Fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore,... Show moreFluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore, the presentstudy was set up to investigate the effect of fluency training on speechfluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness of interpreter trainees. Twogroups of interpreter trainees at a university in Iran took part in the study,receiving the same amount of instruction and practice (12 hours over 4weeks). The experimental group (N=30) spent 33% of the time (i.e., 4 of the12 hours in the training program) on dedicated fluency strategy training,encouraging the memorization, repetition, and retelling of audio and videomaterials. The remaining 67% was spent on training general speaking skills.The control group (N=30) were only taught general speaking skills in thetraining program but received no dedicated fluency training. Systematicinterviews were run to assess the interpreter trainees’ speech fluency,comprehensibility and accentedness, which were judged independently bythree expert raters at three moments of testing, i.e., pretest, immediateposttest, and delayed posttest (one month later). The findings revealed thatthe fluency training significantly enhanced the interpreter trainees’ fluency,and to a lesser extent the students’ comprehensibility but had only amarginal effect on accentedness. The pedagogical implication would be thatawareness training on speech fluency Show less
The present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of... Show moreThe present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of students were formed. All of them studied English as a foreign language at the BA level at Bu-Ali Sina University, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. Participants took a pre-test of listening comprehension skills before starting the programme. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, argumentation-based learning by the iBrainstorm application. The total instruction time was the same for two groups, i.e., 32 hours. Students then took a post-test and, a month later, a delayed post-test in listening comprehension skills. The results show that the use of the iBrainstorm app significantly improved the students’ listening comprehension skills, and significantly more so than those of the control group. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, material producers, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy Show less
This study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest... Show moreThis study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design. Twenty-three groups of 28 interpreter trainees at a University in Iran (six different branches) took part in the study, all groups receiving the same amount of instruction (9 hours over 3 weeks). Three control groups listened to/viewed authentic audio recordings and movies in English, discussed their contents, and completed a variety of speaking tasks but received no specific prosody instruction. Twenty experimental groups spent part of the instruction time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody by thirteen nonnative instructors, and seven native instructors. Three experts evaluated the comprehensibility of the trainees in elicited speech samples collected during the pretest, immediate posttest and delayed posttest, and subsequently presented in random order. The findings revealed that the experimental groups gained between 1 and 2 points on the 0 to 10 comprehensibility scale, and lost little in the delayed posttest; however, hardly any changes were observed in the control groups. We conclude that native and non-native English instructors’ prosody teaching were equally effective in enhancing EFL students’ speech comprehensibility. Show less
Yenkimaleki and van Heuven (2021) studied the effects of teaching either segmental or suprasegmental (prosodic) aspects of English, in combination with either perception or production-focused... Show moreYenkimaleki and van Heuven (2021) studied the effects of teaching either segmental or suprasegmental (prosodic) aspects of English, in combination with either perception or production-focused practice (four combinations in all) on the speech intelligibility and comprehensibility of Persian L1 learners of English as a foreign language. Generally, production-focused exercises were more effective but there was no overall effect of teaching segmentals versus prosody. However, the specific combination of emphasis on prosody and production-oriented exercises was most beneficial. We summarize the results of the study and present, more systematically and in more detail than in the original article, the materials and teaching methods used. Show less
Abstract The main goal of many students of English as a foreign language (EFL) is to be fluent in the target language, i.e. to be capable to transfer their thoughts smoothly and easily in different... Show moreAbstract The main goal of many students of English as a foreign language (EFL) is to be fluent in the target language, i.e. to be capable to transfer their thoughts smoothly and easily in different contexts. The present study examines the effect of pedagogic intervention on enhancing speech fluency in EFL using a pretest – immediate posttest – delayed posttest design. Two groups of 32 EFL students at a University in Iran took part in the study, receiving the same amount of instruction (18hours over 18weeks). The Control group listened to / viewed authentic audio recordings and movies in English, discussed their contents, and completed a variety of speaking skills tasks but received no fluency training. The Experimental group spent part of the time on fluency strategy training, encouraging the memorization, repetition, and retelling of the audio and video materials. Systematic interviews were run to assess the EFL learners’ speech fluency. The findings revealed that the fluency training significantly enhanced the EFL students’ speech fluency. The findings also show that students’ second language speech fluency development can be partly predicted by the fluency in their first language. These results have pedagogical implications for practitioners in EFL settings, material designers, and EFL instructors. Show less
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... Show moreThe 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. Show less
