關于口譯焦慮的研究

Introduction

In the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary， “anxiety” is defined as “the state of being nervous or worried that something bad is going to happen”. This article will mainly discuss the reasons why interpreters should keep at an appropriate anxiety level from a psychological and scientific perspective， what exactly give rise to interpreters anxiety， and how to tackle anxiety problems accordingly.

在牛津詞典的解釋里，焦慮被解釋成“一種緊張，擔憂一些不好之事即將發生的心理狀態。”本文將主要討論從科學角度來看口譯員為何應當保持合適的焦慮水平，口譯員焦慮的主要原因以及如何解決相關焦慮問題三個方面的內容。

Reasons Why Interpreters Should Keep at an Appropriate Anxiety Level When Interpreting

I. A Specific Observation of the Performances of Interpreters of CI

According to the theory of Chinese psychologists Chen Shunsen （陳順森） and Tangdanhong （唐丹紅）， anxiety has three different levels： higher anxiety， medium anxiety and lower anxiety. Based on this theory， an experiment was conducted by Tang Zhifeng （唐志峰）， and it at last turned out that participants （interpreters of CI） who were at the medium anxiety level reacted most swiftly and had least mistakes， while participants who were at higher anxiety or lower anxiety level had relatively worse performance （translated by Cao Jin）. It is evidently shown that anxiety has great impact on interpreters performances. So keeping at an appropriate anxiety level is essential for interpreters as far as their performances are concerned.

II. From a More General Psychological Perspective

Having finished the analysis of the influence that anxiety can exert on interpreters performances， we now need to figure out what more horrible consequences anxiety may bring about. As Michael R. Manning points out in his paper Occupational Stress： Its Causes and Consequences for Job Performance， anxiety may lead to less “interpersonal sensitivity” and make people less “altruism”， which are even detrimental to a persons interpersonal relationships. In this sense， attention should be paid to an appropriate anxiety level.

Major Factors of Anxiety in Interpreting

An Integrated Survey of Anxiety in Interpreting

A present study aimed to design a new scientific scale for anxiety in interpreting is conducted by Dong Yanpin（董燕萍），Chen Huanpeng（陳煥鵬），Yu Zhibin（余志斌）. In order to test the construct validity of the scale， four criteria are concerned： self-efficacy， trait anxiety， foreign language listening anxiety and foreign language speaking anxiety. It turns out that among the four criteria， anxiety in interpreting has a high correlation with foreign language listening as well as speaking. Indeed， the correlation between anxiety in interpreting and foreign language listening is the highest， followed by that between anxiety in interpreting and foreign language speaking.

Solutions

1.Focus on Listening

From what have been demonstrated above， it is not difficult for us to find out that anxiety of listening plays a prominent role in anxiety of interpreting. To solve the anxiety problems in interpreting， we must focus on keeping the anxiety of listening at an appropriate level at first.

2.How to Reduce the Anxiety of Listening Theoretically

As the difficulty in respect of listening that most interpreters face is the higher anxiety instead of lower anxiety， so keeping the anxiety of listening at an appropriate level is approximately equal to reducing the anxiety of listening. In the survey conducted by Zhang Xian （張憲） and Zhao Guanyin （趙觀音）， it concludes that anxiety of listening is a multi-dimensional problem. Listening anxiety， self-confidence in listening skills and students listening skills are closely related to each other. The anxiety level will dramatically decline with the improvement of students comprehension of the listening texts（translated by Cao Jin） This conclusion enlightens us that in order to reduce anxiety of listening when interpreting， interpreters need both build up their self-confidence of their own listening skills and make effort to improve their skills.

3.How to Reduce the Anxiety of Listening Practically

According to what we have analyzed above， special attention should be given to ones confidence in his own listening as well as the improvement of his listening skills in practice.

（1）Improvement of Listening Skills： Expansion of vocabulary

Expansion of vocabulary is of vital importance for interpreting. As has been proved in Bi Xuefei（畢雪飛）s paper Receptive Vocabulary Size and English Listening Comprehension of Tertiary — level Chinese Learners of English， receptive vocabulary size has much to do with ones listening skills. It even shows that English listening relies more on the stock of ones vocabulary than reading. So to expand vocabulary is undeniably essential.

（2）Method of Building Ones Self-Confidence

According to the findings of Zhang Xinyue（張馨月）， confidence counts on both the students themselves and other peoples evaluations. In this sense， students should encourage each other when they study together， and they can also turn to their teachers who can encourage them for help on their own initiative.

（3）Other Means： Special Classroom Atmosphere

For students who major in interpreting， there is another way to deal with anxiety problem. Teachers can divide the classroom into different parts and let students choose their favored parts， which is beneficial for students reduction of anxiety in interpreting according to a study by Hua Liang（花亮） and Dai Huiping（戴惠萍）.

References：

[1]畢雪飛.大學英語學習者接受性詞匯量與英語聽力理解能力研究（英文）[J].語文學刊，2016（2）.

[2]董燕萍，陳煥鵬，余志斌.口譯焦慮量表的研制[J].外語界，2013（6）.

[3]花亮，戴惠萍.分區教學對緩解口譯專業學生聽力焦慮的作用：一項干預研究[J].心理與行為研究，2016（2）.

[4]唐志峰.口譯焦慮對交替傳譯的效應與影響[J].中國科技翻譯，2012（1）.

[5]張憲，趙觀音.外語聽力焦慮量表的構造分析及校度檢驗[J].現代外語，2011（2）.

[6]張馨月.影響大學英語聽力學習的因素[J].陜西師范大學學報， 2007（A2）.

[7]Michael R.Manning，Occupational Stress：Its Causes and Consequences for Job Performance，The American Psychological Association.

【作者簡介】曹瑾，湖北省華中師范大學。