Oversea literature review on the role of Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting

Note refers to signs and words during Consecutive Interpretation. In other interpreting forms， interpreters can use memory only to finish the delivery. Likewise， in CI， not memory， but notes consist of signs， abbreviations， symbols and other assisting lines or graphs to mark information points and logic relations so as to help re-express the original text in another language. As Jones （1998： 38） presents， “…they are not an end in themselves， but a means to an end.” From the views of Lederer （2003： 9） in the book Translation： the interpretive model， she points out that note-taking served as an aid for interpreting when interpreter understood what should say so， which featured uniqueness and transience. But she still holds the view that note is only the reminder of information that cannot totally symbolized all pieces of information. However， Pochhacher （2004： 58） argues that note-taking is “as much a matter of intentional resource management as of long term storage， and relatively little is known to date about the complex cognitive mechanisms involved”.

Interpreters always have to face disturbance during each sector of CI， while notes could be an essential aid to guarantee the loyalty and quality of interpretation. Jones （1998： 43） claims note-taking should rely on the premise of understanding， analysis， and re-expression， otherwise the best note system cannot finish an interpreting neither make a good interpreter. He states there are two purposes to take notes， one is relieve memory， another is enhance the structure of speech （Jones， 1998： 43-44）. In such circumstance， interpreter needs to write down specific elements to reproduce the content on the notebook.

Di Vesta and Gary （1973： 8-9） presented the functional importance of note taking as follows：

Firstly， note taking helps the interpretation by increasing：

1. The meaningful chunks and the encoding of source information

2. The general level of attention

3. The general mental effort

4. The assimilation of new coming and old information.

Secondly， note taking being as an additional storage of information for the reconstruction of short-term and long-term memory.

Unlike liaison interpreting， consecutive interpreting more rely on notes instead of memory. Gillies （2005： 9-10） notes system is no created by an interpreter， whereas which is accumulated from many interpreters ideas and experiences as being a flexible basis. Gillies （2005： 6-8） proposes approaches to build a consistent note-taking system in CI：

Macro-thinking. Here， macro refers to the structure， framework and speech style. Since the source text is a group of idea in a certain order， the notes interpreter writes down should be a vivid statement of the source text combined with his/her own analysis.

Capacity. Combined with Giles Effort Model， CI has been regarded as a complicated process that includes a number of different tasks. Gillies （2005） indicates it could be a problem that to do all the tasks at the same time for interpreting beginners. Thus， a clear and logical note could tell interpreters when to pause， when to omit， and when to emphasize.

Automatization. It means making the notes with consistent system automatically， which could save intellectual energy for other tasks. Gillies （2005） thinks note-taking is a mechanical task which can be internalized and automatic. A practiced and thought-out note system could spend less mental effort during interpreting.

A bottom-up approach. It is mainly about analyzing source information. Gillies （2005） suggests reversing the analysis task in the listening and note-taking， which means interpreters can take notes after the source speech or at the same time.

Generally， the note cannot be a mass of words and expressions， and it should be a semi-manufacture that has been through interpreters comprehension. Just as Joness （1998： 44） explanation “Notes do not reproduce the speech; they are only written indications to help the interpreter to remember it.”

References：

[1]Di Vesta， F. J. & Gary， G.S.. Listening and Note-taking[J]. Journal of Educational Psychology，1973，63：8-14.

[2]Gillies， A..Note-taking for Consecutive Interpreting： a Short Course[J]. Manchester： St Jerome Publishing，2005.

[3]Jones， R.. Conference Interpreting Explained[M]. Manchester： St Jerome Publishing，1998.

【作者簡介】黄焱，大理大学外国语学院。

【基金项目】大理大学第六期教育教学改革项目“以培养翻译意识为目标的英语读译课程改革与实践”（项目编号：JGVI-81）。