A comparison and analysis of interpreting notes by professional interpreters and 3rd year students of translation interpreting felte

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER A COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF INTERPRETING NOTES BY PROFESSIONAL INTERPRETERS AND 3RD YEAR STUDENTS OF TRANSLATION & INTERPRETING, FELTE Supervisor: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn, M.A Student: Nguyễn Thị Phương Hà Course: QH2016.F1.E22 HANOI – 2020 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP SO SÁNH VÀ PHÂN TÍCH BẢN GHI CHÉP CỦA PHIÊN DỊCH CHUYÊN NGHIỆP VÀ SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ CHUYÊN NGÀNH BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH - KHOA SPTA Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn, Th.S Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Phương Hà Khóa: QH2016.F1.E22 HÀ NỘI – 2020 Signatures of Approval Date: June , 2020 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Phương Hà, Class QH2016.F1.E22, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Translation & Interpreting) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Nguyễn Thị Phương Hà Date: May 11th, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Mrs Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan (M.A), for her tremendous support, clear guidance, detailed review and considerable encouragement Not only did she provide me with constructive feedback on my writing, but she helped me in the process of approaching a wide range of participants and collecting the data as well I would also like to thank all the teachers and students from four mainstream classes of QH.2017 in Translation & Interpreting Division for their permission and participation in the questionnaire activity I would also like to send my gratefulness to the professional interpreters, who are former and current lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, for providing me with an enormous and essential source of information in their interview despite their busy schedule Finally, I want to express my gratitude to my family members and my friends, who gave me their full support and sound advice so that I could have enough motivation and determination to finish my graduation paper i ABSTRACT Note-taking is one of the primary strategies in consecutive interpreting This study is conducted to analyse the interpreting notes between third-year student interpreters and professional interpreters in order to offer an insight into the similarities and differences in the notes of two examined groups, the difficulties students encounter while taking notes in consecutive interpreting and the advice from professional interpreters In order to achieve the targets of this study, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and documents analysis are carried out, and there are several major findings The study finds that most of the interpreting notes from third-year students and professional are different in terms of the use of note-taking principles Moreover, the data from questionnaires illustrate there are challenges faced by third-year students during the note-taking process, which are related to content, speed and layout Therefore, the interviews with professional interpreters offer students relevant advice and suggestions on the methods to improve note-taking techniques in consecutive interpreting, most of which involve theoretical review and practice ii CONTENT ACCEPTANCE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF PICTURES AND FIGURES vii PART A INTRODUCTION I Research problems and rationale II Objectives of the study III Significance of the study IV Organization of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW I Interpreting Definitions of interpreting Types of interpreting 2.1 Consecutive interpreting 2.2 Simultaneous interpreting 2.3 Whispering 2.4 Sight translation 2.5 Dictation II Interpreting notes Definitions of note-taking 1.1 Note-taking in general 1.2 Note-taking in consecutive interpreting 1.2.1 The role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting 1.2.2 The process of note-taking in consecutive interpreting Principles of note-taking in consecutive interpreting CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10 I II Sampling method 10 Participants of the study 10 iii III Data collection instruments 11 IV Setting of the study 12 V Data collection procedure 13 Data from questionnaires 13 Data from semi-structured interview 14 Data from documents 15 VI Data analysis procedure 15 Data from questionnaire 15 Data analysis from semi-structured interview 15 Data from documents 16 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 17 I What are the similarities and differences between the note-taking strategies of professional interpreters and those of third-year students of Translation & Interpreting, FELTE? 17 Noting the idea and not the word 17 The rules of abbreviation 18 Links 19 Adding emphasis 20 Verticality 21 II What are the difficulties encountered by the target students during their note-taking process? 