Empirical investigation into simultaneous interpreting skills

Abstract

The article presents the first stages of an empirical investigation into simultaneous interpreting skills. With a view to improving the teaching of this mode of interpreting, the long‐term objective of the investigation is to identify good strategies within the field. Didactic and methodological reflections are discussed in connection with the layout of the project.

The underlying premises and hypotheses of the study are presented and the empirical data are described. These data consist of renditions in English and Danish produced by interpreter and translator informants at various levels of competence. One important hypothesis of the study is that elements recognized as prerequisites for a good translation are essentially the same as those needed for a good simultaneous interpreting performance.

The mastery of the progressive aspect in English and Danish is chosen as the indicator of the communicative adequacy of the target texts because the rendition of this phenomenon can have semantic as well as pragmatic implications.