Manual Terminology Lookup

General objectives

  1. Develop an awareness of the conditions under which using a CAI tool with manual terminology lookup is possible and effective
  2. Develop a method to work with CAI tools in the booth
  3. Understand which CAI tool available on the market best suits a student's needs
  4. Reflect on the allocation of cognitive resources during simultaneous interpreting, especially while using a CAI tool

Exercise 1: Attention allocation

Objective:

  • Understand which and how many terms can be reasonably looked up while interpreting
  • Learn how to select the terms to query

Tools:

  • A CAI tool that has a built-in function for live lookup in the booth (InterpretBank, Intragloss, Boothmate)
  • A virtual tabular glossary (e.g. created with Word or Excel)

Methodology:

  • Have the students listen to a speech you are delivering and look up all specialized terms, without interpreting
  • Have the students interpret the same speech while looking up all specialized terms
  • Option 1: If available (InterpretBank offers this option), students can check the LOG file and reflect on the terms they have looked up: could they have found a solution without resorting to a glossary query? Which strategy would have been the most cost-effective?
  • Option 2: students can look at the speech transcript to check for the terms they have looked up
  • Have them interpret a speech that contains the same terms and look up only the necessary terms identified in point 4.
  • Finally, the trainees transcribe their deliveries for the two speeches and compare them: how are precision, cohesion, coherence and fluency affected?

Tips:

  • Always prepare ad-hoc speeches (or use the speeches below)
  • Make sure the amount of specialized terms present is challenging enough
  • The speech should be adequate to the students' skills. The main source of difficulty should be the terminology, so try to keep syntax simple, avoid using numbers and proper names.
  • Deliver the speech yourself so you can adjust the pace to the students' level
  • Have them interpret a speech that contains the same terms and look up only the necessary terms identified in point 4.
  • Finally, the trainees transcribe their deliveries for the two speeches and compare them: how are precision, cohesion, coherence and fluency affected?

Materials:

Exercise 2: Better with or without CAI tools?

Objective:

  • Understand when it is useful to use CAI tools and when not
  • Identify advantages and disadvantages in working with and without CAI tools

Tools:

  • A CAI tool that has a built-in function for live lookup in the booth (InterpretBank, Intragloss, Boothmate)

Methodology:

  • The students prepare on the topic in advance by studying a glossary you provided
  • Have the students interpret speech A without the support of a CAI tool
  • Have the students interpret speech B with the support of a CAI tool
  • The trainees transcribe their deliveries for the two speeches and compare them: how are precision, cohesion, coherence and fluency affected? Identify the features of a speech that speak in favour of the use of a CAI tool and those that speak against it (think pace of delivery, accent, terminological density etc.)

Tips:

  • Always prepare ad-hoc speeches
  • Make sure the amount of specialized terms present is challenging enough
  • The speech should be adequate to the students' skills. The main source of difficulty should be the terminology, so try to keep syntax simple, avoid using too many numbers and proper names.
  • Deliver the speech yourself so you can adjust the pace to the students' level

Materials:

Exercise 3: Teamwork

Objective:

  • Understand how to use CAI tools to work with a booth partner
  • Strengthen team work

Tools:

  • A CAI tool that has a built-in function for live lookup in the booth (InterpretBank, Intragloss, Boothmate)

Methodology:

  • The students prepare on the topic in advance by studying a glossary you provided
  • Divide the speech into two parts
  • Students work in pairs. In the first part of the speech, students look up terms on their own.
  • In the second part of the speech, the boothmate uses the CAI tool to help the student who is interpreting
  • Repeat the exercise with another speech, so that each student can play both roles (interpreter and boothmate)
  • Group discussion: was teamwork effective? Can the students identify strategies that might help the boothmate use the CAI tool to support the interpreter? In which situations is it better to use CAI tools on your own while interpreting, and when is it better to ask the boothmate for help? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both situations?

Tips:

  • Always prepare ad-hoc speeches
  • Make sure the amount of specialized terms present is challenging enough
  • The speech should be adequate to the students' skills. The main source of difficulty should be the terminology, so try to keep syntax simple, avoid using too many numbers and proper names.
  • Deliver the speech yourself so you can adjust the pace to the students' level

Materials:

Exercise 4: Fluency and prosody for advanced CAI users

Objective:

  • Raise awareness on how the use of CAI tools affects the fluency and the prosody of the rendition
  • Develop an effective strategy to perform queries with a CAI tool without affecting the fluency and the prosody of the rendition

Tools:

  • A CAI tool that has a built-in function for live lookup in the booth (InterpretBank, Intragloss, Boothmate)n
  • Audacity or another tool to record the delivery and to visualize the sound wave

Methodology:

  • The students prepare on the topic in advance by studying a glossary you provided
  • Have the students interpret a speech with the support of a CAI tool
  • The trainees transcribe their deliveries and analyze the sound wave. When do pauses occur? Do long pauses occur when a query is performed? How can this be avoided?

Tips:

  • Always prepare ad-hoc speeches
  • Make sure the amount of specialized terms present is challenging enough
  • The speech should be adequate to the students' skills. The main source of difficulty should be the terminology, so try to keep syntax simple, avoid using too many numbers and proper names.
  • Deliver the speech yourself so you can adjust the pace to the students' level

Materials:

Exercise 5: Too much information?

Objective:

  • Reflect on whether an additional visual aid helps performing effective queries with a CAI tool
  • Strengthen teamwork

Tools:

  • A CAI tool that has a built-in function for live lookup in the booth (InterpretBank, Intragloss, Boothmate)

Methodology:

  • The students prepare on the topic in advance by studying a glossary you provided
  • Have the students interpret a speech with the support of a CAI tool while a presentation is shown
  • Group discussion: is a presentation helpful? Is it distracting? What strategies can be adopted to use a CAI tool while a presentation is shown? Is it feasible?

Tips:

  • Always prepare ad-hoc speeches
  • Make sure the amount of specialized terms present is challenging enough
  • The speech should be adequate to the students' skills. The main source of difficulty should be the terminology, so try to keep syntax simple, avoid using too many numbers and proper names.
  • Deliver the speech yourself so you can adjust the pace to the students' level
  • Include all technical terms in the presentation, but also include additional information (proper names, numbers etc)

Materials: