Is a Distant Language Harder to Interpret? Evidence from a Comparative Empirical Study

Abstract

Whether language distance is a built-in influencing factor for interpreting performance has rarely been empirically investigated. The current research aimed to examine the language distance effect in consecutive interpreting with two experiments. Experiment 1 involved 45 Chinese-English bilinguals and Experiment 2 recruited 46 German-English bilinguals. Both experiments required participants to interpret 10 groups of English sentences into their first languages respectively. Demographic and linguistic background data such as participants’ age and age of second language acquisition were collected, and were analyzed together with their interpreting performance. Statistical analyses revealed that Chinese-English bilinguals spent significantly longer time learning English, but fared significantly worse than German-English bilinguals in both English proficiency test and consecutive interpreting task, that language distance is a significant predictor for L2 proficiency and interpreting performance. However, multiple linear regression model showed that when L2 proficiency is taken into account, the language distance factor becomes insignificant. We concluded that language distance mainly exerts influence on L2 proficiency, and it is the latter that plays a pivotal role in influencing interpreting performance. Future studies are advised to expand the current paradigm to more groups of participants and language pairs.