The Emergence of a Complex Language Skill: Evidence from the Self-organization of Interpreting Competence in Interpreting Students

Abstract

Research on the development of interpreting competence could be a window to the issue of how L2 learners develop complex language skills. The present study conducted a longitudinal experiment with beginning interpreting students, exploring the change of relationship between consecutive interpreting (CI) competence and two related capacities (i.e., language competence and memory capacity). Two major results were revealed. First, in general, more language skills and working memory (WM) spans got correlated with CI performance at the later stage of CI training. Second, a fit structural equation model of CI competence could only be reported in the post-test. We may therefore conclude that the development of interpreting competence is at least partly a result of the self-organization of the interpreting competence system, in which relevant components get mobilized, and a better coordinated structure emerges. Implications for the development of complex language skills and for the concept of self-organization are discussed.

Into-A or Into-B, That is a Question: A Systematic Literature Review of Directionality and Performance in Consecutive Interpreting

“…Directionality is only one of the variables that lead to varying interpreting performance, and several other factors contribute to directionality and performance in CI. For instance, in Z. Yu and Dong’s (2022) longitudinal experiment with beginner interpreting students, two capacities (language competence and memory capacity) and as many as seven variables (L2 proficiency, summary writing for SL, SL listening comprehension, C-E word translation recognition BIS, English listening span, English speaking span and Chinese speaking span) were recognized and found to correlate with student interpreters’ performance at early and later stages of training.…”

“…Yu and Dong’s (2022) longitudinal experiment with beginner interpreting students, two capacities (language competence and memory capacity) and as many as seven variables (L2 proficiency, summary writing for SL, SL listening comprehension, C-E word translation recognition BIS, English listening span, English speaking span and Chinese speaking span) were recognized and found to correlate with student interpreters’ performance at early and later stages of training. At stage 1 (second month of training), only L2 proficiency was found to be related to interpreters’ performance in into-B (Chinese to English) direction while in into-A (English to Chinese) direction, “4 variables of language competence (i.e., L2 proficiency, summary writing for SL, SL listening comprehension, C-E word translation recognition BIS) and 3 WM spans (English listening span, English speaking span and Chinese speaking span)”(Z. Yu & Dong, 2022, p. 274) were all found to influence students’ performance.…”

“…During the later stage of training (stage 2), more variables seemed to interact with both into-B CI performance (three variables: summary writing for SL, SL listening comprehension and English listening span) and into-A CI performance (all the variables except C-E word translation recognition BIS). However, the all-inclusive complexity of Z. Yu and Dong’s (2022) study makes it difficult to reach a clear conclusion.…”

“…Several factors influence the performance of interpreters, from interpreters’ L2 proficiency and working memory (WM) (Z. Yu & Dong, 2022), ISE level (Ivars et al, 2014; S.-B.…”

Note-Taking Proficiency in Interpreting Teaching: Putting the Note-Taking Fluency Scale to the Test

“…Recent studies (Cai et al, 2015;Yu & Dong, 2021) also indicate that consecutive interpreting proficiency is conditioned and predicted by language competence as well as by memory capacity, partly as a result of the self-organization of the interpreting competence system of unbalanced individuals. Since note-taking and note-reading are efforts to aid working memory as an integral part of the interpreting competence system, its measurement contributes to the study of interpreting proficiency.…”