Are Simultaneous Interpretations into A More Accurate Than Those into B? A Case Study of Authentic Data
Jihong Wang, Jing Fang · 2025
Although simultaneous interpreting from B (interpreters’ active non-native language) into A (their native language) is a norm in conference interpreting, retour interpreting (namely A-to-B simultaneous interpreting) is also widely practiced by spoken and signed language interpreters. This chapter examines findings from a case study that explored directionality effects on the accuracy of a Mandarin/English conference interpreter’s simultaneous interpreting performance in real-life interviews. The interpreter’s time lag was also measured to highlight the cognitive processing of difficult segments in the source speeches. Quantitative results showed the interpreter achieved a high level of accuracy when interpreting in each language direction, with directionality having negligible impacts on accuracy. Additionally, qualitative results revealed challenges in English-to-Mandarin (B-to-A) simultaneous interpreting included source speech ambiguity, the speaker’s use of metaphors, unknown words, and cognitive overload related to overly long time lag. Qualitative results showed that challenges in Mandarin-to-English (A-to-B) simultaneous interpreting involved source language interference, numbers, technical terms, and cognitive overload. Taken together, although such challenges are common in both language directions, each one possesses unique challenges. Results indicate simultaneous interpreting in neither language direction is inherently superior. This will contribute to discussions regarding language-pair-specificity, directionality, and external and internal factors influencing the quality of simultaneous interpreting.