University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of Portuguese

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

Simultaneous interpretation (SI) is a special kind of translation where the interpreter listens to a speaker, processes the spoken (or signed) source language message and produces an equivalent output in a target language, i.e., the interpreter produces one part of the message in the target language while simultaneously listening to the next part of the message in the source language. This thesis examines the process of simultaneous interpretation from an information processing point of view and describes the implications of such an approach for practical SI. Following an overview of research issues in SI literature, a definition of SI is given, pointing out the special characteristics of SI and the features that distinguish it from written translation and consecutive interpretation. A model incorporating various structural and functional components is then used to describe SI in terms of information processing. The focus of this investigation is on the integrative use of bottom-up and top-down processing mechanisms as typical features of human information processing systems. Subsequently the implications of the observations made about SI as an information process are considered within the context of practical SI. The various factors that influence the quality, speed and reliability of interpretation at all stages of the process are examined. Finally suggestions for the training of simultaneous interpreters are made. The thesis is concluded with the observation that SI is indeed a special kind of human information processing. Modelling SI in terms of information processing can contribute to the understanding of this complex process and its components. It is a powerful tool to enlighten the mechanisms and skills involved in SI and to establish efficient training programs for simultaneous interpreters.

This exegesis is an exploration of issues involved in making an exhibition -The Gay Museum (2003) -at the Western Australian Museum. Inspired by the work of artist Joseph Kosuth at the Brooklyn Museum (1990) and curator Peter Emmett at the Museum of Sydney (1994), this project attempts to explore and extend the role of artists as curators in contemporary museums. The project also shows that by re- interpreting objects in museum collections artists can actively challenge and support museums in a period of change and that collaboration between artists and museums as 'makers of meaning' can open up new possibilities for both. The curatorial vision for the exhibition therefore included strategies from contemporary museums - a multi-disciplinary approach and the use of non-linear narrative - and strategies from the contemporary art world -those that explore an aesthetic approach to objects and installation. Research for the project was determined by the expectations, unique histories and political choices that shaped and connected three 'communities' - Jo Darbyshire from the visual arts community, the Western Australian Museum community and the gay and lesbian community of Western Australia. As The Gay Museum project shows, the collaboration between artists and museums can contribute to museums being sites that vibrantly reflect contemporary cultural changes.

The purpose of this research program was to explore the effectiveness of the Predict- Observe-Explain (POE) teachingllearning technique to diagnose students' understanding of science and identify students' level of achievement with reference to the Science Student Outcome Statements for Australian schools. This research employed an interpretive action research approach with a sample of students from three Australian metropolitan high schools in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12, whose ages ranged between 14 and 17 years. Three data collection methods were used to generate data for interpretation, namely, written POE responses of students, in-class journals and student interviews. Data collected were interpreted using three theoretical perspectives, namely, Chi et al.'s theory of ontological categories, Hewson and Hennessey's conceptual change theory to determine the epistemological status of students' understanding of science, and Chinn and Brewer's model to classify types of students' responses to contradictory observations. This purpose of using this methodology was to obtain an in-depth, plausible and credible account of students' understanding and their level of achievement. POE tasks were concerned with heat and the expansion of water, solubility of salt, and power and resistance of light globes. The data revealed common ideas amongst students that are contrary to scientists' science; furthermore, students showed that they were able to articulate their own ideas based on the POE tasks. The findings in this research reveal that these POEs were effective in capturing a range of possible student observations and prediction outcomes when worded in an open-ended format. / Quality information on students' understanding and on the way they responded to contradictory data was obtained when POEs were administered by teacher demonstrations and were designed to produce phenomena that were clear, immediate and had only one aspect to observe. Furthermore, the data suggest that POEs are effective in identifying students' achievement across levels within a substrand of the Australian Student Outcome Statements and enable the teacher to observe and document a spread of achievement over a range of levels rather that a single outcome. The results of this research suggest that POEs are effective in diagnosing students' understanding of science and their level of achievement. The POE tasks can be used by teachers to insightfully design learning activities and strategies that start from the students' viewpoint rather than that of the teacher or the scientist. Findings in this research have implications for curriculum development and learning strategies, teacher development, and the promotion and assessment of students' understanding and level of achievement.

This thesis suggests that students with (dis)abilities are immersed in, and emerge from powerful discourses within classrooms named `inclusive'. It suggests that resilient and normative psycho-medical discourses and discourses of special education work to maintain the deep structures of schooling, and work against a valuing of difference, and of the Other, within schools and classrooms named `inclusive'. The inquiry that is the basis of this thesis works with textual representations of `inclusion' and `inclusive schooling' and works to address issues of identity and subjectivity within the various discourses from which `inclusion' and `inclusive schooling' might be understood to emerge. It is sited within Western philosophical streams concerned with language and meaning, discourse and narrative, texts and textuality. It emerges from a qualitative research paradigm and is deeply influenced by the earlier works of Michel Foucault (1969, 1970, 1972, 1991). Through these works Foucault develops `genealogy' as a form of historical analysis. This thesis engages genealogy as a form for critical interpretative inquiry into schooling practices named `inclusive' of students with (dis)abilities. The genealogy admits the historical, social, theoretical and political contexts which frame research, inquiry and interpretation within the social sciences. The inquiry emerges from an epistemology of tentativeness and uncertainty. It accepts that knowledge is contextual, contingent and indeterminate. It addresses the associated `crisis of representation' (Denzin & Lincoln 1994, 1998) related to what might constitute an adequate description of the sets of social relations and spaces named `inclusive schooling' through interpretative processes of opening questions and sets of questions. / This genealogy develops understandings of `inclusion' and `inclusive schooling' through unfolding sequences of questions as 'thought-lines' that are strategies for this interpretative inquiry. Three thought-lines are woven from the questions which both propel, and emerge from, the processes of this critical interpretative inquiry: The 'self-other' thought-line; The 'included-excluded' thought-line; The 'particular-general' thought-line. Thought-lines transgress the borders of form and content in this inquiry. They are enmeshed to become the fabric of the genealogy. The thesis is in three sections, the first, Shaping a Genealogy, offers a theoretical and methodological perspective. The second, Squinting and Connecting, is in the form of a suite of interpretations, and the last, Developing Understanding, offers a range of ways in which inclusion and inclusive schooling might be understood. The thesis culminates in a set of new questions that represent a range of understandings of inclusion and inclusive schooling.

As yet, few explicit, practical and easy to implement marking scales for evaluating the quality of translations have been proposed. The purpose of this study is to introduce a new marking guide for making quantitative assessments of the quality of non-literary translations, and to test its practicality through a case study using the Arabic language. On the basis of the results, some generalizations about translation and translation quality assessment are made. Early treatments which dealt with the evaluation of translations are discussed, showing their merits and defects. The new marking guide is then described, including classification of errors and examples of each type of error. Guidelines are presented for the holistic subjective assessment, the guidelines are evaluated and the outcome discussed / Master of Arts (Hons)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 38).

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-83).