21 Benefits of note-taking in consecutive interpreting 22 Problems during the note-taking process in consecutive interpreting 26 III What are the suggested note-taking techniques from professional interpreters for students to boost the quality of their interpretation? 33 Note-taking theory revision 33 Practice 33 Other suggestions 35 PART C CONCLUSION 37 I Summary of the findings 37 II Implications of the study 38 III Limitations of the study 38 iv IV Suggestions for further studies 39 APPENDICES 40 A QUESTIONNAIRE ON NOTE-TAKING PRACTICE IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING 40 B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 43 References 44 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies SL: Source Language TL: Target Language E-V: English – Vietnamese V-E: Vietnamese – English vi A relatively similar result can be seen in the number of students who agreed and stayed neutral, with 26 (37.7%) and 21 (30.4%) students, respectively Followed is the group of participants who disagreed with 18.8% 11.6% had a strong approval and only 1.4% strongly disapproved Multi-tasking between listening and taking notes appears to be a struggle for most students in their note-taking process Figure 14 Problem when taking notes: Shortage of time Most of the responses provided by the students show that they agree and strongly agreed that they had the problem of not having time to take notes, with a total of 51 out of 69 students (73.9%) On the other hand, only a tiny fraction of participants opposed and strongly opposed to that idea, which accounted for 4.3% in total Finally, 21.7% expressed their neutral attitude Therefore, regarding speed-related problems, the lack of time while taking notes is a major issue for students 31 2.2.3 Layout Figure 15 Problem when taking notes: Not diagonally or vertically organizing notes Responding to the statement “I not organize my notes diagonally or vertically”, a remarkable percentage of 55.1% can be witnessed in the “Agree” category, which was twice as much as that of students who had a neutral opinion, with 26.1% The rest of the respondents belongs to the “Strongly disagree” and “Disagree” group, with only 4.3% and 14.5%, respectively As a result, notes’ display is commonly experienced among students in their note-taking process Based on all the figures and responses illustrated above, it can be concluded that there are a variety of problems students encounter during the consecutive interpreting process These major struggles of third-year students are mostly internal factors, which involves inadequate amount of practice both in class and outside the classroom According to the Interpreting course syllabus, the practice session accounts for merely a third of the whole content Additionally, most third-year students have not had much opportunity to work as interpreters in real life event such as conferences More specifically, the most remarkable difficulties agreed by students are the shortage of time and the strong focus on noting down words rather than ideas, followed by another major problem which is writing full words instead of symbols or abbreviations 32 According to the interview responses of professional interpreters, the difficulties of note-taking in consecutive interpreting are no exception to this group However, mostly all the problems shared by teacher interpreters are related to external factors Interpreter (1), (2) and (5) have the same explanation that sometimes speakers are unaware the appearance of interpreters and deliver lengthy speech at a fast pace Moreover, most of the interviewees agree that one common difficulty of note-taking during consecutive interpreting is the unfavourable working conditions In some situations, interpreters are required to stand and hold a micro while doing the task, which would cause interpreters inconvenience to take notes In some other situations, interpreters are supposed to interpret during a meal or while taking a field trip; therefore, note-taking are mostly impossible to be carried out III What are the suggested note-taking techniques from professional interpreters for students to boost the quality of their interpretation? The last research question about professional interpreters’ recommendation for students is addressed in the interview answers Note-taking theory revision Professional interpreters agree that the first step to improve note-taking ability is to review and analyse the theoretical knowledge from the interpreting courses at school or from the instructions of lecturers It is believed by these interpreters that this step would help students be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of taking notes and make the most use of this activity Practice Another way to enhance the quality of notes according to all professional interpreters is to actively practice at home From their professional perspective, as notes are personal and each interpreter or student has his own way of taking notes, students would gain a great amount of helpful experience for themselves by practicing as much as