Recent years have witnessed many developments in using
a communicative approach in language teaching, but Little
has yet been mentioned about how to teach interpretation,
which is an important skill for many Chinese students of
English.
Interpreting involves a variety of complex tasks, such
as the acquiring of language proficiency, general knowledge,
cultural knowledge, and specific interpreting skills, among
which linguistic knowledge is a prerequisite for the study
of interpreting, and cultural knowledge is of equal importance.
The analysis of grammatical errors and cultural mistakes
made by Chinese interpreters indicates that errors and mistakes
are often recorded in areas where there is a significant
difference between the languages and cultures of English
and Chinese-speakers. Such analysis also demonstrates that
many errors and mistakes are attributed to interlingual or
intralingual transfer in addition to idiosyncrasy, and to
using the culture of the source language community as the
norm in linguistic and paralinguistic behaviour. The
errors and mistakes made can be traced to a lack of both
linguistic competence and communicative competence.
As the interpreter is an intermediary in communication
between an addresser and an addressee, the quality of his
output has considerable impact on the rendering of the
message. Therefore, in order to avoid possible errors
and mistakes which might impede communication, it seems
necessary to add to the existing curriculum of interpreting
in China such courses as will enable future interpreters
to acquire both linguistic competence and communicative
competence. The study of culture, which used to be
neglected in the interpreting curriculum in China, must
be seen as an indispensable component in the curriculum.
The understanding of some aspects of the culture of
English speakers can be facilitated by a communicative
approach to language teaching, by the use of a large
amount of culture-based authentic materials, and by the
introduction of specific techniques usually needed in
interpreting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219345 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Song-qin, Li, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Liberal Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Li Song-qin |
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