Students perspectives on the role of note taking consecutive interpreting a case of english translation and interpreting majored senior students at can tho university

However, my experience as an English Translation and Interpreting-majored student shows that although these authors state that interpreters’ notes are personalized in character and only

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

GRADUATION THESIS Field of study: English Translation and Interpreting

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I declare that this thesis is my original work which has not been submitted for a degree

in any other university or publish in any journal Any reference that appeared in this thesis has been acknowledged in the reference list

LưuThanh Phụng Cơ

April 2015

My thanks go to Mr Huynh Minh Hien for providing me many books of data analysis

I am thankful to all the senior students majoring English Translation and Interpreting Course 37 at Can Tho University Their participation contributes an important part in this thesis If they had not attended, I could not have completed my work

I would like to thank my close friends who gave me strength and positive encouragement that help me over come this hard process

Last but not least, I would like to show my dearest gratitude to my family for being always beside and believing in me Their endless love and encouragement helped me over come all the difficulties that I faced during this process

TÓM LƯỢC

Ghi chú luôn được xem như là một trong những yếu tố quan trọng trong dịch đuổi Mục tiêu của nghiên cứu này nhằm tìm hiểu quan điểm của sinh viên về vai trò của ghi chú trong dịch đuổi, ngoài ra nghiên cứu còn chỉ phân tích các yếu tố được sinh viên cho là cần thiết phải trình bày trong ghi chú của mình bao gồm ghi chú những gì, cách

sử dụng hình tượng và chữ viết tắt, cách sinh viên trình bày ghi chú và ngôn ngữ được

sử dụng khi ghi chú 76 sinh viên khóa 37 chuyên ngành Biên-Phiên dịch Anh văn đã tham gia vào nghiên cứu Dữ liệu định lượng được thu thập bằng bảng câu hỏi gồm 30 câu và được phân tích bằng phần mềm SPSS Nghiên cứu đã chỉ ra sinh viên biết được vai trò quan trọng của ghi chú trong dịch đuổi Ngoài ra kết quả nghiên cứu cũng trình bày được các yếu tố cơ bản xuất hiện trong ghi chú của sinh viên Tuy nhiên, mối liên

hệ giữa ghi chú và chất lượng dịch vẫn chưa được thực hiện

ABSRACT

Note-taking has always been considered as one of the most important factors in consecutive interpreting The aims of this study are to investigate the students’ perspectives on the role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting Moreover, the study also analyzes what students perceived to be presented on their notes including what students take notes, how did they use abbreviations and symbols, how they arranged their notes and the language they used in notes The participants in this study were 76 students from English Translation and Interpreting Course 37 at Can Tho University Quantitative data is collected from a questionnaire consisting of 30 Likert-scale items The software used to analyze the data is Statistic Package for Social Science Software The study finds out that student aware of the importance role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting This study also presents the elements that students thought they should present in their notes However, the relation between notes and the output interpretation has not been studied

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of participants……… 23

Table 2 The reliability of the questionnaire……… 26

Table 3 Summary of questionnaire……… 26

Figure 1 Response to the role of note-taking……… 27

Figure 2 Response to what students take notes……… 28

Figure 3 Response to when students take notes……… 29

Figure 4 Response to the language used in notes……… 30

Figure 5 Response to note arrangement……… 30

Figure 6 Response to how students take notes……….31

TABLE OF CONTENT

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TÓM LƯỢC iii

ABSRACT iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research Objectives and Significance 3

1.3 Thesis organization 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Consecutive interpreting 5

2.2 Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting 6

2.2.1 What to note 7

2.2.1.1 Main ideas 7

2.2.1.2 Links 7

2.2.1.3 Proper names 8

2.2.1.4 Verb tenses 8

2.2.2 When to note 9

2.2.3 What language to note? 9

2.2.4 How to note 10

2.2.4.1 Abbreviation 10

2.2.4.2 Negation and Emphasis 11

2.2.4.3 Symbols 12

2.2.5 Note Arrangement 14

2.2.5.1 Verticality 14

2.2.5.1.1 Stacking 14

2.3 Recent studies related to Note taking in Consecutive Interpreting 16

2.4 Research Questions 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Research design 20

3.2 Participants 21

3.3 Instrument 21

3.4 Data collection 22

CHAPTER 4: RESULT, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 23

4.1 Reliability of the questionnaire 23

4.2 Students’ perspective on the role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting 24

4.3 How students describe their notes 25

4.4 Conclusion 27

CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTHER RESEARCH 29 5.1 Limitations 29

