awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.3, 2014Effective Teaching Strategies of Consecutive Interpretation to FacilitateWasfiStage One: UnderstandingThe „understanding‟ that we focus on here is not of words but of ideas, for it is ideas that have tobe interpreted. In other words, the interpreter “… should be concerned with meaning rather thanexact equivalents for individual words” (Phelan, 2001.p.7).Undoubtedly, no one can understandideas if he/she does not know the words the speaker is using to express them, or if the grammarand syntax of the speaker‟s language is unfamiliar. „Not knowing words‟, as we have said,should not be considered a serious problem as the interpreter has to understand ideas, not words.Moreover, it is perfectly possible to understand the speakers‟ meaning without actuallyunderstanding every single word and expression they use, and without having to reproduce all ofthese terms and expressions in the interpretation. In other words, interpreting is possible withoutall the words and without changing the meaning.However, there are occasions when a word is too important to ignore or skip. In this case, theinterpreter has to deduce or guess its meaning from context.In short, we can say that it is possible for the interpreters to work perfectly well without knowingin advance all the vocabulary used by the speakers. However, there are times when interpretersdo not know a word or an expression and can neither avoid it nor deduce its meaning; i.e. theyare facing a real problem. In such a case, the interpreters have to ask the speaker about themeaning. This is quite acceptable as any interpreter cannot be expected to be a walkingmultilingual dictionary and there are things which he certainly does not know.When talking about understanding, we must stress that pure linguistic understanding; i.e.comprehension, although necessary, is not a sufficient condition for the interpreters to be able tore-express ideas efficiently in another language. Interpreters must be able to grasp the meaning ina less than a second, and must therefore listen constantly in an active, attentive way. This active,attentive listening has to be learned and acquired by the interpreters.Moreover, depending on the context, on the speaker‟s tone of voice and many other things, theinterpreters may conclude that a certain idea is crucial or unimportant (Jones, 2002, p.14).Stage Two: Analysis1- Analysis of Speech TypesThe interpreter must be aware of the kind of speech being dealt with. Speeches may be of manydifferent kinds. For example, if it is a logical argument then he has to know what a pro is andwhat is a con, and spot the turning points between them through links, such as but, however, onthe other hand, etc. If it is a narration he has to follow chronological sequence and give dueattention to dates and verb tenses, if is descriptive he has to decide what is the most importantinformation that should be remembered and noted, and if it is totally rhetorical he has to beaware that the content details maybe irrelevant as the focus in this type of speech is mainly onstyle.However, it should be noted that most speeches are hybrid and share characteristics from two ormore speech types. In this context, it is worth mentioning to say that the interpreter must makeno substantive addition to a speech2- Identification of Main IdeasIn order to be able to interpret the speaker‟s idea, an interpreter must know first all what isimportant in the speaker‟s comments and what is secondary. In fact, secondary should not bemisunderstood as meaning unimportant to the extent that such ideas need not be interpreted. Inother words, it can be said that the „main idea‟ implies a hierarchy of relative importance ofArab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org317