they can 33 To be more specific about the practicing methods, the interpreters share the same idea that students should firstly pay attention to improving comprehensive listening and memorizing skills Comprehensive listening requires students to listen and understand the ideas and structure of the speech Following this idea, an interpreter suggests a kind of practice exercise, in which students listen to a speech, note down the main ideas using abbreviations and symbols and lastly, interpret the speech In addition to this type of exercise, another professional interpreter recommends students should practice taking notes after or right at the same time they listen to the speech For example, students may listen to a speech and then summarize the content; after that they may listen again and take notes They also agree that by focusing to improve comprehensive listening skills, students would become less reliant on notes when interpreting Some online sources of comprehensive listening and interpreting exercises are also provided by the interviewees as below:  http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/notesexercises.htm  https://orcit.eu/resources-shelf-en/story_html5.html  https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/ 34 Other suggestions Another practice method recommended by the professional interpreter is that each student should build his own system of symbols and repeatedly putting those symbols into practice in order to remember and use them consistently Picture Examples for symbols and abbreviations This interviewee also suggests students should gain a wider scope of background knowledge by reading and listening to a wide range of fields Enriching background knowledge, which could enhance students’ understanding and terminologies about the topic, would reduce their reliability on notes and increase time and attention for listening and interactions with speakers or the audience Another professional interpreter also proposes two types of practice exercise for students The first exercise involves reading texts and summarizing the main points using note-taking principles such as abbreviations, symbols or diagonal and vertical layout Then, students may move on to the second exercise, 35 in which they listen to speeches/ recordings and take notes According to these interpreters, it is advisable that students practice Vietnamese – English translation first in order to ensure that they could thoroughly grasp the meaning of the speech One interpreter suggests that the difficulty and complexity level of the practice exercise should increase throughout the learning process Students may begin with short speeches and easy topics with few terminologies Moreover, according to this interviewee, students should practice in pairs Learning with a partner would not only enhance the motivation but also the effectiveness for students It is recommended that they search for speeches from a wide range of online or offline sources, record the speech and exchange it with their partner to practice note-taking and interpreting Lastly, other than the suggestions related to note-taking principles mentioned in the Literature Review, there are some further recommendations from the professional interpreters It is advisable that students should use A6 or B6 paper size for interpreting notes and notebooks with spiral biding so that it is convenient to hold the notes while performing consecutive interpreting Another advice is to divide each page into two columns so as to restrict the number of words and avoid noting excessive information 36 PART C CONCLUSION This section gives a brief conclusion about the major findings as well as the meaning of the study In addition, some limitations of the study are revealed and there are several recommendations for future studies I Summary of the findings This research paper compares the interpreting notes between third-year university students and professional interpreters in order to identify the similarities and differences in the note-taking strategies as well as the difficulties that third-year students experience when taking notes in consecutive interpreting As a result, suggestions are made for students to improve their note-taking techniques while carrying out note-taking In the first part, a number of key concepts are discussed in so as to create a firm ground for the study A wide range of related previous studies on interpreting, types of interpreting, note-taking in consecutive interpreting, the role of note-taking or principles of note-taking in consecutive interpreting provide an insight into the background of this study Another important section of this study is the research methods, which produce some major findings The likert-scale questionnaire, firstly, confirms third-year students’ acknowledgement of essential benefits of note-taking in consecutive interpreting This research instrument also points out a variety of challenges that students face when taking notes, which can be categorized into three aspects: content, speed and layout Secondly, the document analysis