An empirical and corpus－based study on the effects of input rate on fluency in simultaneous interpreting

Abstract

Fluency is an essential criterion in interpreting quality assessment. Being a common cause for the increase of cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting ( SI), the input rate is closely related to fluency in SI. However, previous research on the influence of input rate on fluency in SI output often has divergent or even conflicting findings. This experimental study manipulated the input rate of source speeches in SI and built a bilingual corpus with systematic annotations of fluency indicators to explore the effects of input rate on fluency in SI output at different training stages. The results showed that: ( 1) the main effects of input rate on multiple indices of SI fluency were significant and the SI output of trainee interpreters were overall more fluent under the condition of a higher input rate, which was evidenced by a higher speech rate, longer mean length of run, smaller mean number of silent pauses and disfluencies, and a shorter mean duration of disfluencies; ( 2) The main effects of SI training on some of the fluency indices were significant, witnessed by a higher speech rate and a shorter mean duration of silent pauses and disfluencies. This research can provide new evidence for the currently inconclusive issue and has important implications for SI training and interpreting assessment. 流利性是口译质量评估的重要标准之一。输入语速，作为影响同声传译认知负荷的重要因素，与流利性关 系密切，但关于它对流利性的影响，学者们却众说纷纭，甚至有相反的结论。本研究通过实验控制同声传译的输入语速， 并建立双语语料库对流利性指标进行系统标注，以探究在不同训练阶段输入语速对同传译语流利性的影响。研究发现: (1) 输入语速对学生译员同传译语流利性的多项指标有显著的影响。在高输入语速情境中，学生译员同传译语总体而 言更流利，主要体现在语速加快、平均语流长度增加、静默停顿与非流利现象平均数量减少、非流利现象平均时长缩短; (2) 同传训练对同传译语流利性的部分指标有显著的影响，表现为训练后语速加快、静默停顿与非流利现象的平均时长缩短。本研究的发现能为目前尚未有一致结论的该议题增添新的证据，同时对同传教学与口译评估有重要的启示。