Deconstructing SI: a contribution to the debate on component processes
Robin Setton · 2001
In interpreter training, and to evaluate quality, we need to know what is easy or difficult in different conditions and situations. This implies some underlying model of how basic cognitive faculties cooperate and are trained to do the task. (The presence in our brains of an evolved module for translation or simultaneous interpreting is unlikely). In this discussion paper I will (i) try to show that the analysis of simultaneous interpreting into composite sub-tasks is neither particularly productive nor unequivocally justified by the psycholinguistics or expertise literature; (ii) argue for a different kind of ‘componential ’ analysis of interpreting, as a skill involving a coordinated and enhanced use of existing basic faculties rather than as a composite of subtasks; (iii) suggest briefly how this applies to teaching; and (iv) outline a tentative research orientation aimed at deducing discourse-related difficulty by focusing on the ease or otherwise of forming clear intermediate representations. The most obvious extreme limiting factors on interpreting, like acoustics, input speed, recited monotonous delivery, and the interpreter’s preparedness,