TACTICS IN INTERPRETATION

COPING TACTICS IN INTERPRETATION

Problems do arise in interpreting situations

due to processing capacity limitations, errors
in processing capacity management, and gaps
in the interpreter’s Knowledge Base.

Because of these problems Interpretation has

been referred to by professionals as “CRISIS
MANAGEMENT”.
Coping tactics are fundamental practical skills in
interpreting, and are taught in most training
programs by trial (student) and correction
(instructor)
Difficulties affect Comprehension and
Production, but when interpreters are aware of
these, they use a set of tactics to limit their
impact.
TACTICS IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETATION

•Comprehension tactics

•Preventive tactics

•Reformulation tactics
 COMPREHENSION TACTICS

These tactics are used when there are Comprehension

problems. Problems threaten to arise under time-related or
processing capacity related pressure

Delaying the response

Reconstructing the segment with the help of the context
Using the boothmate´s help
Consulting documents in the booth
 COMPREHENSION TACTICS
Delaying the response:
Interpreters delay their response (seconds) to have time to think
while receiving more information from the source language
speech.
Involves: accumulation of information in short-term memory, and
loss of speech segments.

Reconstructing the segment with the help of the context:

Interpreters make use of their knowledge of the language, the
subject and the situation (extralinguistic knowledge) to reconstruct
the speech (names, numbers etc.)
 COMPREHENSION TACTICS

Using the boothmate’s help:

There is an active and a passive interpreter in the booth all times (theoretically).

Consulting documents in the booth

Interpreters can look for documents (read and mark them) before the interpretation
starts. Preparation of documents and their management on the booth is essential.
 PREVENTIVE TACTICS

These tactics are used when time or processing capacity

pressure is such that a problem may arise or is about to
occur. The point here is to limit risks of failure

Taking Notes
Changing the Ear-Voice Span
Segmentation
Changing the order of elements in an enumeration
 PREVENTIVE TACTICS
Taking notes
Interpreters take notes when they feel they may forget something (figures & names, etc.)
due to syntactic reasons.

Changing the Ear-Voice Span

(EVS, is the time lag between comprehension and reformulation.) Interpreters can
control the processing capacity requirements. It is learned with experience.
 PREVENTIVE TACTICS
Segmentation
Interpreters choose to reformulate speech segments sometimes
before they have a picture of what the speaker wants to say.
Can save short-term memory capacity, but involves higher
capacity requirements in the Production Effort.

Changing the order of elements in an enumeration

Reformulate the last elements first to free memory from the
information. This may work best with terms easily transcoded.
 REFORMULATION TACTICS

These tactics are used in order to eliminate the potential

consequences of production problems in short-term memory
problems.

Delaying the response

Using the boothmate’s help
Consulting a document in the booth
Replacing a segment with superordinate term or a more
general speech segment
Explaining or Paraphrasing
Reproducing the sound heard in the source language
speech
Instant Naturalization
Transcoding
Informing delegates of an interpretation problem
Referring delegates to another information source
Omitting the information
Parallel reformulation
Switching off the microphone
 REFORMULATION TACTICS
Delaying the response
Using the boothmate´s help
Consulting documents in the booth

Replacing a segment with a superordinate term or a more

general speech segment
When incapable of understanding, reformulate in a less
accurate manner (word) or a more general segment
(sentence).
E.g. Universidad Juárez Autónoma … “UJAT”

Explaining or Paraphrasing
Interpreters may understand a term but not know the
appropriate equivalent in the target language, so they can
explain it.
 REFORMULATION TACTICS
Reproducing the sound heard in the source language
speech.
Reproduce the sound as heard. It may discredit the
interpreter.

Instant naturalization
An unknown term in the source language may be
naturalized by adapting it to the morphological or
phonological rules of the target language.
“télédétection” (remote sensing) “teledetection”
 REFORMULATION TACTICS
Transcoding
Translating word for word.
E.g. “mandibular block” (type of anesthesia) “bloc mandibulaire”.
Appropriate term “tronculaire”

Informing delegates of an interpretation problem

Interpreters may say: “… and an author whose name the
interpreter did not catch”. When this happens, delegates may fail
to react, but they can also ask the speaker to repeat. It’s not used
very often.
 REFORMULATION TACTICS
Referring delegates to another information source
The interpreter can refer delegates to visual aids or information
handed out in the conference.

Omitting the information

When interpreters deliberately decide not to reformulate a piece of
information.

Parallel reformulation
In bad working conditions, interpreters may invent a speech
segment compatible with the SL speech. It’s an extreme one.
 Switching off the microphone
Another extreme tactic. Interpretation would be worse than
non-interpretation.

Interpreters do not choose the tactics at random. They seem

to follow rules, consciously, often unconsciously.
Rule 1. Interpreters generally consider their duty is to attempt
to reformulate all of the Speaker’s Message in the target
language. However, the absence of information in the TL
speech segment does not necessarily imply that the
information is lost to the delegates.
Rule 2. Interpreters seek to recover as much information
as possible on each segment without jeopardizing the
recovery of other segments. So they favor tactics such
as omission, naturalization and approximate repetition.
Interpreters serve communication and keep in mind the
interests of the participants in communication

Rule 3. Communication impact of the Speech.

It depends on fidelity to the SL speech and its delivery, but
as well on interpreter´s credibility.
Rule 4. The Law of least effort
It tends to lead to tactics involving less effort
even when processing capacity is available.

Rule 5. Self-protection
It is a fact of life that interpreters very often fail
to understand or reformulate speech segments
in a way which they consider satisfactory.