An investigation of leaners' coping strategies in English-Chinese interpreting classroom training in China

Abstract

The primary aim of the present research was to examine Chinese learners' coping strategies in consecutive interpreting. Issues explored in the study included the learners' difficulties, the relationship among various strategies, factors which had impact on strategy use, the link between students' strategies and performance, differences between the most effective and least effective students' strategy use and reasons why students preferred to use certain strategies. Data were collected via a survey and individual interviews. A total of 375 undergraduate students and M.A. candidates majoring in English and Translation and Interpreting participated in the survey. The students were from six universities, located in three cities in Mainland China. Both components of the present research were carried out from March to May, 2012. A Coping Strategy Use in Consecutive Interpreting Questionnaire - designed for this investigation--was used to examine the implementation of strategies. Twelve students participated in the interviews. Six of them were sophomores, and six of them were graduate students. Half of each of the two groups were at the intermediate level (middle 40%), and the other half were the most proficient students (upper 30%). The results of the survey revealed that listening, note-taking and interpreting strategies were positively correlated. The stress the students experienced during interpreting sessions, as well as their gender, and grade level also had an impact on their selection of strategies. The strategies of Omission--n listening and note-taking, and Addition and Paraphrase - while interpreting--were significantly related to performance. Moreover, the most proficient and the least proficient students differed in which strategies they utilized. For the most part, the interview data supported the findings of the survey. Retrospective Think Alouds performed during the interviews revealed the rationales behind strategy use. New problems and strategies which had not been discovered in the survey were identified during the interviews (e.g., Repetition, Coined Words and Anticipation). The study demonstrated that students' strategy use was characterized by problematicity, consciousness, intentionality and automaticity. Individual variables, including stress, gender, and grade level played a role in the selection of strategies. In interpreting training, therefore, instructors should take these variables into account. Instructors are advised to provide materials with a variety of topics and delivery rates and to select suitable materials according to learners' grade levels. They might also provide a warm-up exercise to alleviate students' nervousness before a training session. Limitations of this study included: 1) the weak predicting power of four strategies identified in the multiple regression analysis; 2) low reliability in the questionnaire items regarding coping strategies for stress reduction; and, 3) insufficient stratification of the interviewees. In the conclusion to the study, the researcher proposed directions for future research.

Date of Award	15 Jul 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Xiu YAN (Supervisor)