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Neurolinguistic approach to interpreting research in Italy (SSLMIT Trieste): a critical survey in the context of further developments
Kadová, Alžběta ; Čeňková, Ivana (advisor) ; Rejšková, Jana (referee)
An important field of interpreting research, neurolinguistic approach emerged soon after the shift towards an interdisciplinary approach to research into interpreting. The mutually beneficial collaboration between neurolinguists and interpreters has been centred mainly on the issue of language representation in interpreters as bilingual subjects, namely on the role each of the two cerebral hemispheres plays depending on the task (automatic speech production, shadowing, translation of single words or phrases, simultaneous interpreting), choice of interpreting strategy (literal vs. meaning- based interpretation) or on the direction of interpreting (B to A vs. A to B language). The thesis focuses on the research into hemispheric lateralization done at SSLMIT, University of Trieste, Italy - the place where, in the 80s, the neurolinguistic approach was first adopted. The Trieste School then remained its centre for approximately ten years. The beginning chapters of this theoretical study present the fundamentals of neuranatomy, neurophysiology and neurolinguistics, necessary for understanding of the mental processes underlying simultaneous interpretation. Furthermore, relevant neuroimaging methods are introduced that either have already been used in or could be applied to interpreting research in the...
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The development of interpreting in Sweden
Pišvejc, David ; Čeňková, Ivana (advisor) ; Rejšková, Jana (referee)
Sweden has been one of the pioneers in community interpreting. Due to the upsurge of immigration, the 1960s saw the start of systematic interpreter training in Sweden in order to provide a full interpretation service to immigrants dealing with authorities or the health care service. Gradually, community interpreter training was introduced in several types of community colleges administered by The Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies (TÖI), set up for that purpose by the government in 1986. With the country joining the EU in 1995, it was necessary to train enough conference interpreters to ensure a continuous supply from TÖI graduates. The market for conference interpreters is limited both in Sweden and the European institutions, compared with community interpreters. There is a legal obligation to provide interpretation to immigrants and newcomers when dealing with the authorities. Interpreters in Sweden can qualify as "authorized interpreters" once they pass a series of demanding exams that take place regularly. However, neither authorization nor formal interpreter training are compulsory for the profession, which directly affects the quality of the service. Authorized interpreters must abide both by a code of conduct and the regulations whereas unauthorized interpreters have no such...
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Comparison of students' performance at the beginning and upon completion of their simultaneous interpretation training course
Renner, Jakub ; Abdallaova, Naděžda (referee) ; Rejšková, Jana (advisor)
The main aim of the thesis is to determine,~ whether there may be a relationship between the capacity of working memor)Lfc,and the skill of interpreting features of modality in a text. Based on this aim, the basic concepts determining the approach to the above question are outlined (working memory, modality). An experiment is conducted on a population of nine subjects. The experiment investigates the development of working memory capacity (memory span test), and the skill to interpret features of modality during the course of interpretation studies (simultaneous interpretation of and English text with high occurrence of features of modality). Based on an analysis, evaluation, and statistical processing of the experimental results, the thesis determines that working memory capacity, and the ability to interpret features of modality may be related.
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The role of the interpreter in asylum procedure involving Chinese-speaking migrants
Gutvirthová, Jana ; Rejšková, Jana (referee) ; Čeňková, Ivana (advisor)
The presented thesis adopts a descriptive approach towards examining the role of the CzechChinese interpreter in asylum procedure involving Chinese-speaking migrants. Based on both recent theoretical findings and empirical researches conducted in the field of interpreted communication in various institutional settings, it suggests the untenability of a passive and mechanistic definition of the role of the interpreter and advocates a dialogic approach to the interpreted communication event reflecting contextual and pragmatic aspects of the interlingual communication process. Following an empirical survey carried out among Czech interpreters for Chinese asylum seekers, the thesis argues that most interpreters are aware of the communicative dimension of the interpreting process and the inherent differences of cultural and social backgrounds between individual participants. This awareness is then manifested in the way they perceive and their define their own role in the interpreting process as both linguistic and and cultural mediators. The actual performance of the interpreter's role is thus viewed rather as active and visible contrary to the expectations of legal professionals involved in the asylum procedure, whose insistence on passive and invisible definition of interpreter's role makes their demands...
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Assessment of interpretation performance by different groups of users
Nekula, Libor ; Čeňková, Ivana (referee) ; Rejšková, Jana (advisor)
The objective of this theoretical-empirical thesis is to investigate the assessment of interpretation performances by various groups of recipients. In the theoretical part, we provide an overview of the research results achieved up-to-date by theoreticians such as Hildegund Bühler, Ingrid Kurz, Andrzej Kopczynski, Peter Moser, Barbara Moser-Mercer, Daniel Gile, Franz Pöchhacker etc. The research results suggest that users' expectations can differ depending on their experience, education and/or professional background. This fact prompted us to test the validity of this assumption by having interpreters' performances assessed by various groups of users, the hypothesis being that different groups of users are likely to assess performance differently. To verify the hypothesis, we recorded three interpreters, who consecutively interpreted an eight minute speech from English into Czech, and asked the three groups of users (interpreters, lawyers and regular users of interpreting services - employees of multinational companies) to rate the performance in questionnaires designed for the purpose of this experiment. Subjects were asked to evaluate different criteria. Having processed the data collected in the questionnaires, we found that the differences were of statistical relevance in two categories only -...
