Examining Disfluencies in Translation Students: The Effects of Anxiety on English-Persian Consecutive Interpreting

Ghorbani Payborj, Maedeh; Ferdowsi, Sima

doi:10.22077/ali.2025.9244.1134

Examining Disfluencies in Translation Students: The Effects of Anxiety on English-Persian Consecutive Interpreting

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Maedeh Ghorbani payborj ¹

Sima Ferdowsi ²

¹ M.A. in Translation Studies, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran

² Assistant professor of Translation Studies, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran

10.22077/ali.2025.9244.1134

Abstract

Given the cognitive demands of consecutive interpreting and the psychological pressures faced by novice interpreters, the present quantitative study aims to identify the most frequently occurring disfluencies in the output of English-Persian interpreter trainees and to explore how interpreting anxiety influences different types of disfluencies. A total of 23 translation trainee students were selected based on convenience sampling. Data were gathered through the Interpreting Classroom Anxiety Scale and a CI exam. After classifying the disfluencies =, it was revealed that hesitation, silent pauses, and prolongation are the predominant disfluency features. These types of disfluencies indicate cognitive overload and failures in language planning. Statistical analyses showed a significant correlation between high levels of anxiety and an increased frequency of these disfluencies; however, no meaningful relationship was found between interpreting anxiety and disfluency in general. This suggests that anxiety adversely affects fluency and overall interpreting performance. This study highlights the critical role of psychological factors, particularly anxiety, in interpreter performance and training. The findings call for the inclusion of anxiety-reduction techniques in interpreter education and suggest future research on experience-based disfluency patterns and Persian-specific disfluency classification.

Keywords

Consecutive interpreting

Disfluency

Interpreting anxiety

Trainee interpreters

Alexieva, B. (1997). A typology of interpreter-mediated events. The Translator, 3(2), 153-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.1997.10798996

Ambrose, N. G., & Yairi, E. (1999). Normative disfluency data for early childhood stuttering. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42(4), 895-909. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429030376

Andrade, M., & Williams, K. (2009). Foreign language learning anxiety in Japanese EFL university classes: Physical, emotional, expressive, and verbal reactions. Sophia Junior College Faculty Journal, 29(1), 1-24. https://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/v5n22008/williams.pdf

Arnaiz, P., & Pérez-Luzardo, J. (2014). Anxiety in Spanish EFL university lessons: Causes, responsibility attribution and coping. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 49(1), 57-76. https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2014-0003

Bakti, M. (2009). Speech disfluencies in simultaneous interpretation. In D. De Crom (Ed.), Selected papers of the CETRA research seminar in translation studies 2008. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html

Bakti, M. (2019). Error type disfluencies in consecutively interpreted and spontaneous monolingual Hungarian speech. In R. L. Rose & R. Eklund (Eds.), Proceedings of DiSS (pp. 71-74). ELTE Eötvös Loránd University. https://doi.org/10.21862/diss-09-019-bakti

Bortfeld, H., Leon, S. D., Bloom, J. E., Schober, M. F., & Brennan, S. E. (2001). Disfluency rates in conversation: Effects of age, relationship, topic, role, and gender. Language and speech, 44(2), 123-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309010440020101

Cardoen, H. (2012). The effect of note-taking on target-text fluency. In G. González Núñez, Y. Khaled, & T. Voinova (Eds.), Translating and interpreting as a social practice (pp. 123-145). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/20724428/The_Effect_of_Note_taking_on_Target_text_Fluency

Chiang, Y. N. (2006). Connecting two anxiety constructs: An interdisciplinary study of foreign language anxiety and interpretation anxiety [Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/2695

Cho, J., & Roger, P. (2010). Improving Interpreting Performance through Theatrical Training. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 4(2), 151–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2010.10798802

Cooper, C., Davis, R., & Tung, R. (1982). Interpreting stress: Sources of job stress among conference interpreters. Multilingua, 1(2), 97-108. https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.1982.1.2.97

Craig, A. (1990). An investigation into the relationship between anxiety and stuttering. Journal of speech and hearing disorders, 55(2), 290-294. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshd.5502.290

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://spada.uns.ac.id/pluginfile.php/510378/mod_resource/content/1/creswell.pdf

Diemand-Yauman, C., Oppenheimer, D. M., & Vaughan, E. B. (2011). Fortune favors the: Effects of disfluency on educational outcomes. Cognition, 118(1), 111-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.09.012

Gile, D. (1995). Regards sur la recherche en interprétation de conférence. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.1.1.10ilg

Gósy, M. (2001). The double function of disfluency phenomena in spontaneous speech. In ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop (ITRW) on Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech (pp. 57-60). https://www.isca-archive.org/diss_2001/gosy01_diss.pdf

Gósy, M. (2003). Co-occurrences and frequency of disfluencies in Hungarian spontaneous speech. Govor, 20(1-2), 79-97. https://hrcak.srce.hr/179334

Gósy, M. (2007). Disfluencies and self-monitoring. Govor, 24 (2), 91-110. https://hrcak.srce.hr/173610

Han, C., Chen, S., Fu, R., & Fan, Q. (2020). Modeling the relationship between utterance fluency and raters’ perceived fluency of consecutive interpreting. Interpreting, 22(2), 211-237. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00040.han

Kurz, I. (2003). Physiological stress during simultaneous interpreting: A comparison of experts and novices. The Interpreters' Newsletter,12, 51-68. http://hdl.handle.net/10077/10166

Lane, H., & Tranel, B. (1971). The Lombard sign and the role of hearing in speech. Journal of speech and hearing research, 14(4), 677-709. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.1404.677

