Relative contribution of explicit teaching of segmentals vs. prosody to the quality of consecutive interpreting by Farsi-to-English interpreting trainees

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of the explicit teaching of segmentals vs. prosody on the quality of interpreting by Farsi-to-English interpreter trainees using a quasi-experimental design. Three groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level in Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. No significant differences in English language skills (TOEFL scores) could be established between the groups prior to the experiment. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies and did exercises in consecutive interpreting. The first experimental group instead spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody. The second experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English segmentals. The total instruction time was the same for all three groups, i.e., 12 hours. Students then took a posttest in consecutive interpreting in which their performance was rated independently by three experts. The results showed that both experimental groups performed better than the control group. Moreover, explicit teaching of prosody had a larger positive effect on the overall quality of interpreting from Farsi into English than segmental instruction. We argue that the interpreting curriculum can be strengthened by devoting a small portion of the teaching time to the explicit instruction in the segmental and especially prosodic differences between the source and target languages.