EVS Patterns, Regulation Strategies and Quality of Persian/English Simultaneous Interpretations

A mind-boggling obsession facing the recent interpreting studies is the how and why of ear-voice-span (EVS) regulation during simultaneous interpreting (SI) and its relationship with the quality of SI outputs especially in the case of two asymmetrical languages. The present case study aimed at investigating the EVS patterns and strategies used during Persian-to-English (henceforth P-E) (SOV-SVO) and English-to-Persian (henceforth E-P) (SVO-SOV) SI. Moreover, it sought to find out the relationship between EVS choices and quality of simultaneous interpretations. In doing so, live data were collected from a professional interpreter in two interlingually held conferences. The analysis of transcribed and synchronized audio files revealed the adoption of a wide range of linguistic and temporal EVS choices and regulation strategies. The results indicated that EVS patterns in the SOV-to-SVO direction were generally longer than vice versa. The quality assessment of interpretations by two raters with reference to Buhler s (1986) rating scale revealed that the choice of EVS strategies had a direct impact on the overall EVS length, imposed cognitive demand and, subsequently, quality of interpretations. On implication side, the study suggests the incorporation of detected strategies into the interpreter training syllabus.