Vinh University Foreign languages department ********** Chu THỊ MAI SƯƠNG Strategies to improve public speaking skills in interpreting for forth-year students of english in vinh university (CHIẾN LƯỢC CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG NÓI TRƯỚC CÔNG CHÚNG TRONG MÔN PHIÊN DỊCH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TƯ CHUYÊN NGÀNH PHIÊN DỊCH Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VINH) Graduation Thesis Field: Interpreting Vinh - May, 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to take this chance to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Lan Phương, M.A for her invaluable guidance, great sympathy and enormous VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ********** STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS IN INTERPRETING FOR FORTH-YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH IN VINH UNIVERSITY (CHIẾN LƯỢC CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG NÓI TRƯỚC CÔNG CHÚNG TRONG MÔN PHIÊN DỊCH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ TƯ CHUYÊN NGÀNH PHIÊN DỊCH Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VINH) Graduation Thesis Field: Interpreting Student: Chu Thị Mai Sương Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Lan Phương, M.A Vinh – May, 2009 patience. I am deeply grateful to her inspiration which has motivated me throughout the implementation of the project. In addition, I wish to send my special thanks to all the teachers of the English Department whose cooperativeness not only provide me with precious information for the completion of the research but also filled me with renewed energy during my most difficult times. Also, my sincere thanks would go to the forth-year students of the English Department participating in the study. They do play a critical role in the success of this paper. Furthermore, I am especially thankful to my parents and my close friends, who have consistently encouraged and supported me in carrying out the project. ABSTRACT When communication has become more and more important to people all over the world and English is the international language, it is urgent and common that there are more people who speak English fluently. However, not all people can use English as their second language. Interpreting was born from the necessaries of communicating between two or more languages speaking people. It is not easy to be a good and skillful interpreter because interpreting is a major that needs a lot of skills and need much hard-working. This research is an attempt to investigate the real situations forth-year students of English in Vinh university practice their public speaking skills in interpreting. The triangulation of the questionnaires with students has revealed much useful information on the importance, self evaluation and problems in public speaking skills in interpreting of students nowadays. This analysis will help students to improve their public speaking skills in interpreting as well as gives teachers insights their students’ level and method of practicing. TABLE OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDMENT…………………………………………………………………… .i ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………… ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………… . vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES.………………………………………………………vii PART A: INTRODUCTION .…………………………………………………………… 1 1. Rationale of the Study……………………………………………………………….1 2. Aims of the Study ………………………………………………………………… .2 3. Scope of the Study.………………………………………………………………….2 4. Method of the Study ……………………………………………………………… .2 5. Organization of the Study ………………………………………………………… 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT .………………………………………………………………5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND …………………………………………5 1.1.INTERPRETING………………………………………………………………… . 5 1.1.1. Definition………………………………………………………………………… . 5 1.1.2. General Modes of Interpreting…………………………………………………… 6 1.1.2.1.Consecutive Interpreting…………………………………………………… 6 1.1.2.2.Simultaneous Interpreting ………………………………………………… 6 1.1.2.3.Summary Interpreting …………………………………………………… . 7 1.1.3. Skills Needed in Interpreting ……………………………………………………….7 1.1.3.1.Listening Skill ………………………………………………………………8 1.1.3.2.Memorizing Skill ………………………………………………………… .8 1.1.3.3.Note-taking Skill…………………………………………………………… 9 1.1.3.4.Transference Skill………………………………………………………… 10 1.1.3.5.Public Speaking Skill…………………………………………………… . 10 1.1.4. Process of Interpreting ………………………………………………………… .11 1.1.4.1.Listening………………………………………………………………… 11 1.1.4.2.Transference ……………………………………………………………….11 1.1.4.3.Delivery…………………………………………………………………… 11 1.2.PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILL …………………………………………………… 12 1.2.1. Role of Public Speaking Skill …………………………………………………… 12 1.2.2. Aspects of Public Speaking Skill ………………………………………………….13 1.2.2.1.Voice of the Speaker ………………………………………………………13 1.2.2.2.Body Language of the Speaker…………………………………………… 14 1.2.2.3.Appearance of the Speaker……………………………………………… . 15 1.2.2.4.Attitude of the Speaker …………………………………………………….16 1.2.2.5.Knowledge of the Speaker ……………………………………………… .16 1.3.PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILL IN INTERPRETING……………………………….17 1.3.1. Role of Public Speaking Skill in Interpreting…………………………………… 17 1.3.2. Aspects of Public Speaking Skill in Interpreting ………………………………….17 1.3.2.1.Voice of the Interpreter…………………………………………………… 17 1.3.2.2.Body Language of the Interpreter …………………………………………18 1.3.2.3.Appearance of the Interpreter ………………………….………………… 18 1.3.2.4.Attitude of the Interpreter …………………………………………….……18 1.3.2.5.Knowledge of the Interpreter……………………………………….…… 19 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….