SKILLS RETENTION IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING FROM/INTO ENGLISH: EVIDENCE FROM FLUENCY IN THE TASK PERFORMED BY INTERPRETER GRADUATES

Abstract

The article involved considerations of skills retention in simultaneous interpreting from/into English performed by interpreter graduates who did not practice simultaneous interpreting after their graduation. The article examined whether or not a two year hiatus in their interpreting career had an impact upon the interpreter graduates’ fluency in interpretations from and into English. Four interpreter graduates were matched with four professional interpreters, four advanced students of interpreting and four beginner students of interpreting who performed one simultaneous interpretation from English into Ukrainian and one simultaneous interpretation from Ukrainian into English respectively. The output data were quantitatively analysed in software programs PRAAT and MatLab. Results of the data analysis indicated that fluency measures identified in the interpreter graduates’ output were similar to those of the professional interpreters.