Subproject 2: Fluency

This subproject focuses on the impact of fluency on quality in simultaneous interpreting. Fluency as a prosodic feature of speech is a result of the complex interaction of temporal variables, such as pauses and speech rate, and disfluencies, such as hesitations, false starts, vowel lengthening and repairs. Disfluencies are common in all forms of spontaneous speech. Simultaneous interpreting as a special form of spontaneous speech that is characterised by online planning but is dependent on input from an external source often presents a pattern of pausing and disfluencies that differs from other forms of spontaneous speech and is therefore perceived as disfluent.
The aim of this project is to investigate whether the degree of fluency in a simultaneous interpretation has an influence on listener comprehension. Building on the pioneering study by Shlesinger (1994) on the impact of intonation on the perception of simultaneous interpreting, and on the work of Pradas Macías (2003, 2007) for the systematic investigation of fluency in simultaneous interpreting, an experiment will be conducted to test the research hypothesis that a lack of fluency has a negative impact on message comprehension in the interpreter’s audience.

This project is carried out by Sylvi Rennert.