TY - CHAP
T1 - Quantitative Correlates as Predictors of Judged Fluency in Consecutive Interpreting
T2 - Implications for Automatic Assessment and Pedagogy
AU - Yu, Wenting
AU - van Heuven, Vincent J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This research was supported by a Grant for the “Prosodic Aspects in Chinese
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This chapter presents an experimental study of consecutive interpreting which investigates whether: (a) judged fluency can be predicted from computer-based quantitative prosodic measures including temporal and melodic measures. Ten raters judged six criteria of accuracy and fluency in two consecutive interpretations of the same recorded source speech, from Chinese ‘A’ into English ‘B’, by twelve trainee interpreters (seven undergraduates, five postgraduates). The recorded interpretations were examined with the speech analysis tool Praat. From a computerized count of the pauses thus detected, together with disfluencies identified by raters, twelve temporal measures of fluency were calculated. In addition, two melodic measures, i.e., pitch level and pitch range, were automatically generated. These two measures are often considered to be associated with speaking confidence and competence. Statistical analysis shows: (a) strong correlations between judged fluency and temporal variables of fluency; (b) no correlation between pitch range and judged fluency, but a moderate (negative) correlation between pitch level and judged fluency; and (c) the usefulness of effective speech rate (number of syllables, excluding disfluencies, divided by the total duration of speech production and pauses) as a predictor of judged fluency. Other important determinants of judged fluency were the number of filled pauses, articulation rate, and mean length of pause. The potential for developing automatic fluency assessment in consecutive interpreting is discussed, as are implications for informing the design of rubrics of fluency assessment and facilitating formative assessment in interpreting education.
AB - This chapter presents an experimental study of consecutive interpreting which investigates whether: (a) judged fluency can be predicted from computer-based quantitative prosodic measures including temporal and melodic measures. Ten raters judged six criteria of accuracy and fluency in two consecutive interpretations of the same recorded source speech, from Chinese ‘A’ into English ‘B’, by twelve trainee interpreters (seven undergraduates, five postgraduates). The recorded interpretations were examined with the speech analysis tool Praat. From a computerized count of the pauses thus detected, together with disfluencies identified by raters, twelve temporal measures of fluency were calculated. In addition, two melodic measures, i.e., pitch level and pitch range, were automatically generated. These two measures are often considered to be associated with speaking confidence and competence. Statistical analysis shows: (a) strong correlations between judged fluency and temporal variables of fluency; (b) no correlation between pitch range and judged fluency, but a moderate (negative) correlation between pitch level and judged fluency; and (c) the usefulness of effective speech rate (number of syllables, excluding disfluencies, divided by the total duration of speech production and pauses) as a predictor of judged fluency. Other important determinants of judged fluency were the number of filled pauses, articulation rate, and mean length of pause. The potential for developing automatic fluency assessment in consecutive interpreting is discussed, as are implications for informing the design of rubrics of fluency assessment and facilitating formative assessment in interpreting education.
KW - Automatic assessment
KW - Consecutive interpreting
KW - Fluency
KW - Quantitative correlates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104146809&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-981-15-8554-8_6
DO - 10.1007/978-981-15-8554-8_6
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85104146809
T3 - New Frontiers in Translation Studies
SP - 117
EP - 142
BT - New Frontiers in Translation Studies
PB - Springer Science+Business Media
ER -