The traditional metric of interpreting quality is a score given by human professional judges focusing on the interpreters’ performance. However, there is a poor agreement on what constitutes an... Show moreThe traditional metric of interpreting quality is a score given by human professional judges focusing on the interpreters’ performance. However, there is a poor agreement on what constitutes an acceptable interpretation. This study investigates the objective assessment of interpreter trainees’ performance. Two groups of 15 student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups at random, but with equal division between genders (seven males in each group). The control group was taught interpreting skills by the routine curriculum, while the experimental group spent part of the time instead on theoretical explanation and practical exercises emphasizing prosodic differences between Persian and English. Three raters assessed the quality of the interpreter trainees’ performance in a post-test. Then the interpreting performance of the students was assessed objectively through Praat software. The results show that the intersubjective ratings of the students’ interpreting performance can be adequately predicted from objective measures through multiple linear regression. These results have implications for designers of curricula for training interpreters, and material producers in interpreting education. Show less
Yenkimaleki, M.; Heuven, V.J.J.P. van; Moradimokhles, H. 2023
In the present study, three groups of interpreter trainees were formed, two experimental groups, i.e., blended prosody instruction (BPI) and computer-assisted prosody training (CAPT), and one... Show moreIn the present study, three groups of interpreter trainees were formed, two experimental groups, i.e., blended prosody instruction (BPI) and computer-assisted prosody training (CAPT), and one control group (CON). In this experiment the participants took part in a four-week teaching program for 16 sessions (60 minutes per session), i.e., 16 hours in all. The participants were native Persian speakers who studied English interpreting at the BA level in Iran. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks or watched authentic English movies, discussed their contents, and did exercises based on these tasks for developing listening comprehension skills during the full 16 hours. The CAPT group spent one-third of the time (320 minutes) instead on prosody training using Accent Master Software. The BPI group did this for only 160 minutes but spent the other 160 minutes on theoretical explanations of prosody, and did practical exercises with prosodic structures supervised by an expert human instructor. Students then took a posttest in listening comprehension skills. The results revealed that the BPI group outperformed the other groups in developing listening comprehension skills. This conclusion may have pedagogical implications for interpreter training programs, foreign language instructors, and interpreting practitioners. Show less
Yenkimaleki, M.; Heuven, V.J.J.P. van; Afshar, H.S. 2023
The present study investigated the efficacy of segmental/suprasegmental vs. holistic pronunciation instruction in the development of listening comprehension skills by EFL learners, using a pre-test... Show moreThe present study investigated the efficacy of segmental/suprasegmental vs. holistic pronunciation instruction in the development of listening comprehension skills by EFL learners, using a pre-test post-test design. Six groups of 20 intermediate EFL learners at a university in Iran took part in the study, all groups receiving the same amount of instruction (10 hours over 5 weeks). The control group listened to/viewed authentic audio recordings and movies in English, discussed their contents, and completed a variety of listening comprehension tasks but received no pronunciation instruction. Four experimental groups completed similar activities but during one third of the teaching time (20 minutes per class), received an explanation of segmental or suprasegmental features followed by production-focused or perception-focused practice. The final experimental group received holistic pronunciation instruction with mixed perception/production-focused practice for 20 minutes during each hour-long class. Versions of Longman's TOEFL English proficiency test (paper-based) were used to assess listening comprehension at pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The findings revealed that the holistic pronunciation instruction enhanced the listening comprehension skills of Iranian EFL learners more than separate segmental or suprasegmental training, with either perception or production-focused practice. Show less
The present study investigates the relative contribution of the Nativeness vs. Intelligibility approach in prosody instruction for developing English speaking skills by Iranian interpreter trainees... Show moreThe present study investigates the relative contribution of the Nativeness vs. Intelligibility approach in prosody instruction for developing English speaking skills by Iranian interpreter trainees. Three groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups at random. The speaking skill pretest scores revealed that the three groups were homogeneous before starting the training program. The Control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English, and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, and did exercises to improve speaking skills without receiving prosody training. The Nativeness approach group instead spent part of the time on the theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises in, English prosody with the overall aim to train students to acquire native-like speaking skills. The Intelligibility approach group spent part of the time on the theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises in, English prosody emphasizing the requirement that students produce intelligible speech. The total instruction time was the same for all three groups, i.e., 18 h. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills. The results show that both experimental groups performed better than the control group. Moreover, the Intelligibility approach group outperformed the Nativeness approach group in developing speaking skills. Show less
The present study investigated the training benefits of segmental vs. suprasegmental aspects for the intelligibility and comprehensibility of spoken English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Five groups... Show moreThe present study investigated the training benefits of segmental vs. suprasegmental aspects for the intelligibility and comprehensibility of spoken English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Five groups of lower intermediate EFL learners were formed by random assignment. A pretest of the speaking skills, intelligibility, and comprehensibility of the learners' speech confirmed that the five groups were homogeneous before starting the training program. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English, and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, and did exercises to improve speaking skills without receiving explicit segmental and suprasegmental explanations and exercises. The experimental groups received an explanation of segmental or suprasegmental features (during one-sixth of the teaching time) followed by production-focused or perception-focused practice (during another one-sixth of the teaching time). The total instruction time was the same for all five groups, i.e., 15 h. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills targeting their speech intelligibility and comprehensibility. The findings revealed that the speech intelligibility of learners who received segmental training followed by production-focused practice was better than that of all other groups. Learners who received suprasegmental instruction followed by production-focused practice outperformed all other groups in terms of comprehensibility. Show less