reveals that according to the use of note-taking principles, interpreting notes of thirdyear students are considerably different from those of professional interpreters There can be seen no or little application of note-taking principles in students’ notes Finally, the semi-structured interview outlines several primary suggestions from professional interpreters so that students can minimize their struggles and enhance their note-taking techniques, which involve theoretical 37 review, repeated practice, comprehensive listening as well as some note-taking and interpreting integrated exercise II Implications of the study It is expected that both students and teachers in the field of Translation and Interpreting can benefit from this research paper From students’ perspective, this study, firstly, provides them with detailed and further knowledge about note-taking theories, especially the principles of note-taking in consecutive interpreting so that students have a chance to revise and enhance their background about this topic Furthermore, the results of the questionnaire about students’ struggles are a practical source for them to reflect on themselves and identify their strengths and weaknesses related to note-taking Therefore, students can be more aware and prepared while carrying out the task both in class and in real life Another advantage that students can gain from this study is the valuable source of advice from professional interpreters, who have had years of academic study and experiences about interpreting Those practical methods and exercises from professional interpreters are of great assistance for students to improve not only their note-taking techniques but also their interpreting output Regarding the side of teachers, the findings of this study provide them with an insight into the struggles that students are experiencing when taking notes As a result, being aware of these difficulties of students would help teachers to not only properly adjust the lesson plans but also provide suitable and constructive advice on their performance in class III Limitations of the study It should not be denied that there are two main limitations in this study The first one relates to the interpreting notes’ collection, in which students’ notes were collected from their Interpreting end-term test and teacher interpreters’ notes were received online through emails Therefore, the comparison was not 38 ideal as the context of these notes was totally different in terms of various aspects such as interpreting topics, places or speed of the speakers The second limitation concerns the limited number of participants Because of time restraint and busy schedules of professional interpreters, all of the participants are students and lecturers from Translation and Interpreting Division, FELTE, ULIS Consequently, the results from this study may not be applied for a wider scope of population IV Suggestions for further studies This research paper can act as a foundation for more in-depth research related to the topic of note-taking strategies in consecutive interpreting Firstly, the perspective of teacher interpreters in developing teaching materials and curriculum in interpreting courses can be further analysed Therefore, difficulties of teachers in teaching and assessing note-taking and interpreting performance of students can be revealed and suggestions to improve the quality of note-taking lessons can be made Moreover, in future studies, this topic can be more extensively investigated with the participation of a wider scale of population A larger range of students from different levels of language proficiency and interpreting experience can be taken into consideration 39 APPENDICES A QUESTIONNAIRE ON NOTE-TAKING PRACTICE IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING This survey is conducted by Ms Nguyen Thi Phuong Ha, a senior student majoring in Translation & Interpreting at ULIS The aim of this survey is to discover the benefits of note-taking and the difficulties that students encounter during their note-taking process in consecutive interpreting practice This is not a test, so there are no “right” or “wrong” answers and your information will be kept confidential Your personal opinions are highly valued in this survey Please give your answers sincerely as only this will guarantee the success of the investigation Thank you very much for your help A General information Full name (optional): …………………………… Class: ………………………………… B Questions For the following questions, please tick the number that best reflects your viewpoint on a five-point scale Your further explanation and elaboration are highly appreciated Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly No Statement disagree (1) Strongly agree Disagree Neutral Agree (2) (4) (3) I Benefits of note-taking in consecutive interpreting 40 Strongly agree (5) I rarely use notes because I not find it beneficial Taking notes helps me translate details such as numbers, names, lists, etc Taking notes helps me form the overall structure of the speech Taking notes help me