CE Unit 3 The Listening Phase

The goal of this unit is to remind you the importance of listening to and analyzing the English message as a foundation for consecutive interpreting.

“Listening” is used to refer to the perception of the English source message.

The same principles apply whether the source message is spoken or signed.

The first phase in Gile’s model of consecutive interpreting includes listening to and analyzing the message, which in turn leads to comprehension of the message.

Comprehension of source material is an essential skill that underlies all other skills in the interpretation process.

According to Gile, comprehension is based on two critical features.

One is knowledge of words in a language and the other is knowledge of the grammar of a language.

These two features are not enough to ensure comprehension. The context in which the words and grammar are used must be taken into consideration.

Extralinguistic knowledge (ELK) is when a person understood not just the words and grammar but also culture and context.

When working from L1 to L2, it is important to focus your listening on the incoming message. Usually it takes longer for a person to listen and process information or (visual comprehension) from L2 to L1.

Main Idea Identification:

1.     Ability to find and state the main idea of a text.

2.     Once the main idea is stated, then it becomes implicit or understood in the ideas that follow it.

3.     Ideas presented after the main idea can be points that clarify or support the main idea.

4.     Select important parts of the speaker’s message and sort out the main ideas from the supporting ideas. If the interpreter gives equal weight to all the speaker’s points, rather than choosing important points, the message may be skewed and not match the speaker’s original message.

How to Keep Up with Speakers that Speak Rapidly?

Sometimes the speaker speaks very rapidly or is reading from a prepared speech. The interpreter cannot always ask the speaker to pause or repeat information. When this happens, it is more important for the interpreter to select the most important points.

The ideal interpretation includes all the main points and all of the supporting points, in the order originally presented.

In real world practice, that is not always possible. In situations where the interpreter is unable to slow the pace of the speaker’s comments, it is necessary for the interpreter to identify main and supporting points.

Key Word:

Another aspect of main idea identification is key word identification. The key word in a passage is the one that labels the most important single concept in a passage. Key words are crucial to the theme or topic under discussion.

Key words are most often words which represent an essential or basic concept of the text and are often thematic. Key words point to the main idea. Learning to identify key words is an effective way to improve comprehension.

Summarizing:

Another indication of effective listening and analysis is the ability to summarize accurately. A summary includes the main points of the speech and generally does not include the details. If you can quickly and accurately grasp what the talk is about, then you will have an easier time following the speaker and the various lines of reasoning that the speaker might use. Summarization skills show that you can get the “big picture” of what the speech is about and not get confused with the details and miss the point of the speech.

“Macroprocessing” is a way of getting the big picture about what is most important. Being able to recall the gist of the information leads to finding the rest of the relevant information in memory.

An accurate and concise summary can “trigger” the memory of other related details in your memory.

This kind of trigger may last only a short time, since interpreters generally are not trying to create long-term memories based on what they heard. Rather they are relying heavily on working memory to process what they are hearing while they are working.

During the interpretation process, there is a constant sorting of information. The interpreter must determine if the information is very important or less important. The interpreter makes this decision based on what they know about the topic and what they know about the audience.

The interpreter constantly sorts information into categories or topics, decides which points are most important, and uses those points to create a summary.

1.     Why are listening and English comprehension important to the interpretation process? 

2.     What will happen if the interpreter incorrectly analyzes the message without realizing that the analysis is incorrect?

3.     How does the main idea identification relate to listening and comprehension?

4.     Why are summary skills important to listening and comprehension?

5.     Would your summary of a text be exactly the same as another person’s summary? Why or why not?