5.2 Direction for further research 29

REFERENCE 31

APPENDIX A 33

APPENDIX B- SPSS DATA 36

Note-taking has been always considered as one important element in consecutive interpreting In facts, the importance of note-taking has been presented in many researchers’ work Furthermore, note-taking is a skill that always included in the course of interpreting In particular, in the latest curriculum for English Translation and Interpreting at Can Tho University, the subjects namely Interpreting 1 and Interpreting 2 focus mainly on basic consecutive interpreting and Interpreting 3, 4 focus on advanced Interpreting

The important role of note-taking is examined when Pham (2006) from Ha Noi conducts the study with the participation of 120 seniors The result of his study show that nearly 50% of participants think that note-taking is the most important element in consecutive interpreting

Another similar research is conducted by Zhang (2012) in China She also investigates the importance of note-taking However, her finding is different with the finding of Pham (2006) as most respondents in her study think that note-taking is just a supportive helper for the interpreters

With the specific focus on the language used in notes, two research are conducted by Dam (2004) in Australia and Liu (2012) in China After analyzing the notes of participants Dam (2004) conclude that students prefer to take notes in target language while Liu (2012) state that the participants in her research take notes mainly in source language

Many handbooks of note-taking provided by professional interpreters as Rozan (2002), Nolan (2005), Seleskovitch (1995) and Gillies (2005) which guide and train students

to take a good note However, my experience as an English Translation and Interpreting-majored student shows that although these authors state that interpreters’ notes are personalized in character and only the interpreters can read their own notes, not all students know how to take good and appropriate notes as the fact that they rarely approach these handbooks and the limitation in interpreting courses do not provide students a clearest guidance or practice

Some research have been done in the field of note-taking However, few studies have been conducted in Viet Nam, especially in Can Tho city Therefore, with an understanding of the importance of note-taking as well as aiming to provide an overall looks of note-taking in consecutive interpreting, the purpose of this current paper is to investigate the students’ perspective on the role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting Furthermore, this study also analyzes how students take notes The study was particularly conducted with the participation of English Translation and Interpreting seniors at Can Tho University Hopefully, the thesis can contribute a great part for the training of note-taking in consecutive interpreting as well as become a useful material for those who interested

1.1.Research Objectives and Significance

The research focuses on two objectives The first objective tends to study the perspective of English Translating and Interpreting seniors on the role of note-taking

in consecutive interpreting The second objective is to analyze how students take notes In particular, it aims at examining the elements that students think they will present on their notes

The result of this study can be used as a useful reference to improve the Interpretation courses in the curriculum In addition, the key factors in this thesis are the important role of note-taking in consecutive interpreting Therefore, this thesis is a supportive material for students who will become interpreters in the future

1.3 Thesis organization

This thesis comprises five chapters, including (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Methodology, (4) Result, Conclusion and Discussion and (5) Limitations, Implications and Recommendations

Chapter 1 discusses 3 main parts Rationale aims at giving background knowledge of the current topic The second part is research objectives and significance This part mentions the goals of this study and the last part is thesis organization which presents how this thesis is organized

Chapter 2 states the key terms appearing in this research The content is divided into 2 main parts, including consecutive and note-taking Some summary of related studies are also presented in this part Besides, Research questions also include in this part as the last part

Chapter 3 includes research design, participants and the criteria for choosing them Material, instrument and procedures of collecting data are mentioned as the following parts in this chapter

Chapter 4 presents result in this study Besides, conclusion and recommendation are also included in this chapter

Chapter 5 has 2 main parts The first part is limitations which presents some

drawbacks of this thesis Directions for further research are mentioned as the last part

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents (1) consecutive interpreting, (2) note-taking in consecutive interpreting, (3) research questions and (4) research hypotheses

