Cover not available

Article published In: Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 7:2 (2024) ► pp.311–334

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

How native-like do conference interpreters sound in L2?

A phonetic analysis of retour interpretations into English in the European Parliament

ORCiD logo with link | University of Vienna | University of Silesia in Katowice
ORCiD logo with link | University of Silesia in Katowice
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Vienna.

Published online: 10 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00096.roj
Abstract
We present an exploratory observational study on A-B interpreting in the European Parliament. In contrast to popular belief, it is a widespread practice for some of the newer EU languages to be interpreted into English by native speakers of the source language. The phonetic-acoustic properties of speech in English by eight Polish retour interpreters are assessed on the basis of material extracted from a large bidirectional EP-Poland corpus. We use the methodology from L2 speech research, based on identifying segmental and suprasegmental departures from native norms. The speech samples were inspected aurally and visually by means of spectrogram and waveform. The general detected departures emerge mostly from the differences between Polish and English sound systems. Although some of the interpreters may have more native-like accent than others, all the analysed interpretations are phonetically proficient and fully intelligible. In three of the interpreters, interesting regularities concerning pronunciation fluctuations were discovered.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background for the study
    • 2.1Interpreting into B
    • 2.2Phonetic divergences from native norms
    • 2.3(Non-)native accent in interpreters
  • 3.The current study
    • 3.1Materials
    • 3.2Analysis procedures
    • 3.3Analysis
      • 3.3.1Anita
      • 3.3.2Daria
      • 3.3.3Ewa
      • 3.3.4Filip
      • 3.3.5Gustaw
      • 3.3.6Jerzy
      • 3.3.7Ryszard
      • 3.3.8Zygmunt
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • References
References (77)
References
AIIC Regulation Governing Admission and Language Classification. 2018. Accessed 26 April 2023. [URL] (26.04.2023).
Abur, Defne, Megan K. MacPherson, and Cara A. Stepp. 2017. “Acoustic Measures of Voice and Physiological Measures of Autonomic Arousal during Speech as a Function of Cognitive Load.” Journal of Voice 311: 504–509.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Albl-Mikasa, Michaela. 2010. “Global English and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Implications for the Interpreting Profession.” Trans-kom 3(2): 126–148.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson-Hsieh, Janet, Ruth Johnson, and Kenneth Koehler. 1992. The Relationship Between Native Speaker Judgements of Non-native Pronunciation and Deviance in Segmentals, Prosody and Syllable Structure.” Language Learning 421: 529–555. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartłomiejczyk, Magdalena. 2015. “Directionality.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies, edited by Franz Pöchhacker. 108–110. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “The Interpreter’s Visibility in the European Parliament.” Interpreting 19(2): 159–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartłomiejczyk, Magdalena, and Katarzyna Stachowiak-Szymczak. 2022. “Modes of Conference Interpreting: Simultaneous and Consecutive.” In The Routledge Handbook of Conference Interpreting, edited by Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Elisabet Tiselius, 19–33. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartłomiejczyk, Magdalena, Ewa Gumul, and Danijel Koržinek. 2022. “EP-Poland: Building a Bilingual Parallel Corpus for Interpreting Research.” GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies 22(1): 110–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartłomiejczyk, Magdalena, and Gumul, Ewa. 2024. “Disfluencies and Directionality in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Corpus Study Comparing Into-B and Into-A Interpretations from the European Parliament”. Translation & Interpreting 16(1): 38–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baese-Berk, Melissa M., Drew J. McLaughlin, and Kevin B. McGowan. 2020. “Perception of Non-native Speech.” Language and Linguistic Compass 14(7): e12375. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baese-Berk, Melissa M., and Arthur G. Samuel. 2016. “Listeners Beware: Speech Production May Be Bad for Learning Speech Sounds.” Journal of Memory and Language 891: 23–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bergeron, Annie and Pavel Trofimovich. 2017. “Linguistic Dimensions of Accentedness and Comprehensibility: Exploring Task and Listener Effects in Second Language French.” Foreign Language Annals 50(3): 547–566. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Best, Catherine T., and Michael T. Tyler. 2007. “Non-native and Second-language Speech Perception: Commonalities and Complementarities.” In Second Language Speech Learning: The Role of Language Experience in Speech Perception and Production, edited by Murray J. Munro, and Bohn Ocke-Schwen, 13–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul. 2001. “Praat, a System for Doing Phonetics by Computer.” Glot International 101: 341–345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and David J. M. Weenink. 2021. Accessed 26 April 2023. “Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer. Version 6.1.4.” [Computer programme] [URL]
Carlson, Holly K., and Monica A. McHenry. 2006. “Effect of Accent and Dialect on Employability.” Journal of Employment Counselling 43(2): 70–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caruso, Anthony J., Wojtek J. Chodzko-Zajko, Debra A. Bidinger, and Ronald K. Sommers. 1994. “Adults Who Stutter: Responses to Cognitive Stress.” Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 371: 746–754. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chan, Venus. 2021. “Factors Influencing Intelligibility and Comprehensibility: A Critical Review of Research on Second Language English Speakers.” Journal of English Learner Education 12(1): Article 6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Sijia. 2017. “The Construct of Cognitive Load in Interpreting and its Measurement.” Perspectives 25(4): 640–657. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collard, Camille, and Bart Defrancq, Bart. 2020. “Disfluencies in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Corpus-based Study with Special Reference to Sex.” In New Empirical Perspectives on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Lore Vandevoorde, Joke Daems, and Bart Defrancq, 254–299. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crowther, Dustin, Pavel Trofimovich, Kazuya Saito, and Talia Isaacs. 2015. “Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Backgroound.” TESOL Quarterly 49(4): 814–837. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déjéan le Feal, Karla. 2003. “Impact of the International Status of the Interpreting Student’s Mother Tongues on Training.” Forum 1(1): 53–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derwing, Tracey M., and Murray J. Munro. 1997. “Accent, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility: Evidence from Four L1s.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 19(1): 1–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derwing, Tracey M., Marian J. Rossiter, Murray J. Munro, and Ron I. Thomson. 2004. “Second Language Fluency: Judgments on Different Tasks.” Language Learning 54(4): 655–679. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derwing, Tracey M., and Murray J. Munro. 2009. “Comprehensibility as a Factor in Listener Interaction Preferences: Implications for the Workplace.” Canadian Modern Language Review 66(2): 181–202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derwing, Tracey M., Murray J. Munro, and Ron I. Thomson. 2008. “A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners’ Fluency and Comprehensibility Development.” Applied Linguistics 291: 359–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, James Emil. 1995. “Second Language Speech Learning Theory, Findings and Problems.” In Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross-language Research, edited by Winifred Strange, 233–277. Baltimore: York Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flerov, Cyril, and Michael Jacobs. 2016. Improving the Interpreter’s Voice. Lulu Publishing Services.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frumkin, Lara. 2007. “Influences of Accent and Ethnic Background on Perceptions of Eyewitness Testimony.” Psychology, Crime and Law 13(3): 317–331. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garzone, Giuliana Elena. 2003. “Reliability of Quality Criteria Evaluation in Survey Research.” In La Evaluación de la Calidad en Interpretación: Investigación, eduted by Ángela Collados Aís, M. Manuela Fernández Sanchez, and Daniel Gile, 23–30. Granada: Comares.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gebhard, Silke. 2001. Accessed 28 April 2023. “Building Europe — or Back to Babel?” [URL]
Graves, Alison. 2013. “Interpreter Training in the European Parliament.” Gramma 191: 143–149.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graves, Alison, Marina Pascual Olaguíbel, and Cathy Pearson. 2022. “Conference Interpreting in the European Union Institutions.” In The Routledge Handbook of Conference Interpreting, edited by Michaela Albl-Mikasa, and Elisabet Tiselius, 104–114. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Sandra, Nigel Bond, Jeanna Sutton. 2011. “Interpreting Accent in the Courtroom.” Target 23(1): 48–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huttunen, Kerttu, Heikki Keränen, and E. Vayrynen. 2011. “Effect of Cognitive Load on Speech Prosody in Aviation: Evidence from Military Simulator Flights.” Apple Ergon 421: 348–357. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iglesias Fernándes, Emilia. 2013. “Unpacking Delivery Criteria in Interpreting Quality Assessment.” In Assessment Issues in Language Translation and Interpreting, edited by Dina Tsagari, and Roelof van Deemeter, 51–66. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kang, Okim, Donald Rubin, and Lucy Pickering. 2010. “Suprasegmental Measures of Accentedness and Judgements of Language Learner Proficiency in Oral English.” Modern Language Journal 941: 554–566. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kennedy, Sara, and Pavel Trofimovich. 2008. “Intelligibility, Comprehensibility, and Accentedness of L2 Speech.” The Canadian Modern Language Review 64(3): 459–489. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kent, Stephanie Jo. 2014. Interpreting. Doctoral Thesis, University of Massachusetts.
Kormos, Judit, and Mariann Dénes. 2004. “Exploring Measures and Perceptions of Fluency in the Speech of Second Language Learners.” System 321: 145–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levi, Susannah V., Stephen J. Winters, and David B. Pisoni. 2007. “Speaker-independent Factors Affecting the Perception of Foreign Accent in a Second Language.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 1211: 2327–2338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindemann, Stephanie. 2002. “Listening with an Attitude: A Model of Native-speaker Comprehension of Non-native Speakers in the United States.” Language in Society 31(3): 419–441. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lively, Scott E., David B. Pisoni, David, B., W. Van Summers, and Robert Bernacki. 1993. “Effects of Cognitive Workload on Speech Production: Acoustic Analyses and Perceptual Consequences.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 931: 2962–2973. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacPherson, Megan K., Defne Abur, and Cara E. Stepp. 2017. “Acoustic Measures of Voice and Physiological Measures of Autonomic Arousal during Speech as a Function of Cognitive Load.” Journal of Voice 31(4): 504.E1–504.E9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mendoza, Elvira, and Gloria Caraballo. 