Cover not available
Part of
Describing Cognitive Processes in Translation: Acts and events
Edited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Ulf Norberg
[Benjamins Current Topics 77] 2015
► pp. 43–62

ELF speakers’ restricted power of expression

Implications for interpreters’ processing

ORCID logo

At the crossroads of English as a lingua franca (ELF) research and interpreting studies, it is paramount to examine why interpreters are at odds with ELF communication in general and with the effects of the output of the growing number of non-native English conference speakers on their work in particular. On the basis of a small-scale case study, the stumbling blocks resulting from non-native English input are examined. The findings point toward what may be a major impediment: activation and retrieval constraints can result from ELF speakers’ restricted power of expression and have an adverse effect on the interpreter’s inferential processing and target text rendering. In the discussion, it is argued that a key problem for devising compensatory (strategic or didactic) measures may lie in the unpredictable and open-ended nature of the means of expression creatively constructed by ELF speakers, which makes it extremely difficult for interpreters to build up a stock of resources that will match the ongoing input items, allowing them to function as activating cues.

Keywords: activating cues, Conference interpreting, English as a lingua franca, inferential processing, mental translation memory, routine transfer links
Published online: 1 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.77.04alb
References
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela
2007 Notationssprache und Notizentext. Ein kognitiv-linguistisches Modell für das Konsekutivdolmetschen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
2010 “Global English and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Implications for the Interpreting Profession.” trans-kom 3 (2): 126–148. [URL].Google Scholar
2011 “Das integrative Potenzial des kognitiv-konstruktivistischen Forschungsparadigmas für die Translationswissenschaft.” In Translation — Sprachvariation — Mehrsprachigkeit. Festschrift für Lew Zybatow, ed. by Wolfgang Pöckl, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, and Peter Sandrini, 41–67. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2012a “Interpreting Quality in Times of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): New Variables and Requirements.” In Translation Studies: Old and New Types of Translation in Theory and Practice. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference TRANSLATA. Translation & Interpreting Research: Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow?, May 12–14, 2011, Innsbruck, ed. by Lew N. Zybatow, Alena Petrova, and Michael Ustaszewski, 267–273. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
2012b “The Importance of Being not too Earnest: A Process- and Experience-based model of Interpreter Competence.” In Dolmetschqualität in Praxis, Lehre und Forschung. Festschrift für Sylvia Kalina, ed. by Barbara Ahrens, Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Claudia Sasse, 59–92. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.Google Scholar
2013a “Express-ability in ELF Communication.” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 2 (1): 101–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013b “Teaching Globish? The Need for an ELF Pedagogy in Interpreter Training.” International Journal of Interpreter Education 5 (1): 3–16.Google Scholar
Basel, Elvira
2002 English as Lingua Franca. Non-Native Elocution in International Communication. A Case Study of Information Transfer in Simultaneous Interpretation. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Vienna.
Braun, Sabine
2004 Kommunikation unter widrigen Umständen? Einsprachige und gedolmetschte Kommunikation in der Videokonferenz. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Braun, Sabine, and Kurt Kohn
2012 “Towards a Pedagogic Corpus Approach to Business and Community Interpreter Training.” In Dolmetschqualität in Praxis, Lehre und Forschung. Festschrift für Sylvia Kalina, ed. by Barbara Ahrens, Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Claudia Sasse, 185–204. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.Google Scholar
Brown, Gillian, and George Yule
1983 Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheung, Andrew
2003 “Does Accent Matter? The Impact of Accent in Simultaneous Interpretation into Mandarin and Cantonese on Perceived Performance Quality and Listener Satisfaction Level.” In Evaluación de la calidad en interpretación de conferencias: investigación, ed. by Ángela Collados Aís, Manuela M. Fernández Sánchez, and Daniel Gile, 85–96. Granada: Editorial Comares.Google Scholar
Christoffels, Ingrid K., and Annette M.B. de Groot
2005 “Simultaneous Interpreting: A Cognitive Perspective.” In Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Approaches, ed. by Judith F. Kroll, and Annette M.B. de Groot, 454–479. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, Guy
2012 “ELF and Translation and Interpreting: Common Ground, Common Interest, Common Cause.” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 1 (2): 241–262. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dschulnigg, Nadine, and Leslie Hansen
2011 Englisch als Lingua Franca (ELF) in Dolmetschsituationen. Eine empirische Untersuchung zur Ausdrucksfähigkeit von ELF-Sprechenden in einer Dolmetschsituation. Unpublished B.A. thesis, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
Gile, Daniel
2009 Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Göpferich, Susanne
2008 Translationsprozessforschung: Stand — Methoden — Perspektiven. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.Google Scholar
Gran, Laura
1989 “Interdisciplinary Research on Cerebral Asymmetries: Significance and Prospects for the Teaching of Interpretation.” In The Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Teaching Interpretation. Proceedings of the Trieste Symposium, 1986, ed. by Laura Gran, and John Dodds, 93–100. Udine: Campanotto.
Johnson-Laird, Philip
1983 Mental Models. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kalina, Sylvia
1998 Strategische Prozesse beim Dolmetschen. Theoretische Grundlagen, empirische Fallstudien, didaktische Konsequenzen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
2009 “Das Modell der gemittelten Kommunikation in interkulturell geprägten Settings.” In Dimensionen der Zweitsprachenforschung/Dimensions of Second Language Research. Festschrift für Kurt Kohn, ed. by Michaela Albl-Mikasa, Sabine Braun, and Sylvia Kalina, 159–181. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.Google Scholar
Kohn, Kurt
1990 “Translation as Conflict.” In Confli(c)t. Proceedings of the International Symposium‚ Contact + Confli(c)t, Brussels, 2–4 June 1988, ed. by Peter H. Nelde, 105–113. Brussels: Association Belge de Linguistique Appliquée (ABLA papers 14).
2004 “Zur Rolle des Übersetzens beim Sprachenlernen.” In Neue Perspektiven in der Übersetzungs- und Dolmetschwissenschaft. Festschrift für Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast zum 60 Geburtstag, ed. by Juliane House, Werner Koller, and Klaus Schubert, 217–233. Bochum: AKS-Verlag.Google Scholar
2011 “English as a Lingua Franca and the Standard English Misunderstanding.” In English in Europe Today. Sociocultural and Educational Perspectives, ed. by Annick De Houwer, and Antje Wilton, 71–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kohn, Kurt, and Michaela Albl-Mikasa
2002 “Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting. On the Reconstruction of an Individualised Language.” In Linguistics and Translation Studies. Translation Studies and Linguistics. Linguistica Antverpiensia1, ed. by Leona Van Vaerenbergh, 257–272. Antwerpen: Hoger Instituut voor Vertalers & Tolken.Google Scholar
Kohn, Kurt, and Sylvia Kalina
1996 “The Strategic Dimension of Interpreting.” Meta 41 (1): 118–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kucharska, Anna
2009 Simultandolmetschen in defizitären Situationen. Strategien der translatorischen Optimierung. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar
Kurz, Ingrid
2009 “The Impact of Non-Native English on Students’ Interpreting Performance.” In Efforts and Models in Interpreting and Translation Research, ed. by Gyde Hansen, Andrew Chesterman, and Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast, 179–192. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kurz, Ingrid, and Elvira Basel
2009 “The Impact of Non-native English on Information Transfer in SI.” Forum 7 (2): 187–212.Google Scholar
Kutz, Wladimir
2002 “Dolmetschkompetenz und ihre Vermittlung.” In Übersetzen und Dolmetschen. Eine Orientierungshilfe, ed. by Johanna Best, and Sylvia Kalina, 184–195. Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar
Mauranen, Anna
2009 “Chunking in ELF: Expressions for Managing Interaction.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (2): 217–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Exploring ELF. Academic English Shaped by Non-native Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McAllister, Robert
2000 “Perceptual Foreign Accent and its Relevance for Simultaneous Interpreting.” In Language Processing and Simultaneous Interpreting, ed. by Kenneth Hyltenstam, and Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, 45–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pöchhacker, Franz
2012 “Qualität, die man versteht: ein funktional-kognitiver Ansatz.” In Dolmetschqualität in Praxis, Lehre und Forschung. Festschrift für Sylvia Kalina, ed. by Barbara Ahrens, Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Claudia Sasse, 19–31. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.Google Scholar
Reithofer, Karin
2010 “English as a Lingua Franca vs. Interpreting — Battleground or Peaceful Co-existence.” The Interpreters’ Newsletter 15: 143–157.Google Scholar
2013 “Comparing Modes of Communication. The Effect of English as a Lingua Franca vs. Interpreting.” Interpreting 15 (1): 48–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seidlhofer, Barbara
2009 “Accommodation and the Idiom Principle in English as a Lingua Franca.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (2): 195–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, John M
1991 Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Christopher
1989 “Towards a Typology of Speakers.” In Coming of Age. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association, ed. by Deanna Lindberg Hammond, 183–188. Medford, NJ: Learned Information.
Van Dijk, Teun A., and Walter Kintsch
1983 Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Widdowson, Henry
1979 “Rules and Procedures in Discourse Analysis” In The Development of Conversation and Discourse, ed. by T. Myers, 61–71. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
2004 Text, Context, Pretext: Critical Issues in Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Rose, Heath & Nicola Galloway
2019. Global Englishes for Language Teaching, DOI logo
Song, Jing
2020. Relieving effects of prefabricated chunks in conference interpreting from English to Chinese in an ELF context. Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies 7:2 ► pp. 214 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.