Professional Interpreters’ Notes in Persian-English Consecutive Interpreting On the Choice of Form and Language

Abstract

Truly, note-taking plays a pivotal role in consecutive interpreting, particularly where methodical note-taking is used. In the absence of Iranian research in this respect, the present study investigated the process of note-taking in Persian-English consecutive interpreting in order to clarify how exactly the notes are taken by the professional interpreters and how much they are familiar with note-taking and the related concepts. For the purpose of this paper, five Iranian interpreters were selected meticulously and by means of observation and phone interview, the required data were collected. Next, the notes taken by the professional interpreters were reviewed and classified based on several factors such as the use of abbreviations and symbols and the source or target language preference; also, the replies given via the phone interview were transcribed and codified in order to answer the research questions. The research findings showed that the majority of Iranian professional interpreters had passed no course regarding to the note-taking skill in general and they rarely used symbols in their notes and wrote words in letters, mostly in full forms in target language in particular. It implies that they took notes based on their experiences irregularly rather than the rules and principles. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a note-taking guideline especially in Persian-English consecutive interpreting; also, considering the effect of note-taking on their performances, Iranian interpreters should be more familiar with the academic aspect of this skill.