Core Concepts and Professional Practices in Interpretation

Posted on Oct 10, 2025 in Other civil servant exams

1. Components and Layers of the Act of Communication

Defining the Components of Communication

The components of the act of communication are:

  • Sender (Speaker): The person who creates and delivers the message.
  • Message: The content that the Sender wants to communicate.
  • Package: How the message is delivered—including tone, words, gestures, volume, and style.
  • Interpreter: The mediator who receives the message in one language and reformulates it in another.
  • Receiver (Listener): The person the message is intended for.

Relationship Between Components

The relationship flows as follows: The Sender transmits a message (with a purpose) → the Interpreter decodes it → reformulates it into the target language → the Receiver interprets it. The quality of communication depends on how well each component works and interacts.

Information Layers and Sender’s Intentions

The information layers of the act of communication relate directly to the Sender’s aims and intentions:

  • Phatic: Small talk, used primarily to build a connection.
  • Cathartic: Expresses emotion or awareness.
  • Informational: Shares facts or data.
  • Appellative: Tries to persuade or motivate the audience to act.

The interpreter needs to identify the most active layer to deliver the message accurately in tone and content.

2. Fidelity Principles and the Communication Setting

Fidelity refers to delivering messages accurately and faithfully. Fidelity is objective, not subjective, and its principles are determined by the communication setting because different contexts (e.g., legal, medical, or casual) demand different standards for clarity, accuracy, and neutrality.

Core Fidelity Principles

The main principle is to at least transmit the message and fulfill the aims of the sender.

  • Minimum Fidelity Principle: The core message should always be conveyed (focus on quality).
  • Maximum Fidelity Principle: Both the message and the secondary information must be conveyed (focus on quality and quantity).

Fidelity Principles for the Sender

  • Be clear and accurate.
  • Adapt the message to the audience.
  • Avoid misleading information.

Fidelity Principles for the Interpreter

  • Interpret fully and accurately.
  • Stay neutral and confidential.
  • Avoid additions, omissions, or bias.

Types of Secondary Information

Secondary information, which contributes to maximum fidelity, includes three types:

  1. Framing Information: Serves as a reference to help the receiver correctly understand the message. It is added and is important because the sender selects it.
  2. Linguistically Induced Information: Mandatory because of the rules of the language. Example: In English, it is mandatory to use a personal pronoun as a subject, whereas in Spanish it is not always required; or the use of articles before a noun in Spanish. This information is necessary to form a correct grammatical sentence.
  3. Personal Information: Important because it may reveal information about the sender, such as their background or their relationship with the person being addressed.

3. Comprehension Levels and Extralinguistic Knowledge

Levels of Comprehension

Non-comprehension
Partial understanding. The interpreter may miss details but still grasps the general idea.
Absolute Non-comprehension
Means having no idea what was said. This almost never happens because context usually provides clues, making it very rare.
Full Comprehension
The ideal state, though not always necessary. It means the interpreter understands everything deeply enough to rephrase it clearly.

The Importance of Extralinguistic Knowledge

Extralinguistic knowledge is crucial for the comprehension process because words alone are insufficient. Understanding depends heavily on:

  • Context
  • Real-world knowledge
  • Specialized background

Without this knowledge, interpreters cannot resolve ambiguities and might miss references, jokes, or technical terms.

4. Strategies for Knowledge Acquisition in Conference Interpreting

There are three main stages of knowledge acquisition for a conference:

  1. Advance Preparation

    Happens before the conference. It involves studying documents (papers, drafts, glossaries), reading background material, and attending briefings with experts. The goal is to understand the topic and terminology.

  2. Last-Minute Preparation

    Takes place just before the conference. Interpreters review documents received late, talk to speakers, or ask about unresolved doubts. This stage is rushed but often essential.

  3. In-Conference Preparation

    Happens during the event. Interpreters learn from listening to talks, chatting with participants, and reading new documents. They also observe how others use key terms or refer to concepts.

Long-Term Knowledge and Retention

Long-term knowledge builds up throughout an interpreter’s career. However, in interpretation, attention is primarily given to instantaneous cognitive operations, meaning each task is considered only once and for a very short time. Consequently, long-term retention may be low, resulting in extralinguistic knowledge that is wider, more superficial, volatile, and unstructured.

Interpreters tend to acquire specialized terminological information, which is the most valuable part of the knowledge they build up. The key factor is the mental availability of this information in the brain.

5. Cognitive Mechanisms and Performance Challenges

The Bilingual Switch Mechanism

The brain of a bilingual or polyglot contains the Bilingual Switch Mechanism, which allows the individual to perceive, comprehend, and produce verbal information in two or more languages at will. This mechanism involves several stages:

  • Input Switch: For receiving sound waves coded as messages in the source language.
  • Processing and Analysis: Information is analyzed for comprehension in the brain’s Short-Term Memory.
  • Time Lag: The time the Short-Term Memory needs to analyze and process information from the source language to the target language.
  • Output Switch: Triggered to produce or deliver the information encoded in the target language.

Performance Problems in Interpretation

Performance problems involve a drop in quality and typically stem from mental overload. Interpreting is a high-effort task that simultaneously requires Listening, Processing, Remembering, and Speaking.

Causes of Performance Problems

Problems occur when:

  • The speech is fast, dense, or unclear.
  • There are unknown terms or names.
  • The interpreter is tired, distracted, or stressed.

Consequences of Overload

Mental saturation leads to:

  • Gaps in the message.
  • Hesitations or errors.
  • Poor delivery.

The brain has a limited processing capacity, and once it is saturated, performance inevitably drops.

6. Expertise, Performance, and Booth Protocol

Expert vs. Novice Interpreter Performance

Experts are able to think effectively about problems because they have acquired extensive knowledge that impacts what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information. This, in turn, impacts their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems.

Key Differences in Expert Knowledge Handling

  1. Meaningful Patterns of Information

    Identical stimuli are perceived and understood differently. Experts across all domains recognize features and meaningful patterns of information that remain unnoticed by novices.

  2. Organization of Knowledge

    Experts possess an efficient organization of knowledge with meaningful relations among related elements clustered into related units that are governed by underlying concepts and principles.

  3. Context and Access to Knowledge

    Experts are skilled at accessing the knowledge relevant to a particular task. Their knowledge is ‘conditionalized’, meaning it includes a specification of the context in which it is useful.

  4. Fluent Retrieval and Stress Management

    Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort. Fluency is vital because effortless processing places fewer demands on conscious attention.

    Experts have learned to overcome ‘stage fright’ through training and experience. What is a routine situation for experienced interpreters is often a stressful event for student interpreters, who feel insecure, fear failure, and experience heightened stress.

Headset Volume and Microphone Management

Headset volume and microphone management are critical aspects of conference procedures, ensuring both interpreter health and professional delivery.

Headset Volume Management

  • Set your headset volume to the lowest level at which you can comfortably listen to the speaker.
  • Deliver your interpretation at a comfortable, low speaking volume.
  • Adjust the tone control if necessary.
  • Setting the volume too high might damage hearing, and raising the voice is unnecessary, as interpretation microphones are very sensitive.
  • Speaking loudly creates a sense of agitated and nervous energy; keeping the volume level down helps the interpreter feel calm and centered.
  • Always speak at a constant distance from the microphone.

Microphone Protocol

Microphone protocol dictates that the only sound transmitted through the interpreter’s microphone should be that of the interpreter’s voice.

  • Handle documents and turn pages silently.
  • Use the cough button when necessary.
  • When no speech is being interpreted, microphones should be turned off.