DEVELOPING LISTENING
AND MEMORY IN THE
TRANSLATION PROCESS
PLAN
1. Listening
techniques
2. Memory
techniques in
the translation
LISTENING REPRESENTS THE
BASIC SKILL IN ANY FORM OF
INTERPRETATION
Students are instructed
to listen to a passage
without taking notes.
they will later be asked
to recall the main
points of the passage
they have just heard.
IMPORTANT
COMPONENTS OF
THE STUDENTS' ABILITY
To listen
Remember
Identify arguments in a
given speech, without
distorting the original
meaning of the speaker.
A AND B LANGUAGE
Listening test can be
introduced both in the
student's dominant
language/mother tongue to
recall it in the same language
(A to A)
As well as in his/ her second or
passive language (B language
foreign language ).
FOUR TYPES OF
LISTENING CONDITIONS
Students successfully completing all
four listening and recall conditions as
listed below can comfortably go onto a
more difficult phrase:
listening in A and recall in A
listening in В and recall in B
listening in В and recall in A
listening in A and recall in B
TECHNIQUES OF
TEACHING INTERPRETING
1. to listen in language 1;
2. to understand in language 1
[Link] memorize the information in Language 1
[Link] mentally translate , compress and edit
the message from language 1 into language
2
5.a) for consecutive interpreting: and finally
to use words for the message in language 2;
6.b) for simultaneous interpreting: and finally
to use words for the message in language 2
while listening to the new portion in language
1.
LISTENING A
This mainly requires a lot of attention and
concentration, which is why it is necessary:
to introduce some "distracting" or "annoying"
elements such as sounds (background noises),
flashing lights, excessive gesticulation, etc. in
order to make it more difficult;
to work simultaneously with two different texts
both in Language 1;
to work simultaneously with two different texts
both in Language 2;
to work simultaneously with two different texts:
one in LI and other in Language 2;
LISTENING A
to use "shadowing", i.e. reading the text
aloud while the trainer reads the same text
simultaneously, introducing some new
elements (changing figures, names, tenses,
verbs, adjectives, etc.) with the comparison
of the texts at the end;
to introduce phonemic shadowing which
involves repeating each sound exactly as it
was heard without waiting for a complete
meaning unit. This specific skill helps to
develop the mechanical aspect of
simultaneous interpreting in other words, the
ability to listen and speak simultaneously.
LISTENING B: SELECTIVE LISTENING
COMBINED WITH PHRASE
SHADOWING/ PARAPHRASING
while practicing the so-called "selecting
listening", the student is exposed to two
different messages. Each incoming message
is presented to one ear through headphones.
In such a case, the student is receiving two
different incoming messages simultaneously.
The task consists of "switching off one of the
ears through which comes the "irrelevant"
message and focusing all the attention on
the "relevant" text. This specific training
concludes either with phrase shadowing of
the "relevant incoming message or with later
paraphrasing it.
2- UNDERSTANDING
Requires mainly language guessing and predicting
skills.
A) Speed of presentation in language 1 is very
important it is important to: train interpreters for the
highest speed possible.
B) Dialects and individual peculiarities of articulation
(including defective ones) is another area for training.
C) The capability for good linguistic guessing,
predicting and anticipating elements in sequence can
be trained by introducing unfinished sentences in
both languages (Language 1 and Language 2).
This training is also especially important to develop
the interpreter's ability to “edit” unfinished or cut
phrases produced by some people in their
spontaneous speech.
3-MEMORASING THE
INFORMATION
This requires skills such as instant,
short, medium and long term active
memory. It is necessary to work on:
a) the capacity to encode and decode
texts using any system (for consecutive
interpreting);
b) A good ear for any foreign names and
toponyms;
c) A good ear for figures and measures;
SPECIAL TRAINING IS REQUIRED
FOR ALL OF THESE SKILLS. VERY
USEFUL EXERCISES INCLUDE:
Memorizing poems
prose
radio news
Regular dictation on figures, names and
measures first in Language 1, then in
Language 2 and finally mixing both
languages in one dictation.
4- TRANSLATING
MENTALLY
requires important skills such as the ability
to compose edited texts based on certain
key-words (or symbols) or good "editing"
and text compression. Such skills need
special training using the key-words
methodology. The main options might be as
follows:
key-words are given in Language 1 and the
task is to make an edited sensible text in
Language 1.
• key-words are given in Language 2 and
the task is to make an edited sensible text
in Language 2.
key-words are given in Language 2 and
the task is to make an edited sensible
text in Language 1.
key-words are given in both Language 1
and Language 2 and the task is to make
an edited sensible text in Language 1.
key-words are given in both Language 1
and Language 2 and the task is to make
an edited sensible text in Language 2.
5- EXPRESSING WITH
WORDS.
This requires the following
skills to be developed: For
simultaneous interpreting:
To speak while listening;
The simultaneous "editing"
of texts (working with macro-
blocks on a syntagmatic
level and "finishing
unfinished sentences")