1998. “Acoustic Analysis of Induced Vocal Stress by Means of Cognitive Workload Tasks.” Journal of Voice 121: 263–273. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munro, Murray J., Tracey M. Derwing, and Clifford S. Burgess. 2010. “Detection of Nonnative Speaker Status from Content-masked Speech.” Speech Communication 521: 626–637. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munro, Murray J., Tracey M. Derwing, and Susan L. Morton. 2006. “The Mutual Intelligibility of L2 Speech.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28(1): 111–131. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piske, Thorsten, Ian R. A. MacKay, and James Emil Flege. 2001. “Factors Affecting Degree of Foreign Accent in an L2: A Review.” Journal of Phonetics 291: 191–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Porzuczek, Andrzej, Arkadiusz Rojczyk, Janusz Arabski. 2016. Praktyczny Kurs Wymowy Angielskiej dla Polaków [A Practical English Pronunciation Course for Poles]. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Porzuczek, Andrzej, and Arkadiusz Rojczyk. 2017. “English Word Stress in Polish Learners’ Speech Production and Metacompetence.” Research in Language 15(4): 312–323. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pradas Macías, Macarena. 2006. “Probing Quality Criteria in Simultaneous Interpreting.” Interpreting 8(1): 25–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Purnell, Thomas, William Idsardi, and John Baugh. 1999. “Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18(1): 10–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rojczyk, Arkadiusz, and Andrzej Porzuczek. 2012. “Selected Aspects in the Acquisition of English Phonology by Polish Learners — Segments and Prosody.” In Readings in Second Language Acquisition, edited by Danuta Gabryś-Barker, 93–120. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “EFL Pronunciation Teaching to Polish English Studies Majors.” In Challenges of Foreign Language Instruction in the University Context, edited by Danuta Gabryś-Barker, 9–25. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, Geoffrey, Anna Balas, and Arkadiusz Rojczyk. 2015. “Phonological Factors Affecting L1 Phonetic Realization of Proficient Polish Users of English.” Research in Language 13(2): 181–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seleskovitch, Danica. 1968. English translation 1978. Interpreting for International Conferences: Problems of Language and Communication. Washington, D.C., Pen and Booth.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Larry E., and Cecil L. Nelson. 1985. “International Intelligibility of English: Directions and Resources.” World Englishes 4(3): 333–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sobkowiak, Włodzimierz. 2001. English Phonetics for Poles. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stachowiak-Szymczak, Katarzyna. 2019. Phonology Matters in Interpreting. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Voice Onset Time and Rhythm Transfer in Simultaneous Interpreting.” In Multilingual Mediated Communication and Cognition, edited by Ricardo Muñoz Marin, and Sandra L. Halverson, 69–89. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stévaux, Elisabeth. 2011. “Akzent [Accent].” In Qualitätsparameter beim Simultandolmetschen: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven [Quality parameters in simultaneous interpreting: interdisciplinary perspectives], edited by Ángela Collados Aís, Emilia Iglesias Fernándes, E. Macarena Pradas Macías, and Elisabeth Stévaux, 141–172. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tergujeff, Elina. 2021. “Second Language Comprehensibility and Accentedness across Oral Proficiency Levels: A Comparison of Two L1s.” System 1001: 102567. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomson, Ron I. 2015. “Fluency.” In The Handbook of English Pronunciation, edited by Marnie Reed and John M. Levis, 209–226. Malden MA: John Wiley and Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trofimovich, Pavel, and Wendy Baker. 2006. “Learning Second-language Suprasegmentals. Effect of L2 Experience on Prosody and Fluency Characteristics of L2 Speech.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 281: 1–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trofimovich, Pavel, and Talia Isaacs. 2012. “Disentangling Accent from Comprehensibility.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15(4): 905–916. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Engen, Kristin J., and Jonathan E. Peelle. 2014. “Listening Effort and Accented Speech.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8(577): 1–4. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Lierde, Kristiane, S. Van Heule, Sophia De Ley, Erik Mertens, and Sofie Claeys. 2008. “Effect of Psychological Stress on Female Voice Quality: A Multiparameter Approach.” Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 421: 348–357.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vaughn, Charlotte, Melissa Baese-Berk, and Kaori Idemaru. 2019. “Re-examining Phonetic Variability in Native and Non-native Speech.” Phonetica 761: 327–358. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wade, Travis, Allard Jongman, and Joan A. Sereno. 2007. “Effects of Acoustic Variability in the Perceptual Learning of Non-native-accented Speech Sounds.” Phonetica 641: 122–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waniek-Klimczak, Ewa. 2005. Temporal Parameters in Second Language Speech. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, Laurence, and Sven L. Mattys. 2007. “Calibrating Rhythm: First Language and Second Language Studies.” Journal of Phonetics 351: 501–522. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yenkimaleki, Mahmood, and Vincent J. van Heuven. 2017. “The Effect of Teaching Prosody Awareness on Interpreting Performance: An Experimental Study of Consecutive Interpreting from English into Farsi.” Perspectives 26(1): 84–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue