熟悉非母語人士口音對提升口譯表現之影響研究

Abstract

隨著國際會議中非英語母語人士的空前增長，同步口譯員越來越常需要面對的非母語人士的口音帶來的負擔 。雖然過去的研究調查了非母語人士口音對口譯員的影響以及口譯員如何應對非母語人士口音，很少有研究探究口譯前熟悉非母語人士口音對提升口譯表現的幫助。為了了解將適應口音納入口譯員準備工作的是否有必要，本研究結合質化與量化方法，先進行實驗，再進行回溯訪談。在實驗中，一組實驗組和一組對照組（都由8名學生口譯員組成）分別試聽由柬埔寨口音講者（講者1）和英語母語講者（講者2）錄的內容相同的演講，再為講者1進行同步口譯。兩組學生口譯員的同步口譯表現和回溯訪談結果表明，事先試聽講者口音有助於提高口譯員的表現。尤其在前一分半鐘的口譯中，事先試聽過講者1的實驗組受試者口譯準確度顯著比沒有試聽過的對照組受試者表現好。該研究旨在更好地了解將試聽口音納入口譯準備和口譯教學中的益處。

The unprecedented growth of non-native English speakers in international conferences has led to the increasing use of English as communication means. Past research has pointed out that non-native accents can place a heavy burden on interpreters in Simultaneous Interpreting (SI) —a complicated task and a most common form of conference interpretation. However, while some studies have investigated the impact of non-native accents and how interpreters cope with non-native accents during SI, few studies have shed light on the effect of prior exposure to foreign accents on adapting to accent in interpreting. To understand how effective incorporating accent adaptation into the preparation work of interpreters is, the present study adopts a mixed method design and conducted an experiment followed by a retrospective interview. In the experiment, a group of 8 trainee interpreters were exposed to a priming speech recorded by a Cambodian-accented English speaker (Speaker 1), while the control group of another 8 participants were exposed to a priming speech of the same content but recorded by a native American English speaker (Speaker 2). After that, both groups simultaneously interpreted for the Cambodian-accented speaker (Speaker 1). The SI and interview results of the two groups showed that prior exposure to the speaker’s accent improved the interpreting performance. In particular, the difference in terms of accuracy was significant in the beginning of the SI task. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the benefits of incorporating accent adaptation into interpreting preparation and training.