AWEJ Volume.5 Number.4, 2014 Pp.315-325
Effective Teaching Strategies of Consecutive Interpreting to Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication
Nahed M. Wasfi
College of Languages and Translation
King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
We live in an age of increasing international communication where people from different backgrounds and cultures and who speak different languages find themselves coming together to discuss issues of all kinds; i.e. economic, political, legal cultural, technical, etc. Usually in intercontinental dialogue and cross-culture communications people belonging to different languages and cultures are brought together and these people are certainly anxious to communicate effectively and be fully and clearly understood by others. However, if they are not fully competent in the languages of communication; i.e. Source Language (SL) and Target Language (TL), here emerges the importance of interpreters to facilitate communication between people who speak different languages and serve as a bridge between different cultures. As long as “Comparatively little research has been done on interpreting throughout history” (Phelan, 2001, p. 1) and due to my long experience in teaching and practicing consecutive interpreting for more than 30 years, my paper mainly aims to present some effective strategies in teaching consecutive interpreting so as to contribute to high standards of professionalism and quality of interpretation that are essential prerequisites for facilitating intercontinental dialogue and cross- culture communication. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the three basic stages involved in consecutive interpreting; i.e. understanding the message, analysis, and re-expression. The second part deals with the process of note-taking; i.e. difficulties, what to note, how to note, language of note taking, tools used in note taking, etc.
Keywords: cross-cultural communication, effective teaching strategies of consecutive interpreting, basic stages and principles of interpreting, note-taking process and techniques.