背景知识在英汉交替传译中的作用_英语论文

The Role of Background Knowledge in Consecutive Interoretation Performance

摘要

口译是一个复杂的过程，有各种因素在不同程度上影响交替传译的质量，而背景知识就是其中重要的因素之一。大脑中知识的储存单位叫做“图式”，它是认知心理学非常重要的一个概念，是人们认识和理解外部事物的基础。在认知心理学，语言学和人工智能学等方面图式理论发挥着重要作用，尤其在第二语言习得领域。研究二语的听力和阅读过程中，学者们通过应用图式理论取得了显著成果。这些研究表明：背景知识与二语阅读理解和听力理解有着密切关系；利用已有的背景知识经过“自上而下的处理”，将会提升阅读理解和听力理解的效果。作为外语教学的重要部分，口译涉及如何从源语向译入语的转换，而以图式理论对它的研究则很少。因此，本研究使用的理论框架为图式理论，研究方法为实验研究方法，用以探讨背景知识在英汉交替传译中的作用。结论表明，背景知识影响英汉交替传译的质量。

关键词：背景知识；交替传译；图式理论

Abstract

Interpretation involves a number of complicated procedures. The performance of consecutive interpretation can be influenced by a variety of factors, one of which is the background knowledge. Schema, the storage unit of knowledge in the brain，is a vital concept of psychology. It is the basic stone for people to know and understand the outside things. Schema theory plays a great role on psychology, language learning and artificial intelligence,particularly on the second language acquisition. Over the past decades, schema theory has been widely applied to investigate language listening and reading comprehension,which has generated fruitful findings. The findings show that background knowledge has a close correlation of listening and reading comprehension and the quality of their performance can be improved after being top-down processed by background knowledge. However, interpretation, an important part of foreign language teaching, involves a process of the transformation from source language to target language. It is paid a little attention. Therefore, this paper intends to investigate the role of background in consecutive interpretation performance through an empirical experiment with schema theory. Conclusion is made as follows: background knowledge does exert great significance on the performance of consecutive interpretation .

Key Words: background knowledge; consecutive interpretation; schema theory

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract(Chinese) ii

Abstract(English) iii

Introduction 2

Chapter One Theoretical Foundation and Literature Review 3

1. 1 Schema Theory 3

1.1.1 The Concept of Schema Theory 3

1.1.2. Classification of Schema 4

1.2 Previous Studies 5

1.2.1 The Studies on the Effect of Background Knowledge on Interpretation Performance 5

1.2.2 The Studies on the Effect of Background Knowledge on Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension 6

Chapter Two  Introduction to the Experiment 7

2.1 Hypothesis 7

2.2 Participants 7

2.3 Materials 8

2.4 Procedures 8

Chapter Three Experiment Results 9

3.1 Experimental Score Results 9

3.2  Questionnaire Analysis 10

Chapter Four The Role of Schema in Consecutive Interpretation 13

Conclusion 15

Bibliography 18