SUMMARY

Wu, Yinyin, and Posen Liao. “Re-Conceptualising Interpreting Strategies for

TITLE Teaching Interpretation into a B Language.” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer
12, no. 2 (April 3, 2018): 188–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2018.1451952.
Despite a cognitive disadvantage when interpreting into one’s B language,
strategy use and awareness of norms allow interpreters to be resourceful and
efficient in achieving communicative goals. There is a need to incorporate strategy
training in interpreter education, especially when teaching into-B interpreting.
However, strategy taxonomies proposed by different scholars are incompatible,
causing confusion in teaching. Furthermore, strate- gies are not meaningfully
represented in a model that justifies their use. This paper aims to re-conceptualise
production-related interpreting strategies for pedagogical purposes,
accommodating trainers’ suggestions about into-B interpreting. Taking cognitive
ABSTRACT and temporal constraints as well as interpreting norms into account, we create a
trainee-friendly strategy model and a taxon- omy that help students understand
how strategies fit into a larger picture. Interpreting strategies are re-categorised
into three main types: problem-solving, problem-preventing, and message-enhan-
cing. Strategies are streamlined, adjusted, renamed, and grouped under four
catchy principles: BE FLEXIBLE, ONE CHUNK AT A TIME, BE CLEAR, and BE
CONCISE. For pedagogical application of this strategy taxonomy, we adopt an
instructional framework that activates cognitive, metacognitive, and social-
affective aspects of learning.

In interpreting performance, interpreting the mother tongue to another language (A-

B) is risk because of cognitive, temporal constraints and interpreting norms. In the
recognition of the interpreters, cognitive weakness in reinterpretation is indeed
INTRODUCTION weak. But with a consciousness of the norms it can still get the job done in terms of
communicability and performance. In the strategy, there are several interpreting
categories which are rearranged; therefore this arrangement is re-applied so that
interpreting into-B is easier to remember.
The method in interpreting which is the main focus in this research is reformulation
and production which was previously conceptualized into comprehension,
DEFINITION AND emergency, overall, and production. In interpreting can also describe to overcome
CATEGORIES OF potential problems-preventing and task-facilitating. Also there are the same naming
INTERPRETING problems in the interpreting strategy (even though the definitions are different),
STRATEGIES naming needs to be redone by considering contexts, constraints, and interpreting
norms. This is also confirmed by some researchers who are confused in using the
interpreting method taxonomies because of the incompatibility.
Bartlomiejczyk (2006) asked 36 advanced interpreting students to examine
retrospective comments and found that paraphrase, approximation, syntactic
transformation, and compression were more often and prominently used during
into-B interpreting. While doing interpreting performance, deletion of less important
information and condensation is the effect of directionality with Chinese and English
as the language pair. In Liu, Schallert, and Carroll’s (2004) research, the long-
standing ability of interpreters in interpreting shows that they take a more semantic-
DIRECTIONALITY AND
based approach at selecting more ideas that is necessary from input material and
INTERPRETING NORMS
was more useful in managing working memory resources. In the second language
(L2), trying to maximize information recovery, eliminating information recovery
intervention, optimizing speech communication effects, the law of least effort, and
self-protection are 5 five trends in interpreters’ behavior which he called ‘laws’
proposed by Gile (2009). And with the maximization of clarity and effectiveness of
language, interpreters can be adequate, explicit and specific even though the effort
spent is not large.
WHAT INTO-B Transcoding, transfer, and incomplete sentences are common problem that is often
INTERPRETING encountered and need to solve it. For example the methods that proposed by Li
 such as knowledge-based, language-based, meaning-based, and delivery-based.
The instruction of method must become a specific integral part, be explicit and
broad first in order to be transferred to a new context and it is necessary to carry out
STRATEGIES TO TEACH?
a re-operation to identify and reformulate the rules. Like taxonomy methods need to
be given more clearly when so that students performance increases appropriately
and effectively.
In its use, methods are divided into three types and grouped into four principles
based on their limits and norms. The three types are problem-solving, problem-
preventing, or message-enhancing, and the four principles is BE FLEXIBLE, ONE
CHUNK AT A TIME, BE CLEAR, and BE CONCISE. While the limits into-B
INTERPRETING
interpreting caused by the fact that two languages that do not have the same
STRATEGY MODEL
meaning so that can cause problems during into-B interpreting and concurrence of
listening, analyzing, speaking, and monitoring in SI. The norms are economy and
clarity which is show the relationship between ideas with reading level organization
and cohesive devices used by L2 speakers.
INTERPRETING In the YouTube video recording, there are two occasions that shown about
STRATEGY TAXONOMY interpreting methods using Mandarin as the mother tongue (A) and English as the B
language, in the first occasion is about course on justice which delivered in two
languages (English and Chinese) and in the second occasion it is about Jet Li
charity foundation which delivered using English CI.

