Article published In: Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 11:2 (2016) ► pp.177–201
“The committee in my head”
Examining self-talk of American Sign Language-English interpreters
Published online: 4 August 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.11.2.03mad
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.11.2.03mad
Anecdotally, interpreters report experiencing self-talk before, during, and after assignments; however, this inner dialogue has neither been confirmed nor described in the literature. Prior studies suggest that guided self-talk can boost performance in learning and human performance activities. It follows that self-talk may also affect interpreting performance, either positively or negatively. In this study, reports of self-talk of American Sign Language-English interpreters were examined for the following characteristics: frequency, valence, overtness, self-determination, motivation, and function. Participants (N = 445) responded to online survey questions about the experience of self-talk in their interpreting work. For frequency, more than half of the respondents reported experiencing self-talk between 1–5 times during their work. Regarding valence, 62% of respondents reported a mix of positive and negative self-talk about their performance. For overtness, 62% reported talking (or signing) aloud in isolated settings about their work experiences. Regarding self-determination, nearly half of the respondents (48%) reported self-talk as a mix of conscious and unconscious thoughts. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents reported using self-talk for motivation, but 65% reported their self-talk was actually de-motivational at times. The most frequently reported function of self-talk was to improve interpreting. The findings offer a rich description of self-talk by American Sign Language-English interpreters. We suggest that more information about self-talk during interpretation may lead to greater self-awareness of the role of this phenomenon in working practitioners, as well as offer insights for the instruction of student interpreters.
References (46)
Ala-Antti, Saana. 2003. Preparing for an Interpreting Assignment – An Element of an Interpreter’s Expertise. Pro graduate thesis. University of Tampere, Finland.
Bunker, Linda, Jean Williams, and Nate Zinsser. 1993. “Cognitive Techniques for Improving Performance and Building Confidence.” In Applied Sports Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance (2nd ed.), ed. by Jean Williams, 225–242. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Chohan, Sukhdeep Kaur. 2010. “Whispering Selves and Reflective Transformations in the Internal Dialogue of Teachers and Students.” Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice 161: 10–28.
Christoffels, Ingrid, and Annette de Groot. 2005. “Simultaneous Interpreting: A Cognitive Perspective.” In Handbook of Bilingualism: A Psycholinguistic Approach, ed. by Judith Kroll and Annette de Groot, 454–479. New York: Oxford University Press.
Diaz, Rafael, M., and Laura E. Berk (eds.) 2014. Private Speech: From Social Interaction to Self-regulation. New York: Psychology Press.
Galaz, Stephanie Diaz. 2011. “The Effect of Previous Preparation in Simultaneous Interpreting: Preliminary Results.” Across Languages and Cultures 12 (2): 173–191.
Gile, Daniel. 2009. Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training (Revised Edition). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hackfort, Dieter, and Peter Schwenkmezger. 1993. “Anxiety.” In Handbook of Research on Sport Psychology, ed. by Robert N. Singer, Milledge Murphey, and L. Keith Tennant, 328–364. New York: Macmillan.
Hanton, Sheldon, and Graham Jones. 1999. “The Effects of a Multimodal Intervention Program on Performers: Training the Butterflies to Fly in Formation.” The Sport Psychologist 13 (1): 22–41.
Hardy, James, Kimberley Gammage, and Craig Hall. 2001. “A Description of Athlete Self-talk.” The Sport Psychologist 151: 306–318.
Hardy, James, Craig R. Hall, and Lew Hardy. 2004. “A Note on Athletes’ Use of Self-talk.” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 161: 251–257.
Hardy, James. 2006. “Speaking Clearly: A Critical Review of the Self-talk Literature.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise 7 (1): 81–97.
Harvey, Douglas, Judy van Raalte, and Britton Brewer. 2002. “Relationship Between Self-talk and Golf Performance.” International Sports Journal 61: 84–91.
Hatzigeorgiadis, Antonis, Yiannis Theodorkis, and Nikos Zourbanos. 2004. “Self-talk in the Swimming Pool: The Effects of Self-talk on Thought Content and Performance on Water-polo Tasks.” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 161: 138–150.
Hayes, Steven C., Irwin Rosenfarb, Edekgard Wulfert, Edwin D. Munt, Zamir Korn, and Robert D. Zettle. 1985. “Self-reinforcement: An Artifact of Social Standard Setting?” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 181: 201–214.
Highlen, Pamela S., and Bonnie B. Bennett. 1983. “Elite Divers and Wrestlers: A Comparison between Open- and Closed-skill Athletes.” Journal of Sport Psychology 51: 290–409.
Kyllo, L. Blaine, and Daniel M. Landers. 1995. “Goal Setting in Sport and Exercise: A Research Synthesis to Resolve the Controversy.” Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 171: 117–137.
