English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela; Gieshoff, Anne Catherine

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Not specified
Title:	English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality
Authors:	Albl-Mikasa, Michaela Gieshoff, Anne Catherine
et. al:	No
Proceedings:	Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting
Page(s):	41
Pages to:	42
Conference details:	2nd HKBU International Conference on Interpreting : Cognitive Approaches, online, 8-9 April 2021
Issue Date:	9-Apr-2021
Language:	English
Subjects:	Conference interpreting; English as a lingua franca; Cognitive load; Interpreting quality
Subject (DDC):	418.02: Translating and interpreting 420: English
Abstract:	Over the last decades, English has become the unchallenged lingua franca at international gatherings. English as a lingua franca (ELF) is not without consequences for interpreters in that they increasingly face the difficult task of having to interpret non-native speakers. Much of the ELF-related research in interpreting studies has so far focused on non-native accented speech. Current surveys among interpreters suggest, however, that accent is not the only difficulty. Instead, it seems that non-native speeches are characterized by a wide range of phenomena such as lack of cohesion and unclear argumentation, lexical and grammatical irregularities, increased explicitness and signs of processing, all of which may contribute to adding to the interpreters’ cognitive burden. In the SNSF-funded CLINT-project, we are currently addressing this research gap. Ongoing data collection allows us to look at the simultaneous English to German interpretations of 20 professional interpreters for the investigation of the effect of ELF on interpreting. The authentic source speech delivered at a conference on energy-related matters was produced by a non-native English speaker. It was recorded, transcribed and re-spoken by a Canadian native speaker to control for accent. In-depth analysis confirmed that it contained a considerable number of phenomena typical of ELF-speeches, which may affect interpreters’ cognitive load. Interpreters were also presented with a second version of the same speech which was edited to comply with standard British English. Ten participants interpreted the original ELF-version of the speech, the other ten participants interpreted the edited version of the same speech. Based on the assumption of higher cognitive load involved in interpreting an ELF speech, we expected to find an overall lower interpreting quality as well as an effect of fatigue, reflected in an earlier decline in interpreting quality. Interpreting quality is a multifaceted concept, a major aspect of which is accuracy or, more precisely, completeness and sense consistency with the source text. At the HKBU Conference we propose to present a promising method for the quantitative assessment of sense consistency and completeness of a target text over time. The newly designed method has been used on the first set of data, or first 20 interpretations, procured as part of the above-mentioned project.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/22524
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Applied Linguistics
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Translation and Interpreting (IUED)
Published as part of the ZHAW project:	Cognitive Load in Interpreting and Translation (CLINT)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik

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Albl-Mikasa, M., & Gieshoff, A. C. (2021). English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality [Conference presentation]. Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting, 41–42.

Albl-Mikasa, M. and Gieshoff, A.C. (2021) ‘English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality’, in Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting, pp. 41–42.

M. Albl-Mikasa and A. C. Gieshoff, “English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality,” in Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting, Apr. 2021, pp. 41–42.

ALBL-MIKASA, Michaela und Anne Catherine GIESHOFF, 2021. English as a lingua franca-induced effects on cognitive load and interpreting quality. In: Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting. Conference presentation. 9 April 2021. S. 41–42

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela, and Anne Catherine Gieshoff. 2021. “English as a Lingua Franca-Induced Effects on Cognitive Load and Interpreting Quality.” Conference presentation. In Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting, 41–42.

Albl-Mikasa, Michaela, and Anne Catherine Gieshoff. “English as a Lingua Franca-Induced Effects on Cognitive Load and Interpreting Quality.” Programme Handbook of the 2nd Hong Kong Baptist University International Conference on Interpreting, 2021, pp. 41–42.