Principle 1. Be flexible
In PRINCIPLE 1. BE FLEXIBLE, Use a more general term, Use a similar term, and
Explain can solve lexical and phrasal problems caused by difficulties associated
with difficult words. There is also a Paraphrase strategy that can be used to deal
with difficulties in lexical and phrasal, syntactic, semantic, interlingual, and even
intercultural. In the training for candidates simultaneous-into-B training, PRINCIPLE
1. namely BE FLEXIBLE is used to improve participant flexibility in using B language

1.1. Use a more general term

Use more general term can fix lexical slits or reformulation difficulties by
summarizing a longer fragment with a shorter phrase or to save time by
producing a generic term.

1.2. Use a similar term

In this research, Use a similar term is an amalgamation of everything
resemblance, recurrence, and improvement that can recover the ideal
counterparts of the lexical items and supply synonyms.

1.3. Explain
PRINCIPLE 1. BE FLEXIBLE which is Explain and Paraphrase has the
same definition and way of working. Explain is describing measures, forms,
colors, properties, attributes, characteristics, and features in targets concrete
concepts.

1.4. Paraphrase
Where in terms of paraphrasing, we can implicate semantic conversions with
of syntactic revolutions.Paraphrase in this content is divided into three sub-
methods Paraphrase by changing sentence structures, Paraphrase adjusting
messages for the sake of explicit instruction and Paraphrase by using plain
but clear B language.

Principle 2. One chunk at a time

In PRINCIPLE 2. CHUNK AT A TIME there are four methods which is Chunk the
source speech, Preserve linearity, Produce short and simple sentences, and
Rephrase ideas previously mentioned that are insert into the norm of minimizing
effort..

2-1 Chunk the source speech

In the first method interpreters can use it to minimize short-term memory
load by separating the evidence received into short, easy, self-contained
sentences when discovering complicated or ambiguous long sentence
structures. At the comprehension stage, this method can extend the time
lag so that the interpreters have plenty of time to speak the language/source
correctly. In addition, the negative side of using it is it can cause the risk of
short-term memory overload so that interpreters have difficulty completing
the sentence. And this Chunk can be large or small in SI, based on the
structural in differences of one's A and B languages.

2-2 Preserve linearity

The second method of ONE CHUNK AT A TIME which is Preserve linearity
is triggered by dramatic restructuring or recasting, so it is difficult to use in
the condition of simultaneity.

2-3 Produce short and simple sentences

The third method of ONE CHUNK AT A TIME which is Produce short and
simple sentece is used when the source speech is prevent cognitive
overload caused by one's weaker B language so that interpreters can make
speech targets short and simple.

2-4 Rephrase ideas previously mentioned

This method is used to solve the differences in syntactic structures between
two languages with something innovative that is still relevant to the rest of
the source speech. And parallel reformulation will enable interpreters to
devote more time to interpreting in order to differentiate the meaning of the
source speech while maintaining a smooth performance

Principle 3. Be clear
In PRINCIPLE 3. BE CLEAR, will involve the cohesive structure and its relationship
to enhance communicative clarity at discourse level.

3-1 (Re)-structure messages

The first method of PRINCIPLE 3. BE CLEAR which is (Re) structure
messages, can handle restructuring at morph syntactic level in SI, because
the linearity of incoming messages does not allow macro restructuring.
Meanwhile in IC, macro restructuring often occurs, therefore (re) structuring
must be clearly understandable and audience-friendly.

3-2 Add cohesive words

Add cohesive words used to make sure the logical continuity of interpreting
performance. The (Re) structure messages and add cohesive words
methods in this research are believed use easy ways of setting and
providing information to increase trainees' consciousness so that they can
be more successful in interpreting the B language for communicative
purposes.

Principle 4. Be concise
In PRINCIPLE 4. BE CONCISE which Omit secondary information and Select
important messages helps interpreters in productivity improvement in their B
language, and a succinct representation is also audience-friendly.
 4-1 Omit secondary information
The first method of PRINCIPLE 4. BE CONCISE which is Omit secondary
information is used to fix all kinds of perception, construction, or concept
problems that shown by elimination of lexical items, of performance, of
concepts, or of a section of content from the native speech. The omission
method was previously considered as a method that could not be used, but
these deficiencies do not always maintain a natural and coherent speech.
Therefore, these aspects will affect the fluidity and quality of their B
language performance.

4-2 Select important messages

The second method of PRINCIPLE 4. BE CONCISE which is Select
important message that should be learned how to effectively weigh the
relative importance of different items of data, identify more valuable
messages to communicate, and delete less important information.
Although these two methods are very helpful for participants to improve their
ability in B language, they cannot rely solely on these two methods because
there are times when these methods are unable to convey the source
speech clearly and sufficiently. And if they only rely on this method, they will
experience problems when there is a striking grammar because they cannot
choose the right words during the interpreting performance, therefore this
method cannot be used if there are frequent pauses which cause the
participants to hesitate.

The four principle can be used in SI, CI, and ST especially PRINCIPLE 1. BE
FLEXIBLE and PRINCIPLE 4. BE CONSICE. But because of the linearity of
receiving audio or video messages, PRINCIPLE 2. CHUNK AT A TIME is better to
use in SI and ST, but its meaning can also be applied to CI. And for CI, the method
that is more applicable to it is PRINCIPLE 3. BE CLEAR because of the
(re)structuring and coherent features at the discourse level.
In addition to establish a technically valid protocol for interpreting strategy
preparation, interpreting strategy pedagogy must first establish a theoretically valid
procedure like preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and expansion.
During the presentation, teachers show the importance of methods, name them,
describe their use with examples, illustrate the conceptual framework while using
PEDAGOGICAL
methods, and emphasize the pacing of method use. Then students will become
APPLICATIONS
more confident in method use after practiced. After practiced, they can more focus
in learning process and can judge how effective the methods they used while during
the evaluation. The last stage of 'the role of students' is expansion which is
expanse phase that involves removal of strategy application from common to
uncommon contexts.
In the pedagogy of interpreting methods, the methods are faced with three
challenges. In the first challenge, interpreting methods may relate in the same
name, the methods should be stressed because they assist students in
comprehending, memorizing, and applying methods and the methods are not
effectively represented so that students cannot understand how methods fit into a
wider context by looking at the conditioning factors which influence method usage.
CONCLUSION
Besides that, four principles are formed which are BE FLEXIBLE, ONE CHUNK AT
A TIME, BE CLEAR, and BE CONCISE methods that can solve problems, prevent
problems, or improve the effectiveness of message. And in addition to form projects
and assignments in the taxonomy method developing well-rounded strategy training,
the cognitive, metacognitive, and social-affective aspects of learning can help
students in class and helps personal needs and weaknesses.
PERSONAL COMMENT For this article, I really enjoyed to read it, especially in the part of PRINCIPLE.
Although I have only read three articles so far, it turns out that interpreting strategies
are numerous and vary in both their use and definition. In this article the thing that
caught my attention the most was THE FOUR PRINCIPLE, especially PRINCIPLE
2. CHUNK AT A TIME and PRINCIPLE 4. BE CONSICE. These strategies are
almost the same as the strategies I used in the Introduction to Interpreting course. In
my opinion, this strategy is very useful when interpreting because it can save words
and time when interpreting.