Self-focused versus dialogic features of gesturing during simultaneous interpreting

Abstract

The present study considers an implicit debate in the field of gesture studies as to whether gestures are produced primarily for the speaker or for the addressee. It considers the unique monologic setting of simultaneous interpreters working in a booth in which there is no visible audience present and where they only hear and do not see the speaker whose words they are interpreting. The hypotheses (H) are that the interpreters might produce more representational gestures, to aid in their own idea formulation (H1), and self-adapter movements, to maintain their self-focus (H2), rather than pragmatic gestures, which are known to serve interactive functions. Forty-nine interpreters were videorecorded as they interpreted two portions of popular science lectures, one from either English or German (their L2) into Russian (their L1) and one from Russian into their respective L2. The results showed that a vast majority of the gestures produced were either pragmatic in function or self adapters. H2 was thus supported, but H1 was not. The frequent use of pragmatic gestures is interpreted in terms of the internalized dialogic nature of talk and gesturing itself. Both beat gestures expressing emphasis and reduced forms of presentation gestures can facilitate the interpreters’ speaking by prompting the presentation and emphasis of ideas. Though focused on their own process of speech production, simultaneous interpreters may embody elements of the lecturer of the source text engaging with the audience, blended with their own dialogic speaking behaviors, aspects of which we may see in their gesturing.