Liu, Minhua. 2008. “How do Experts Interpret? Implications from Research in Interpreting Studies and Cognitive Science.” In Efforts and Models in Interpreting and Translation Studies, ed. by Gyde Hansen, Andrew Chesterman, and Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast, 159–178. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mahoney, Michael J., and Marshall Avener. 1977. “Psychology of the Elite Athlete: An Exploratory Study.” Cognitive Therapy and Research 61: 225–342.
Mitchell, Rosamond, Florence Myles, and Emma Marsden. 2013. Second Language Learning Theories (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Moser-Mercer, Barbara, Uli H. Frauenfelder, Beatriz Casado, and Alexander Künzli. 1997. “Searching to Define Expertise in Interpreting.” In Language Processing and Simultaneous Interpreting, ed. by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova and Kenneth Hyltenstam, 107–132. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Namy, Claude. 1978. “Reflections on the Training of Simultaneous Interpreters: A Metalinguistic Approach.” Language Interpretation and Communication: NATO Conference Series 61: 25–33.
Napier, Jemina. 2003. “A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Occurrence and Types of Omissions Produced by Australian Sign Language-English Interpreters.” In From Topic Boundaries to Omission, ed. by Melanie Metzger, Steven Collins, Valerie Dively, and Risa Shaw, 99–153. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Napier, Jemina, and Roz Barker. 2004. “Sign Language Interpreting: The Relationship Between Metalinguistic Awareness and the Production of Interpreting Omissions.” Sign Language Studies 4 (4): 369–393.
Nicodemus, Brenda, Laurie Swabey, and Marty M. Taylor. 2014. “Preparation Strategies Used by American Sign Language-English Interpreters to Render President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address.” The Interpreters’ Newsletter 191: 27–44.
Oliver, Emily, David Markland, and James Hardy. 2010. “Interpretation of Self-talk and Post-lecture Affective States of Higher Education Students: A Self-determination Theory Perspective.” British Journal of Educational Psychology 801: 307–323.
Peters, Heather J., and Jean M. Williams. 2003. “The Relationship between Athletes’ Negative and Positive Self-talk, Goal Achievement, and Perceived Performance.” Poster session presented at the
Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology
, Philadelphia, PA.
Peters, Heather J., and Jean. M. Williams. 2006. “Moving Cultural Background to the Foreground: An Investigation of Self-talk, Performance, and Persistence Following Feedback.” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 18 (3): 240–253.
Puchalska-Wasyl, Małgorzata. 2014. “Self-talk: Conversations with Oneself? On the Types of Internal Interlocutors.” The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied 1491: 443–460.
Puchalska-Wasyl, Małgorzata, Elzbieta Chmielnicka-Kuter, and Piotr Oleś. 2008. “From Internal Interlocutors to Psychological Functions of Dialogical Activity.” Journal of Constructivist Psychology 211: 239–269.
Rothschild, Jennifer. 2007. Self Talk, Soul Talk: What to Say When You Talk to Yourself. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers.
Sadler, Georgia, Lee Hau-Chen, Lim Rod, and Judith Fullerton. 2010. “Recruitment of Hard-to-reach Population Subgroups Via Adaptions of the Snowball Sampling Strategy.” Nursing & Health Sciences 12 (3): 369–374.
Sorabji, Richard. 2006. Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Schwenke, Tomina. 2012. “Sign Language Interpreters and Burnout.” Journal of Interpretation 20 (1): 31–54.
Schwenke, Tomina, Jeffrey Ashby, and Phillip Gnilka. 2014. “Sign Language Interpreters and Burnout: The Effects of Perfectionism, Perceived Stress, and Coping Resources.” Interpreting 16 (2): 209–232.
Stewart, David A., Jerome D. Schein, and Brenda E. Cartwright. 2003. Sign Language Interpreting: Exploring its Art and Science (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Theodorakis, Yannis, Robert Weinberg, Petros Natsis, Irini Douma, and Panagiotis Kazakas, 2000. “The Effects of Motivational and Instructional Self-talk on Improving Motor Performance.” The Sport Psychologist 141: 253–271.
Tomlinson, Brian. 2001. “The Inner Voice: A Critical Factor in L2 Learning.” Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching 61: 26–33.
Tunmer, William E., and Michael L. Herriman. 1984. “The Development of Metalinguistic Awareness: A Conceptual Overview.” Metalinguistic Awareness in Children 151: 12–35.
Van Raalte, Judy L., Britton W. Brewer, Patricia M. Rivera, and Albert J. Petitpas. 1994. “The Relationship Between Observable Self-talk and Competitive Junior Tennis Players’ Match Performance.” Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 161: 400–415.