…… 20 2.1. Participants …………………………………………………………………….…….20 2.2. Instruments …………………………………………………………………….…….21 2.3. Data collection and analysis ………………………………………………….…… 22 2.4. Findings and discussion ……………………………………………………….…….23 2.4.1. Results and discussion …………………………………………………………….23 2.4.2.1. Question 1: What are the attitudes of forth year students of English toward public speaking skill in interpreting? …………………………………………………………… 23 2.4.2.2. Question 2: How do students self evaluate their public speaking skills in interpreting? ……………………………………………………………………………….25 2.4.2.3. Question 3: How do students prepare themselves before interpreting? ……….34 2.4.2.4. Question 4: How do students practice public speaking skill in interpreting? 36 2.4.2. Major findings of the research …………………………………………………… 39 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………………………… .41 3.1. Recommendations for Public Speaking Skills in Interpreting……………………… 41 3.2. Some strategies for students when interpreting on stage ……………………………42 PART C: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….45 1. Limitations of the Research ……………………………………………………….45 2. Contributions of the Research …………………………………………………… 45 3. Suggestions for Further Studies………………………………………………… . 46 4. Summary………………………………………………………………………… 46 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………. 47 APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………………… 48 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. TL: target language 2. SL: source language 3. LTM: Long-term memory 4. STM: Short-term memory LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Responses to the question “What do you think about public speaking skill in interpreting?” Figure 2: Students’ feeling when interpreting in front of many people Figure 3: Responses to the question number 11 in the survey: “Do you contact the speaker before interpreting?” Figure 4: Percentage of students who contact speaker before interpreting get prepared in knowledge and skills Figure 5: Responses to the question number 3 “How is your voice when interpreting?” Figure 6: Responses to the question number 4: “How is the volume of your speaking when interpreting?” Figure 7: Students’ speed of speaking self-evaluation Figure 8: Responses to the question number 6: “How often do you vary your tone when interpreting?” Figure 9: Responses to the question number 7: “How do you use facial expression when interpreting?” Figure 10: The way students keep eye-contact when interpreting. Figure 11: Data of how students use gesture when interpreting. Figure 12: Data about method to improve public speaking skill in interpreting outside class Chart 1: Listening process Table 1: A summary of the students’ demographic background PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the Study The profession of an interpreter is a very old one, which came into existence when the first contacts were established between human groups speaking different languages. It has been also one of the finest professions since they established a closer understanding of one another. By eliminating the barrier that separates them, the interpreter directly ushers men and women into the thoughts of others, and thus performs the function of an intermediary, enabling their minds to achieve intellectual communication. Indeed, interpreting plays an important role in the world today, it helps people to communicate across the language barrier, making people closer as mentioned above. Nevertheless, interpreting is a challenging job, because it requires competence in both source language and target language. The English learner must reach to advanced level if he wants to do the interpreting job. In addition to this, his mother tongue must also be skillful. The reason is that interpreting is transference process. The interpreter’s work is to transfer speech from one language to another. It is very different from the work of listening or reading only. For example, in reading, you understand it, it is good enough, but in interpreting, yourself have to understand it, then you have to convey it in the way that hearers can understand it without changing its meanings (semantics function) and better if keeping its equivalents in the another language (structural function) In interpreting process, public speaking skill plays one of the most important roles. It is the step that decides whether the speech is successful or not. However, public speaking is not a skill but an art which causes students of interpreting many difficulties. During the process of learning English in Vinh university, the author has confronted this problem, and that is the reason the author chose the topic “Strategies to Improve Public Speaking Skill in Interpreting for Forth-year Students of English in Vinh University”, with the hope that this paper might help the learners in the following courses to overcome their difficulties in public speaking skill in interpreting. 2. Aims and Objectives of the Study The study aims to indentify the current situation of the public speaking skill in interpreting for forth year students of English at Vinh University by seeking answers to the following questions: 1. What are the attitudes of forth-year students of English in Vinh university toward public speaking skill in interpreting? 2. How do students prepare themselves before interpreting? 3. How do students self evaluate their public speaking skills in interpreting? 4. How do students practice public speaking skill in interpreting? Such findings would provide helpful information to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. Accordingly, implications would be drawn to improve the situation. Finally, this project can offer useful references including reliable and updated information for