PSYCHOLINGUISTICAL APPROACHES TO TEACHING CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION

Recent researches in psycholinguistics have provided a profound basis for developing interpretation techniques and improving teaching methods of professional training of future interpreters. Rapid development of intercultural communication suggests an increase in international contacts and amount of information from all spheres of human activities engaged in intercultural exchange. An interpreter should be taught to perceive and assimilate a huge amount of data and information. Much attention should be paid to developing bilingual skills of future interpreters.

The paper focuses on the results of the research into methods of developing interpretation skills. Striving to assist students in acquiring the necessary professional competences, the authors have studied new techniques of apprehending information in a foreign language, organizing it with the help of symbols and acronyms. Abbreviation has proved to be a most productive means of fixing the information. Abbreviations and other shortened forms of a word or a phrase are considered to be the best tools of taking notes during the consecutive translation.

The present paper includes the analysis of experiments carried out during the research which involved second and third year students of the English language departments of the philological faculties from two universities. 104 students of each faculty were divided into two groups: the first group was experimental and the second – control. During the pre-experiment period the first group got special training in taking short notes and fixing data with the help of symbols. The course included an association experiment in order to work our special symbols substituting definitions, actions, characteristics. The second group was taught the rules of abbreviation, then the students were given a task to develop ways of shortening the same definitions, actions, characteristics which were given tio the first group.

The experiment used mass media texts. The results of the experiment were closely considered in the form of case-studies. By exchanging the experience of creating icons and shortening words the students were involved in a very productive educational process. They used their critical thinking and conceptualization which greatly promoted the process of learning as well as teaching. The three-month training course has turned out to be very productive: the students have mastered the usage of 48 icons and symbols defining various processes and created more than 78 shortened forms individually. On the whole, this short term training course has greatly facilitated the work of an interpreter engaged in the consecutive translation.

The research permits to make the following conclusions. To facilitate the process of retention during the consecutive translation the students should be taught the basic principles of fixing precision information and using notes as well as shortened forms of words and phrases. Moreover, students should be required to use their own imagination and creative abilities to develop their own system of symbols and abbreviations. The interpreter engaged in consecutive translation employs both the generally adopted rules and acronyms and individually developed symbols.