Speech Disfluencies in Consecutive Interpreting by Student Interpreters: The Role of Language Proficiency, Working Memory, and Anxiety

Abstract

Growing research has revealed that interpreters’ individual cognitive differences impact interpreting. In this article, I examined how an interpreter’s language proficiency, working memory, and anxiety level impact speech disfluencies in target language delivery. Fifty-three student interpreters took part in three cognitive tests, respectively, of their proficiency in English (their non-native language), working memory, and anxiety level. Then they consecutively interpreted an English speech into Mandarin (their native language); their target language output was coded for different types of disfluencies (pauses, fillers, repetitions, and articulatory disfluency). It was found that anxiety level, but not language proficiency and working memory, impacted the occurrence of disfluencies in general. In particular, more anxious interpreters tended to have more fillers, such as er and um, and more repetitions of words and phrases. I discuss these findings in terms of how anxiety may impact the cognitive processes of interpreting and how to reduce student interpreters’ anxiety level in interpreting teaching and learning.