The present study investigated the training benefits of segmental vs. suprasegmental aspects for the intelligibility and comprehensibility of spoken English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Five groups... Show moreThe present study investigated the training benefits of segmental vs. suprasegmental aspects for the intelligibility and comprehensibility of spoken English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Five groups of lower intermediate EFL learners were formed by random assignment. A pretest of the speaking skills, intelligibility, and comprehensibility of the learners’ speech confirmed that the five groups were homogeneous before starting the training program. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English, and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, and did exercises to improve speaking skills without receiving explicit segmental and suprasegmental explanations and exercises. The experimental groups received an explanation of segmental or suprasegmental features (during one-sixth of the teaching time) followed by production-focused or perception-focused practice (during another one-sixth of the teaching time). The total instruction time was the same for all five groups, i.e., 15 h. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills targeting their speech intelligibility and comprehensibility. The findings revealed that the speech intelligibility of learners who received segmental training followed by production-focused practice was better than that of all other groups. Learners who received suprasegmental instruction followed by production-focused practice outperformed all other groups in terms of comprehensibility. Show less
The present study investigates the prosody training benefits for interpreter trainees in perception vs. production skills in simultaneous interpreting. Two groups of student interpreters were... Show moreThe present study investigates the prosody training benefits for interpreter trainees in perception vs. production skills in simultaneous interpreting. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups at random. The control group received routine instruction in interpreting skills. The experimental group spent 20 minutes less time per session on the routine curriculum and instead received awareness training on prosodic features of English. The total instruction time was the same for the students in two groups, i.e., 15 hours. Students then took a posttest in interpretation skills. The results showed that the experimental group performed better than the control group in simultaneous interpretation performance. Moreover, the study revealed that prosody training enhances the students' perception skills more than that of the production skills. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreter training programs, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy. Show less
The present study investigates the effect of prosodic feature awareness training on the intelligibility of speech produced by Iranian interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were... Show moreThe present study investigates the effect of prosodic feature awareness training on the intelligibility of speech produced by Iranian interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level. Participants took a pretest of speaking skills before starting the program so that their speech intelligibility level was rated. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills so that the effect of treatment on the intelligibility of their speech could be assessed. The results show that the prosody awareness training significantly improved the students’ speech intelligibility. Show less
The present study investigates the relative contribution of computer assisted prosody training (CAPT) vs. instructor based prosody teaching (IBPT) on developing speaking skills by interpreter... Show moreThe present study investigates the relative contribution of computer assisted prosody training (CAPT) vs. instructor based prosody teaching (IBPT) on developing speaking skills by interpreter trainees. Three groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level at the University of Applied Sciences in Tehran, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. No significant differences in speaking skills 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 based on these tasks for developing speaking skills. The first experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody by an instructor. The second experimental group instead spent part of the time on English prosody instruction and practice through the Accent Master software for Farsi speakers (Bo & Bo 2005). The total instruction time was the same for all three groups, i.e. 12 h. Students then took a posttest in speaking skills. The results showed that the second experimental group (CAPT) performed better than the other groups in developing speaking skills. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreter training programs, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy. Show less
This study investigates the effect of explicit vs.implicit prosody teaching on the quality of consecutive interpretation byFarsi-English interpreter trainees. Three groups of student interpreters... Show moreThis study investigates the effect of explicit vs.implicit prosody teaching on the quality of consecutive interpretation byFarsi-English interpreter trainees. Three groups of student interpreters wereformed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation andinterpreting at the BA level at the University of Applied Sciences, Tehran,Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random, but with equal divisionbetween genders (6 female and 6 male students in each group). No significantdifferences in English language skills (TOEFL scores) could be establishedbetween the groups. Participants took a pretest of consecutive interpretingbefore starting the program. The control group listened to authentic audiotracks and did exercises in consecutive interpreting. The fi rst experimentalgroup received explicit instruction of English prosody and did exercises basedon the theoretical explanation which was provided by their Iranian instructor.The second experimental group received implicit instruction of English prosodythrough the use of recasts. The total instruction time was the same for all thegroups, i.e. 10 hours. Students then took a posttest in consecutive interpretation.The results showed that explicit teaching of prosody had a significantlypositive effect on the overall quality of interpreting from Farsi into Englishcompared with that of implicit prosody instruction. These results havepedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreter trainingprograms, material producers and all who are involved in language study andpedagogy. Show less
