Strategies and Errors in Simultaneous Interpreting: a Student-Oriented Experiment in English-Turkish Language Pair

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and describe students' strategies and errors in simultaneous interpreting performances in English and Turkish language pair and to explore the relationship between the effect of directionality on strategies and performance errors. A small-scale experimental study was conducted with 10 interpreting students and a control group of 4 professionals and involved triangulation of multiple sources of data. The study reveals that the student and professional participants resorted to omissions, additions, substitutions and made errors. With respect to directionality, it was observed that the students made significantly more comprehension /production omissions, delay omissions, mild phrasing changes and substantial phrasing changes while interpreting from Turkish into English compared to the opposite direction. The t-test and the self-assessments of the professional interpreters, on the other hand, indicated that interpreting direction had no effect on their strategies or errors.