Levelt, W. J. (1983). Monitoring and self-repair in speech. Cognition, 14(1), 41-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(83)90026-4

Lickley, R. J. (2015). Fluency and disfluency. In M. Redford (Ed.), The handbook of speech production (pp. 445-474). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584156.ch20

MacIntyre, P. D., & Noels, K. A. (1996). Using social‐psychological variables to predict the use of language learning strategies. Foreign language annals, 29(3), 373-386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb01249.x

Mead, P. (2002). Exploring hesitation in consecutive interpreting: An empirical study. In G. Garzone and M. Vizzi (Eds.), Interpreting in the 21st century: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 73-82). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.43.08mea

Messenger, M., Onslow, M., Packman, A., & Menzies, R. (2004). Social anxiety in stuttering: measuring negative social expectancies. Journal of fluency disorders, 29(3), 201-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2004.06.002

Menzies, R. G., Onslow, M., & Packman, A. (1999). Anxiety and stuttering: Exploring a complex relationship. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 8(1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360.0801.03

Moser-Mercer, B. (1985). Screening potential interpreters. Meta, 30 (1): 97–100. https://doi.org/10.7202/003631ar

Moser-Mercer, B., Künzli, A., & Korac, M. (1998). Prolonged turns in interpreting: Effects on quality, physiological and psychological stress (Pilot study). Interpreting, 3(1), 47-64. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.3.1.03mos

Mozafar Zangeneh, A., Pooladi, S., Mahmoodi Bakhtiari, B., & Haghani, H. (2012). Investigation of nonfluency frequency on words and nonwords in Persian speaking adults who stutter. Journal of Research in Rehabilitation Sciences, 8(5), 905-912. https://doi.org/10.22122/JRRS.V8I5.529

Penet, J. C., & Fernandez-Parra, M. (2023). Dealing with students’ emotions: Exploring trait EI theory in translator education. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 17(3), 332-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2023.2237327

Riccardi, A., Zecchin, S., & Marinuzzi, G. (1998). Interpretation and stress. The Interpreters' Newsletter, 8, 93-106. http://hdl.handle.net/10077/2493

Sakhai, F., Darouie, A., Anderson, J. D., Dastjerdi-Kazemi, M., Golmohammadi, G., & Bakhshi, E. (2021). A comparison of the performance of Persian speaking children who do and do not stutter on three nonwords repetition tasks. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 67, 105825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2020.105825

Salehpoor, A., Latifi, Z., & Tohidast, S. A. (2020). Evaluating parents' reactions to Children's stuttering using a Persian version of reaction to Speech Disfluency Scale. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 134, 110076. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760100

Schachter, S., Christenfeld, N., Ravina, B., & Bilous, F. (1991). Speech disfluency and the structure of knowledge. Journal of personality and social psychology, 60(3), 362-367. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.362

Setton, R. & Dawrant, A. (2016a). Conference interpreting: A complete course. John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.120

Setton, R. & Dawrant, A. (2016b). Conference interpreting: A trainer's guide. John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.121

Shen, M., & Liang, J. (2021). Self-repair in consecutive interpreting: Similarities and differences between professional interpreters and student interpreters. Perspectives, 29(5), 761-777. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1701052

Summers, W. V., Pisoni, D. B., Bernacki, R. H., Pedlow, R. I., & Stokes, M. A. (1988). Effects of noise on speech production: Acoustic and perceptual analyses. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 84(3), 917-928. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.396660

Tóth, A. (2011). Speech disfluencies in simultaneous interpreting: A mirror on cognitive processes. SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation, 5(2), 23-31. http://www.skase.sk/Volumes/JTI06/pdf_doc/03.pdf

Vahab, M., Zandiyan, A., Falahi, M. H., & Howell, P. (2013). Lexical category influences in Persian children who stutter. Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 27(12), 862-873. https://doi.org/10.3109/02699206.2013.809792

Yenkimaleki, M., Van Heuven, V. J., & Hosseini, M. (2022). The effect of fluency strategy training on interpreter trainees’ speech fluency: Does content familiarity matter? Speech Communication, 146, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2022.11.002

Yenkimaleki, M., & Van Heuven, V. J. (2024a). The effect of fluency training on interpreter trainees’ speech fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Revista Española De Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.22044.yen

Yenkimaleki, M., & van Heuven, V. J. (2024b). Perception of ‘broad’ and ‘narrow’ fluency in the EFL performance of student interpreters. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 18 (3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.26465

Yin, K. (2011). Disfluencies in Consecutive Interpreting among Undergraduates in the Language Lab Environment in the final version. In H. H. Gao & M. Dong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Pacific Asia conference on language, information and computation (pp. 459-466). Institute of Digital Enhancement of Cognitive Processing, Waseda University. https://aclanthology.org/Y11-1048

Zhang, W., & Song, Z. (2019). The effect of self-repair on judged quality of consecutive interpreting: Attending to content, form and delivery. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 11(1), 3. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/ijie/vol11/iss1/3

Zhao, N. (2022). Speech Disfluencies in Consecutive Interpreting by Student Interpreters: The Role of Language Proficiency, Working Memory, and Anxiety. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 881778. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.881778

Zhao, N., & Dong, Y. P. (2013). A validating study using many-facet Rasch analysis on a consecutive interpreting. Frontiers, 7, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1047389

Zhao, N., Cai, Z. G., & Dong, Y. (2023). Speech errors in consecutive interpreting: Effects of language proficiency, working memory, and anxiety. Plos one, 18(10), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292718