This study investigates the effect of prosodic feature awareness training on the quality of interpreting by interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were... Show moreThis study investigates the effect of prosodic feature awareness training on the quality of interpreting by interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups at random, but with equal division between genders (seven males in each group). The control group was then taught interpreting skills by the routine curriculum, while the experimental group spent part of the time instead on theoretical explanation and practical exercises emphasizing prosodic differences between Farsi and English. Three raters assessed the quality of the interpreter trainees’ performance in a post-test in terms of accuracy, omissions, overall coherence, grammar, expression, word choice, terminology, accentedness, pace and voice. The results show that prosodic feature awareness training did have a statistically significant effect on the quality measures: the overall assessment of the experimental group was 14 pointsbetter (on a scale between 0 and 100) than that of the control group. Moreover, the difference was larger for the phonetic/prosodic quality scales (accentedness, pace, voice) than for the other scales. These results have implications for designers of curricula for training interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in foreign-language study and pedagogy. Show less
Consecutive interpreting allows two persons who do not understand each other’s language, to communicate through a bilingual intermediary: the interpreter. Typically, interpreters are native... Show moreConsecutive interpreting allows two persons who do not understand each other’s language, to communicate through a bilingual intermediary: the interpreter. Typically, interpreters are native speakers of one language but not the other. The extent to which student interpreters’ performance is improved by making them aware of prosodic differences (word and sentence stress) between native and foreign language, was investigated for Iranian participants with Farsi as the native language and English as the foreign language. Effects were tested both in recto (from foreign English into native Farsi) and in verso interpreting (from Farsi into English). Interpreting quality was judged by experts on ten rating scales, relating to accuracy of interpreting as well as to intelligibility and pleasantness of the delivery. Objective correlates of the subjective ratings (e.g. counts of errors and hesitations, acoustic fluency measures) were established. Prosody training yielded better interpreting quality on all rating scales in recto interpreting, especially on fluency. In verso interpreting the overall gain was smaller, and with a trade-off between interpreting accuracy and fluency. In follow-up experiments better word recognition and comprehension of the English input was found. Explicit prosody training had a greater benefit than implicit prosody training. Show less
The present study investigates the effect of memory training through story retelling exercises and imagination tasks and their effect on the quality of interpretation by Farsi-to-English... Show moreThe present study investigates the effect of memory training through story retelling exercises and imagination tasks and their effect on the quality of interpretation by Farsi-to-English interpreter trainees. The effect of treatment on decreasing the rate of message omissions is studied as well. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups on the basis of their overall performance on a TOEFL pre-test, but with equal division between genders. The control group was then taught interpreting skills by the routine curriculum, while the other, experimental, group spent part of the time on memory training tasks and exercises, e.g. imagination and story retelling. Three raters assessed quality measures of accuracy, omissions, additions, grammar, expression, terminology, pace and accentuation of the interpreter trainees in pre-test and post-test performance. Statistical analysis shows that the memory training had a positive effect on the quality of interpretation and also on decreasing the rate of message omission. The results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreting programs for training future interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in interpreting studies and its pedagogy. Show less
The present study investigates the effect of memory training through story retelling exercises and imagination tasks and their effect on the quality of interpretation by Farsi-to-English... Show moreThe present study investigates the effect of memory training through story retelling exercises and imagination tasks and their effect on the quality of interpretation by Farsi-to-English interpreter trainees. The effect of treatment on decreasing the rate of message omissions is studied as well. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. Participants were assigned to groups on the basis of their overall performance on a TOEFL pre-test, but with equal division between genders. The control group was then taught interpreting skills by the routine curriculum, while the other, experimental, group spent part of the time on memory training tasks and exercises, e.g. imagination and story retelling. Three raters assessed quality measures of accuracy, omissions, additions, grammar, expression, terminology, pace and accentuation of the interpreter trainees in pre-test and post-test performance. Statistical analysis shows that the memory training had a positive effect on the quality of interpretation and also on decreasing the rate of message omission. The results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, interpreting programs for training future interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in interpreting studies and its pedagogy. Show less
