Overcoming Performance Anxiety during Consecutive Interpretation

Abstract

This paper aims to examine performance anxiety among students of interpretation when doing consecutive interpretation and to determine whether being aware of their feelings of anxiety can help them overcome them. While simultaneous interpretation is used mainly for multilingual conferences, consecutive interpretation is often used in bilateral markets and interpreters must face their audience and become the speaker when giving the consecutive interpretation. The difficulties of public speaking need to be overcome and controlled in order to be able to give a competent interpretation. This study focused on first year students who had just started their interpretation studies and therefore had not had much experience in public speaking. A questionnaire focusing on performance anxiety was conducted at the beginning of the semester, followed by another one towards the end of the semester. Second year students were also used as a comparison base. Based on the questionnaire, in-depth individualized feedback was given to each student after the interpretation to determine whether such feedback helped alleviate the feelings of anxiety. For the most part, the students felt that the individualized sessions helped mentally.