Strategies and errors in simultaneous interpreting: A student oriented experiment in English-Turkish language pair

The objective of this thesis is to analyze and describe the strategies and errors in simultaneous interpreting performances of the students in English and Turkish language pair and to explore the relationship between the effect of directionality and omissions, additions, substitutions and errors in students' performances. A small-scale experimental study was conducted with 10 interpreting students. A control group of 4 professionals was added to the study in order to benchmark the results of the students. The study relies on triangulation of multiple sources of data (i.e. recordings of the interpreting sessions, pre- and post- experiment surveys, and retrospective interviews). As a result, the study has revealed that all of the student and professional participants resort to omissions, additions, substitutions and make errors. The most frequently observed strategy that the student participants resorted during their interpreting performances was omissions. This was followed by errors, substitutions, and additions. With respect to the effect of directionality, it was observed that the students make significantly more comprehension/production omissions, delay omissions, mild phrasing changes and substantial phrasing changes while interpreting from Turkish into English compared to the opposite direction. In the light of the discussion within the context of the Effort Models, this study demonstrates that the Production Effort requires less cognitive load for the students while interpreting into L1. However, the results of the t-test and the self-assesments of the professional interpreters indicate that interpreting direction does not have an effect on the omissions, additions, substitutions and errors of the professional interpreters. The present study sets a ground basis for further research and paves the way for more detailed comparisons of interpreting students and professionals with regards to directionality and abovementioned strategies and errors. Keywords: Interpreting, Simultaneous Interpreting, Strategy Use in Simultaneous Interpreting, Omissions, Additions, Substitutions, Errors, Directionality