remember more information than memorizing Notes help me deliver a more fluent and accurate translation Others (please specify): II Problems during the note-taking process in consecutive interpreting I write a lot of unnecessary words I often write full words instead of using symbols or abbreviated words I not organize my notes diagonally or vertically I cannot multi-task between listening and taking notes 41 I not have enough time to take notes I often focus too much on writing down the words so I miss several important details of the speech I cannot read the symbols/ words that I have written down My symbols/ abbreviations are not used in a consistent way I don’t know which language (SL or TL) should be used I not have any 10 difficulties in taking notes 11 Others (please specify) 42 B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ENGLISH VERSION To what extent you use notes during consecutive interpreting? What are the note-taking strategies that you often apply when doing consecutive interpreting? As a professional, you have any difficulties when taking notes? Do you have any advice or recommendation for the student interpreters to improve their note-taking in consecutive interpreting? VIETNAMESE VERSION Thầy/cơ có thường xun ghi chép q trình dịch ứng đoạn khơng? (Thầy/cơ vui lịng cho biết lý lại có khơng thường xun ghi chép) Thầy/ cô thường hay sử dụng cách thức/ chiến thuật ghi chép dịch ứng đoạn? Những cách thức/ chiến thuật có giúp ích cụ thể q trình dịch? (Ví dụ: sử dụng nhiều ký hiệu thay viết từ hồn chỉnh, ghi theo cột dọc, ghi chép ngôn ngữ nguồn/ ngơn ngữ đích…) Bản thân phiên dịch chun nghiệp, thầy/ có gặp khó khăn ghi chép để phục vụ cho việc dịch ứng đoạn khơng? Nếu có, thầy/ vui lịng cho biết cụ thể khó khăn gặp phải gì? (Ví dụ: bối cảnh tác nghiệp khơng thuận lợi – phải di chuyển phải cầm micro lúc dịch; …) Thầy/ có lời khun cho sinh viên chuyên ngành dịch để cải thiện việc ghi chép dịch ứng đoạn khơng? (Ví dụ: phương pháp ghi chép, cách thức luyện tập…) 43 References Andres, D (2000) Konsekutivdolmetschen und Notation Christoffels, I & Groot, A (2005) Simultaneous interpreting: A cognitive perspective Gile, D (1995) Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training John Benjamins publishing company Gillies, A (2017) Note-taking for consecutive interpreting: a short course (2nd ed.) London: Routledge Herbert, J (1952) The interpreters handbook: how to become a conference interpreter Genève: Georg Introduction to Consecutive Interpretation: Definition, Description and History (n.d.) Mustansiriyah University Lectures ISO 12913-1:2014 (2019) Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.iso.org/standard/52161.html Languagescientific (2018) Major Types of Interpreting Retrieved November 13, 2019, from http://www.languagescientific.com/6-major-types-of-interpreting/ Lu, W (2013) Developing note-taking skills in consecutive interpreting 10 NCIHC (2009) “Sight Translation and Written Translation: Guidelines for Healthcare Interpreters Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.ncihc.org/assets/documents/publications/Translation_Guide lines_for_Interpreters_FINAL042709.pdf 11 Nordquist, R (2019) Note-Taking Definition and Observations by Writers Retrieved November 12, 2019, from https://www.thoughtco.com/note-taking-research-1691352 12 OHara, K S (2005) Improving your study skills: study smart study less Hoboken, NJ: Wiley 13 Pauk, W., & Owens, R J Q (2004) How to study in college Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning 44 14 Ribas, M A (2013) Problems and Strategies in Consecutive Interpreting: A Pilot Study at Two Different Stages of Interpreter Training Meta, 57(3), 812–835 doi: 10.7202/1017092ar 15 Roderick, J (2002) Conference Interpreting Explained (2nd ed) ST Jerome Publishing, USA 16 Roy, C B (2000) Interpreting as a discourse process New York: Oxford University Press 17 Rozan, J F.- Principles of Note-taking, Interpreter Training Resources, n.d Retrieved May, 01, 2006 from http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/rozan7principles.doc 18 Short-Term Memory & Working Memory: Definition, Duration & Capacity (2019) Retrieved November 12, 2019, from https://humanmemory.net/short-term-working-memory/ 19 Wei, L (2013) Developing Note-taking Skills in Consecutive Interpreting Lingusist Cult Educ 2, No 01, Shandong University, China, 72-81 20 Wikipedia (2019) Dictation (exercise) Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_(exercise) 45 ... number of participants Because of time restraint and busy schedules of professional interpreters, all of the participants are students and lecturers from Translation and Interpreting Division, FELTE, ... differences of interpreting notes of students and professional interpreters Step 3: Analyzing the data The strategies and methods that two groups of participants used to take notes were compared and. .. disadvantages of taking notes and make the most use of this activity Practice Another way to enhance the quality of notes according to all professional interpreters is to actively practice at