand the meaning of the message and the number of students who did not the same way was nearly balanced The exact percentages are 37% and 36% respectively One fourth of the students were not sure what they would in that situation Experts in interpreting or even the experienced, they all advise interpreter to stop noting down everything when 35 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting they cannot understand what the speaker is saying, instead they had better listen carefully to the speech, try to catch the ideas In that way, they might not destroy their interpretation Students could recognize the important role of note-taking skill, however, survey results show that only 3% of the students say they “nearly always” practice taking notes, 10% “often”, however 67% “seldom” and 10% “hardly ever” have the habit of practicing taking notes That means more than two third of the students not pay much attention to note-taking practice even though they know the important role of that skill “Practice makes perfect” so interpreting students have to work hard if they wish to become a successful interpreter in the future 36 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting CHAPTER FIVE: SUGGESTIONS and CONCLUSION 5.1 Suggestions 5.1.1 Limitations Subjects of the survey are interpreting students who have only studied interpreting for one to two terms at school Most of them not have practical experience in consecutive interpreting For that reason, it is hard to expect from them an in-depth knowledge about the skill, which is only collected through much practice Because this is a qualitative survey with limited subjects, the main limitation is we cannot see how the actual notes of students are The results of the survey were calculated and analyzed by the writer Again, all figures only illustrate the subjects’ point of view, not their real practice of note-taking 5.1.2 Suggestions for Further Study To overcome the limitations, there should be an in-depth qualitative research for further study with variety methods like experiment, interview, etc This small qualitative research could provide some basic information to conduct a bigger one more easily and effectively In an interpreting class period, there will be two interpreting tasks for the survey students: one is Vietnamese speech and one is English Both of them have familiar content to the students Besides, the experiment may be conducted after their examination when they can perform best There also professional interpreters who supervised during the experiment time and have enough ability to evaluate and give recommendations Obviously, the results of the in-depth qualitative survey can contribute to the growing body of research studies in the field of consecutive interpreting in general and note-taking skill in particular 37 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting 5.2 Conclusion The thesis was implemented in an attempt to illustrate the concept and process of note-taking for consecutive interpreting in a digestible way It was planned for interpreting students who are interested in consecutive interpreting in general and note-taking skill in particular The review of literature presented in chapter is the summarization and synthesis of a large volume of published studies related to the topic of note-taking The Literature Review attempted to provide detailed descriptions of note-taking In this chapter, basic requirements of note-taking are classified under following headlines: what to note, how to note, when to note and which language used in notes In chapter and 4, the thesis reports on an empirical study which is developed from the results of a quantitative survey The survey is aimed at exploring student interpreters’ awareness of note-taking as well as their personal points of view on specific aspects of the skill Its findings can be very helpful in conducting a qualitative survey for further study In conclusion, taking notes in consecutive interpreting is the combination of various techniques that are quite easily reached if carefully learnt together with frequently practiced However “the essential part of a consecutive interpreter’s work is done in the activities [of] understanding, analysis, re-expression If these are not done correctly, the best notes in the world will not make you a good interpreter” (Jones 2002, p.39 as cited in Hanh 2006) To become a good interpreter, good at notetaking is not enough 38 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting REFERENCES Al-Zahran A.(2007) The consecutive conference interpreter as intercultural mediator: a cognitive-pragmatic approach to the interpreter’s role University of Salford, UK Anderson, R B (1978) Interpreter roles and interpretation situations: Cross-cutting typologies Language Interpretation and Communication, 217-229 Barrass, R.- Students Must Write_ A Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examination- TJ International Ltd, 2003 Catford, J.C.- A Linguistic Theory of Translation, Oxford University Press, 1965 Dam, V.H.- Interpreters’ notes- On the Choice of Language, n.d Retrieved April, 19, 2016 from http://www.benjamins.com/jbp/series/INTP/6-1/art/0002a.pdf David, B & Neil, M.- Contemporary Topics (Listening & Note-taking)Longman, 1993 Gile, D.(2001) The Role of Consecutive in Interpreter Training: A Cognitive View Retrieved May 10th , 2016 from http://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article262 Gillies,A.(2005) Note-taking for consecutive interpreting: a short course St Jerome Phạm Hồng Hạnh- Note-taking in consecutive interpreting English Hà Nội University of Foreign Studies, 2006 10 Jones, R.- Conference Interpreting Explained, St Jerome Publishing, 2002 11 Lederer, M.- Translation- The Interpretive Model, St Jerome Publishing, 2003 12 Raimes, A.- Keys for Writers- Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996 13 Roy, B C.- Interpreting as a Discourse Process, Oxford University Press, 2000 39 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting 14 Rozan, J F.- Principles of Note-taking, Interpreter Training Resources, n.d Retrieved May, 01, 2016 from http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/rozan7principles.doc 14 Santiago, R.- Consecutive Interpreting: A Brief Review, 2004 Retrieved March, 24, 2016, from http://home.earthlink.net/~terperto/id16.html 57 16 University of Rochester, Short Term Memory's Effectiveness Influenced By Sight, Sound, Science Daily, 2004 Retrieved May, 10, 2016, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040901092240.htm 17 Wei, H.Z.- Memory in Interpreting, Translation Journal, Volume 7, No 3, 2003 Retrieved March, 24, 2016, from http://accurapid.com/journal/25interpret.htm 18 White, B.- Dissertation Skills for Business and Management Students- Martins the Printers Ltd, 2002 19 Vũ Văn Đại- Kỹ Dịch- Cơ sở Lý thuyết Phương pháp Rèn Luyện, nxb.GD, Hà Nội, 2004 40 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting APPENDICES QUESTIONNAIRES I am a student in my final year of university This survey is forming part of my dissertation on Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting Every question in this survey is supposed to find out your attitude towards note-taking in consecutive interpreting, your experiences in acquiring note-taking skill in consecutive interpreting I would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete this survey Please circle the number for each response that best corresponds to your view Example 1: Strongly agree I will get a job as interpreter after I graduate Agre e Undecided Disagre e Strongly disagree Please tick the appropriate box: Example 2: The most important element in consecutive interpreting is  short- term memory  note-taking  public speaking  good background knowledge 41 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting strongly Strongly Agree Undecided disagree agree disagree Note-taking is the most important element in consecutive interpreting I start noting as quickly as possible to avoid being left behind by the speaker Clear separation of main ideas in notes is important When I hardly can understand what the speaker is saying, I still keep noting down any word that I can hear It is not necessary for interpreters to develop their own systems of symbols, signs, abbreviations, etc I note in either the target language or the source language which I feel comfortable with Noting verb tenses is not important I would immediately stop whatever I am noting in order to note numbers, proper names, lists of things or technical terms Notes help me visualize the outline of the speech 5 5 5 5 10 How frequently you exercise taking notes?  hardly ever  seldom  often  nearly always Thank you very much for your help! 42 Note-Taking In Consecutive Interpreting 43