2.1 Consecutive interpreting

There are two main modes of interpreting The first mode namely simultaneous interpreting usually applies in big conferences, seminars or international events The interpreter listens to the speech and reproduces the message from the source language

to the target language at the same time as the speaker delivers their source text (Lu, 2012) The interpreter sits in a booth and completes his or her work with the help of headphone and microphone

The second mode is consecutive interpreting which is a mean to orally convey the messages from the source language to the target language In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter listens to the whole speech or at least the important part and then reproduces the speech sometimes with the help of note-taking (Jones, 2002).The interpreter needs to make sure that the output interpretation is as close to the source text as possible in terms of content, delivery and style (Strani, 2015)

Unlike simultaneous interpreting, inconsecutive interpreting, no electronic equipment

is needed and normally only one interpreter is needed to do the job (Vojnarova, 2012).Furthermore, although in consecutive interpreting, the interpreters rely mainly

on memory, a good note-taking is an essential aid to help them complete their job more completely (Nolan, 2005)

Consecutive interpreting can be applied in various circumstances which require personal interaction such as press conferences, interviews, meeting or any individual situations One significant advantage of consecutive interpreting is that it gives the interpreter more time to think and take notes in order to interpret more accurately (Lu, 2012)

Consecutive interpreting is always considered as the starting point in interpreting training at the tertiary education for the reason that during training consecutive interpreting, the students learn and improve the general interpreting techniques that will also support as the basis for simultaneous interpreting (Yunida, 2009)

In conclusion, consecutive interpreting is a process in which the interpreter has to actively listen to the speaker, take notes and orally translate it into the target language

A good memory is the most important element for an interpreter; however, without the help of note-taking, their work can never do completely

2.2 Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting

In the interpreting process, the interpreter usually deals with short-term memory Short- term memory is the part of memory which stores a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time, roughly 15-30 seconds (Zhong, 2001) Moreover, the speech of the speaker could last 15, 20 and even 30 minutes Therefore,

it is impossible for the interpreter to reproduce the speech of this length without putting a few things down on the paper (Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1995) Thus, the purpose of using note-taking is to assist the interpreter’s memory (Sakamoto, 2011)

Note-taking is one of the crucial operations involved in the process of consecutive interpreting (Sladovnik, 2014) There are three basic stages in consecutive interpreting including understanding, analyzing and re-expressing (Jones, 2002), and note-taking is closely related to these stages as the interpreter needs to understand the speech, pick

up the main ideas to take notes and base on the notes to re-express the speech in the target language

In addition, the interpreter’s notes are especially individual in character (Lu, 2012) Many principles and rules are set by many authors as well as professional interpreters The interpreters can follow these principles to begin as beginning interpreters but they need to create and develop their own method of taking notes in order to make their notes become an effective tool in consecutive interpreting

Furthermore, when taking notes, the interpreter does not jot down everything the speaker says and the interpreter’s notes are not the same as the lecture notes of students which they write down in relatively complete sentences so that they can easily-read the notes later (Lu, 2012, Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1995)

In conclusion, note-taking plays an important role in the consecutive interpreting process because notes help the interpreters improve memory efficiency and notes are

an essential aid that help the interpreters re-produce a better interpreting output

2.2.1 What to note

2.2.1.1 Main ideas

Jones (2002), Seleskovitch & Lederer (1995), Rozan (2002) stated that main ideas are the first things that should be noted The main ideas and the links between them in notes can be considered as outline of the speech (Jones, 2002) It is necessary for the interpreter to have the ability to identify, select, retain the important ideas and omit anything which is irrelevant to the understanding of the original speech, and always keep reliability of the original text by noting down the main ideas in notes (Listiani, 2010)

An interpreter must not try to write down everything the speaker says because a hundred words may contain only one idea, while one word may imply several ideas (Nolan, 2005) In facts, when an interpreter writes down a word, she or he may get confuse when re-read it because she or he cannot get the appropriate meaning of this word in specific context Therefore, it is very dangerous as it may lead the interpreter

to confusing situations Having the same point of view, Garetson (as cited in Nolan, 2005) indicated that although it is very hard to remember a large number of words, it is not difficult to remember many ideas

2.2.1.2 Links

A speech is just a meaningless of ideas if it does not consist of the links Gillies (as cited in Sladovnik, 2014) In addition, the first key to understand a speech is the

identification of the main ideas and the second is the links between those ideas (Jones, 2002)

Abbreviations of linking words are also very important Rozan (2002) recommended some simple key words to note the links:

As, why : to mean because, as, for this reason

Tho : Although, despite

But : However, nevertheless

As to : as regards, regarding, concerning

Tfe : therefore, in conclusion, we can conclude that

The links should be noted logically as their function is to connect the main ideas If the interpreters do not arrange it logically, the notes will become too mess to read back

2.2.1.3 Proper names

Although main ideas should be the first thing to be noted, proper names should also be jotted down It is necessary for the interpreter to note down the proper name when they are not familiar with it (Jones, 2002)

Proper names are not only name of people; it can be geographical names, name of organizations or companies, etc When the interpreters do not know the proper names which the speaker says, then they should ignore the orthography and write down the phonetically as closely as possible to what they believe they have heard Seleskovith & Lederer (1995) and Jones (2002) stated that unfamiliar names are very difficult to catch up and retain in the interpreter’s mind Therefore, the interpreters should note down any unusual name as phonetically as possible

not English, they can borrow English suffixes or other suffixes that use commonly in their mother tongue

In conclusion, whenever taking notes the interpreters must concentrate on the ideas and how this can be note clearly and simply Besides ideas, proper names and verb tense should also be noted

2.2.2 When to note

Herbert (as cited in Al-Zahran, 2007) stated that the interpreters should start to take notes right after the speaker start delivering his or her speech because in some situations the interpreters do not know how long the speech will last and what they might look like a few words may unexpectedly end up as a very long speech

In contrast, Fleming (2014) argued that the interpreters should not write anything until they have done the three stages namely listening, understanding and analyzing In other words, he suggested that the interpreters should only take notes when they understand the meaning of a message or at least a sentence

2.2.3 What language to note?

The interpreters should write the notes in the target language as much as possible (Nolan 2005) Having the same idea, Lederer and Seleskovitch (1995) explained that the purpose of noting word in the target language is to retain any ideas which cannot

be noted by symbols

However, according to Alexieva (as cited in Al-Zahran, 2007), there are two main reasons why the interpreters should take notes in source language Firstly, noting in target language means adding interlingual transfer to listening, note-taking a memory operation and thus, this process is obviously complicated Secondly, the reliability of interlingual transfers in the absence of the following context is questioned since decision taken may not warranted by what comes next, which may lead to incorrect notes In contrast, Matyssek (as cited in Dam, 2004) pointed out that the interpreter’s native tongue is also preferred

With the neutral point of view, Jones (2002) stated that the interpreters should not worry so much about the question of the source or the target language to notes It is advisable to choose the one that interpreters are familiar with Otherwise, the interpreters may be very confused by their own notes

In short, the interpreters should choose the language that comes to their mind as the easiest or most appropriate one (Ma, 2013) It can be either source language or target language depending on the interpreters The aim of the language’s choice is to help the interpreters read back the notes easily

2.2.4 How to note

In order to have effective notes, the most important thing the interpreter must do is select what to notes However, how to note is also very important Conspicuously, notes that are clear and logical structured help the interpreters avoid all confusion when reading back notes Moreover, the interpreters have to take notes as quickly as possible since they do not have much of time Therefore, using abbreviations and symbols is the best way for them to save time and take notes more effectively

2.2.4.1 Abbreviations

Abbreviations can help the interpreters in saving time spent on other activities in the process of interpreting If a word consists more than 5 letters, the interpreters should use the abbreviated form of it when taking notes (Rozan, 2002) In order to help the interpreters understand immediately when reading back notes, these abbreviations must be definitive and unambiguous because under time pressure the interpreters have

no chance to reconsider the meaning of abbreviations

Rozan (2002) suggested some principles and rules for the use of abbreviations The following suggestions about creating abbreviations are based on the truth that the fewer strokes are written, the more time the interpreter can save

1/ Note down what is heard: The interpreter can write a word by recording its sound only

Example: school-skull; you-u; tonight-2nite etc

2/ Drop medial vowels:

Example: because-bc; altitude-alt; people-plp; please-pls; address-add etc

3/ Write initial and final vowels:

Example: altitude-alt; student-stdt; thanks-tks; limited-ltd; etc

Abbreviations of common international organizations should be remembered by the interpreters The interpreters must have some background knowledge about these abbreviations The following are some abbreviated form of common organizations The list of abbreviations below is recognized worldwide

World Bank WB

Asian Development Bank ADB

World Trade Organization WTO

International Monetary Fund IMF

United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF

North Atlantic Treaty organization NATO

Association of Southeast Asia Nations ASEAN

2.2.4.2 Negation and Emphasis

2.2.4.2.1 Negation

Herbert (as cited in Jones, 2002) said that negation and emphasis should be noted clearly and unambiguous The interpreter can use the line crossing the word or a symbol to imply negation

Example: Good = agree, something happen appropriately, etc

Good = Disagree, something wrong happens, etc

Writing “no” in front of the word can also be considered as a way to negate a word Example: S.O.S = emergency situation

No S.O.S = nothing serious or no emergency situation happens

2.2.4.2.2 Emphasis

The interpreter can underline a word to emphasize it The line must be twice if an interpreter dealing with a highest degree (Rozan, 2002)

Example: comfortable : comf

Very comfortable : comf

Extremely comfortable : comf

In conclusion, using abbreviations helps the interpreters save a lot of time as they use a few abbreviations to imply many ideas These abbreviations must be frequently practiced and remembered by the interpreters in order to avoid misunderstanding when applying them in note-taking Otherwise, they can lead the interpreters in a hard and confusing situation

2.2.4.3 Symbols

A symbol can be an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention It is easier to note down a symbol than a word Moreover, writing symbols helps the interpreter reduce the amount of time in comparison with written word (Pham, 2006)

Having the same rule as abbreviations firstly symbols need to preparing in advance Any symbol unprepared in the middle of interpretation could put the interpreters into a hard situation which results in the bad interpreting output Secondly, the most important rule for the interpreters to notice is that they always use a symbol to mean only one thing in a given text (Nolan, 2005)

Gillies (as cited in Sladovnik, 2014) presented some basic guidelines on how symbols should be like First, it must be clear and unambiguous The symbols need to be simple

to draw In addition, symbols need to be consistent and organic, which means that one symbol should be the starting point for many other symbols Finally, they must mean something to the interpreters The interpreters must use the symbols that are familiar to them and the meaning of symbols must be created by the interpreter himself only

Following this rule, the interpreter can avoid mistakenly from the meaning of the symbols he or she uses The examples below are some symbol examples taken from the book “7 principles of Note Taking” by Rozan (2002) In his book, he classifies symbols into 3 categories including the symbols of expression, the symbols of motion, and the symbols of correspondence Besides the three main categories of symbols, he also provides the symbols of things which could be very useful for the interpreters

The arrow for increase

Speech :

Discussion

Approval OK

The arrow for direction

The arrow for decrease

Relation

Equivalence =

Difference ≠

Framing [ ]

Some symbols that useful for the interpreter:

Country, nation National

Members,participants Ms Trade, trade relation Tr

Using abbreviations and symbols helps the interpreters save time and take notes more accurately However, Orlando (2010) stated that the system of notes developed by each interpreter is surely personal, even if symbols and ways of noting ideas and links can be borrowed from existing modeled system, students should create and use their own abbreviations and symbols in order to have the best notes They can remember the symbols and abbreviations by using them frequently and consistently

2.2.5 Note Arrangement

2.2.5.1 Verticality

When the interpreter takes notes from top to bottom rather than left to right, it is called verticality Rozan (2002) explained that the purpose of using verticality is to help the interpreters group the ideas logically, allowing a complete and immediate synthesis when they read back the notes In addition, verticality helps the interpreter break the sense units for easy digestion (Ma, 2013) The interpreters can use stacking or brackets when they note vertically

2.2.5.1.1 Stacking

Stacking consists of placing different elements of the text above or below one another For example the interpreters could note the sentence “The topic on increasing fee is very hot” as: