Directionality in Chinese/English Simultaneous Interpreting:
Impact on Performance and Strategy Use

Chia-chien Sheryl Chang
National Taiwan Normal University

This paper explores professional Chinese/English interpreters’ experience of simultaneous interpreting in different interpreting directions, focusing specifically on the impact of direction on performance and strategy use. Ten professional Chinese/English interpreters were asked to interpret two speeches from English into Chinese, and two speeches from Chinese into English. The products of their interpreting were analyzed using a propositional analysis of the semantic content and an error analysis of the linguistic quality. The processes of their interpreting were explored through qualitative analysis of their stimulated retrospective interviews. A model was constructed showing how interpreters’ experience of simultaneous interpreting in different directions was determined by a myriad of factors, including contextual factors, personal factors, and interpreting norms.
The results indicate that interpreters who must regularly interpret in both directions may develop strategic approaches to cope with the different demands of A-to-B and B-to-A interpreting. The differences in their performances seem not only to be a result of the asymmetry between their A and B language proficiency, but also a result of their awareness of the limits of their language abilities, the strategies available to them, the norms they believe apply to their performance, as well as the discourse structures of their working languages.