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Working memory in simultaneous interpreting and its capacity
Gabzdilová, Marianna ; Rejšková, Jana (referee) ; Čeňková, Ivana (advisor)
The experimental working memory research in simultaneous interpreting has so far been very limited. There were small number of studies of cognitive processes in simultaneous interpreting. This thesis gives a brief overview of the recent experimental studies in this field and presents the subject of working memory. First part of this thesis shows the largely known theoretical models of working memory, information about its possible developement and its relation towards language. On the basis of the recent theoretical research, we formulated a hypothesis for the empirical part of this thesis. The hypothesis assumes that with interpreting practice there is a developement of working memory capacity and that the language factor becomes less important. In the empirical part of the thesis we described the experiment that had been done to confirm the hypothesis. The experiment consisted of standard listening span task adapted to two language variants, in Czech and in French. Thirty participants took part in this experimental study - 10 professional interpreters, 10 interpreting students and 10 non-interpreters (people without interpreting training and professional interpreting experience). All of the participants had approximately the same language skills in Czech and in French. Czech was the mother tongue of all...
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The role of community interpreter from the point of view of users' expectations
Holkupová, Jiřina ; Čeňková, Ivana (referee) ; Rejšková, Jana (advisor)
The thesis focuses on the expectations of interpreters and public institutions with regard to the role of interpreters in a specific type of communicative events, i.e. in interpreter-mediated encounters between foreigners and Czech institutions. This type of interpreting is commonly referred to as community interpreting. Taking into account that there is a lack of consensus in the literature concerning the interpreter's role, the thesis aims to explore how Czech interpreters and institutions perceive this role in the absence of binding professional standards. The main goal is to determine whether the respondents see interpreters more as passive 'translation devices' or 'conduits', or whether they consider them to be active communication participants in their own right. The first part of the thesis provides an overview of research focusing on the interpreter's role, and gives examples of how this role has been codified, both in the international context and in the Czech Republic. The second, empirical part, presents the results of a questionnaire-based survey conducted among Czech interpreters and public institutions. The main part of the questionnaire has been designed with the aim of determining which expressions of the different interpreter's roles are seen as desirable by the respondents, and which are...
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Time lag in simultaneous interpretation from English into Czech and its dependence on text type
Podhajská, Květa ; Rejšková, Jana (advisor) ; Čeňková, Ivana (referee)
The aim of this M.A. thesis was to prove the correlation between text type and time lag in simultaneous interpretation. Two text types were examined: a prepared speech read out by the speaker, and a spontaneous speech, not prepared in written form beforehand. The thesis is based on an experiment examining variations in time lag in simultaneous interpreting from English into Czech. Twelve students and recent graduates of interpreting at the Institute of Translation Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague, took part in the experiment. The interpreters' outputs were recorded on audiocassettes, then burned on CDs and processed with the help of specialized computer software (Cool Edit). The results were then evaluated, summed up in charts, analyzed, processed graphically, commented on and computed statistically. The results presented in the empirical part of the thesis were then tested against a hypothesis assuming a shorter time lag in interpreting the prepared read text. This hypothesis was confirmed. The results gained in the experiment showed there is a correlation between text type and time lag in simultaneous interpretation, with a statistically significant difference in time lag between the two types of speech. It was also confirmed that time lag is influenced not only by...
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Position of a text on the oral-literate continuum in simultaneous interpreting into language A and B
Kreuzová, Šárka ; Čeňková, Ivana (referee) ; Rejšková, Jana (advisor)
The aim of this theoretical/empirical study was to observe whether and how the position of a text on the oral-literate continuum changes in simultaneous interpretation and to find out whether this change is dependent on the direction of interpreting, i.e. whether it is different when interpreting into language A and language B. The study was inspired by a similar experiment, presented as an M.A. thesis by Miriam Shlesinger in 1989. However, this study was carried out using a different language combination (Czech being the source and English being the target language in all cases). Compared to Shlesinger's study, the above-mentioned aspect of directionality of interpreting was also incorporated. In the theoretical part, attention was focused on two main areas. The first one was the area of orality and literacy. In this section, an attempt was made to synthesize the existing information about this subject. The terms 'orality' and 'literacy' were defined from different points of view and the differences between spoken and written texts on the one hand, and oral and literate text on the other hand, were described. At the end of this section the characteristic features of literate and oral texts were discussed.
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Sight translation - speaking versus writing
Hradecká, Emma ; Rejšková, Jana (referee) ; Čeňková, Ivana (advisor)
ln this thesis we addressed tbe subject of sight translation. This special type of interpreting is often not given adequate academic attention even though it can be considered one of tbe most di:fficult exercises due to its dichotomie character. Sight translation is Dot mere transfer from one language to another, it is also transfer from written mode to oral mode. Tbe most important characteristics, as well as the largest area of differentiation ... of written and oral texts is syntax. Therefore, we centred our research on this issue. Dur research is qua1itative, with no hypothesis. We merely describe tbe situation in sight translation from English into Czech. We chose non-participant observation as tbe method of our research, thus decreasing tbe number of variables. Tbe ohservation took place from January 2006 to Seplember 2007 during Stale Final Exams al the Department of Translation Studies af tbe Charles University in Prague. AH students specialized in interpreting. The empirical material consists of 13 origina1 texts and 13 interpreters' renditions. In tbe theoretical part of our tbesis we briefly characterise sight translation, drawing mainly on tbe doctoral thesis of Jimenez-Ivars (1999). Then we discuss tbe translatological aspects of tbe difIerence between written and oral texts, quoting Shlesinger...
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