Pausing in two-way E-C consecutive interpreting: A contrastive analysis of trainee interpreters' performance

Pausing is generally viewed as a reference index of speech fluency, whereas the issue of directionality has long been a debatable topic in interpreting studies from its inception. Looking closely into a two-way E-C consecutive interpreting activity involving 15 trainee interpreters from one university in China, this paper aims at a contrastive analysis of pausing features and possible correlation between fluency and directionality. Statistics generated by the study show that with the structural difference between the two working languages widening, directionality does effect a partial change to the profile of pausing, yet not to the extent of corroborating the hypothesis that output is more fluent in the mother tongue than the foreign language. An immediate lesson drawn from the study is that trainee interpreters are obligated to heighten sensitivity to their output for better performance. Adapted from the source document