Psychological noise and its influence on interpretation teaching

Abstract

Interpreters serve as the middleman of bilingual communication. However, the interpretation quality is severely affected by psychological noise, which hinders the comprehension of the speaker's message. The negative effect is particularly severe among interpreters who lack psychological expectations. This paper probes deep into the psychological noise and its influence on interpretation teaching, with the aim to help interpreters overcome the interference from psychological noise. First, the literature on psychological noise during interpretation, especially psychological anxiety noise, was reviewed in details. Then, a questionnaire survey was carried out among students, interpreters and teachers of major translation universities at home and abroad. Through the data analysis, it is concluded that psychological noise is ubiquitous in the interpreting process, especially for primary practitioners and interpreters with limited experience; the leading influencing factor of interpretation quality is interpreting anxiety, followed by personal mood fluctuations, and finally psychological prejudging. The research clarifies the influence mechanism of psychological noise on interpretation, laying a solid basis for high-quality interpretation teaching.