Lag-Time Errors Between Novice and Professional Interpreters

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Introduction

Lag time, is the time accumulated when the source message starts and the target message is relayed in the target language, and has challenged me as an interpreter. During practicum, where students apply our skills as interpreters-in-training I was forced to address the challenges I face with lag time. I was curious about the reasons that this was affecting my work. Therefore, I have chosen to focus the correlation between message accuracy and the errors that occur depending on the amount of lag time. For novice interpreters leaving the comforts of the controlled interpreting settings staged in the classroom can be scary. I feel that as we begin to venture out into the world outside of the classroom, maintaining an appropriate amount of lag time while interpreting is challenging, but one that can be overcome.

Understanding the affects of lag time on successful interpretation can help the field of interpreting in developing strategies and learning tools to resolve and/or minimize issues of lag time. These strategies and tools can also be utilized in interpreting education programs to help students identify and strengthen their use of lag time. By addressing these issues in interpreting programs, students will more easily acclimate from the classroom to working in the field of interpreting.

Demands of lag time

Cokely (1992) states that there are a variety of processing models used to help understand the process of interpreting. However, while the variety of process models have subtle differences in factors and characteristics, these models share a view that interpreting is a “complex cognitive process” (p.185). The basic interpretation process model depends upon input of the source language over which the interpre...

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...on: A Sociolinguistic Model. (pp.185-208). Burtonsville: Linstok Press.

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