INTERPRETING PREPARATION

Interpreting, basically, is a process of transferring the meaning of the source language into the receptor language in a verbal way. 
This process may only occur when someone acts as an interpreter to transfer the meaning of a message directly from the mouth of a speaker, from a tape player, from a radio, from a CD/VCD player, from a television, or from other sources of verbal messages in a source language to a listener or an audience of a receptor language. 

In order to perform such a challenging job professionally and responsibly, a person has to have an adequate understanding of the source language and an adequate command of the receptor language in their linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. Such capabilities can be acquired consciously and unconsciously through a process of learning, training, and experiencing in a formal learning-teaching classroom, in a set-up situation, and in a real-life situation. In this case, the students have to know the Discourse Genre of the talk.

 
Discourse Genre

One of the first things the students have to know is how to identify the discourse genre of the talk to be interpreted. There are seven basic contrasting genres that will be discussed: narrative, procedural, expository, hortatory, descriptive, repartee, and dialogue. The differences between these genres can be best seen by thinking of the purpose of the speaker. The following descriptions are quoted and adapted from 'Meaning-Based Translation' pp 365-381 by Mildred L. Larson.

1.  NARRATIVE DISCOURSE 
The purpose of a narrative discourse is to recount events, usually in the past. The backbone of the narrative is a series of events which are usually actions. The agent of the events is usually Third Person or First Person, that is, the speaker tells about the things which happened to someone else or to himself.

 2.  PROCEDURAL DISCOURSE 
The purpose of a procedural discourse is to prescribe, to give the steps on how to do something. It consists of a sequentially related series of steps within each procedure. The agent is not usually specified, and it is characteristic of procedural discourse that most of the actions will have an affected

3.  EXPOSITORY DISCOURSE

The purpose of an expository discourse is to explain or to argue. The non-chronological communication relations (orientation, clarification, logic) are typical of expository discourse. It consists of information logically related to a theme.

4.  DESCRIPTIVE DISCOURSE

The purpose of a descriptive discourse is to describe. It is not basically chronological; instead, a topic is developed.

5.  HORTATORY DISCOURSE

The purpose of a hortatory discourse is to propose, suggest, or command. The backbone of the structure is a series of actions which are commands. The second person agent throughout is characteristic of this genre. Like the expository discourse, the non-chronological communication relations are also typical of this genre. 

6.  REPARTEE DISCOURSE

The purpose of a repartee discourse is to recount speech exchanges. The structure is that of a series of speech exchanges. Each speech is a small discourse, however, these small discourses are related to one another. The content of the exchanges may be narrative, expository, hortatory, procedural, or even dialogue if the speaker is recounting another set of speech exchanges.

7.  DIALOGUE DISCOURSE

Dialogue discourse is a combination of narrative and repartee. The purpose is to recount events, usually in the past, as for narrative. The difference is that many of those events are speech events; that is, there is a repartee structure also.

For a formal learning-teaching classroom I would like to present the six phases in teaching interpretation as a subject at my university (AL-GHIFARI UNIVERSITY)

Each phase consists of three parts,

1. First, teacher's or students' preparation outside the classroom. Either the teacher or the student must prepare in advance written texts and verbal scripts for presentation as well as supporting electronic devices such as a laptop computer, a projector (LCD) set, a tape/cassette player, a CD/VCD player, an OHP, a radio, a television set, and a tape/cassette recorder. 
2. Second, preparation in the classroom before the presentation / the broadcasting. Before a presentation the teacher or the student has to make sure that everything is in place and in good condition to start. 
3. Third, interpreting practice. This is a learning, training, and experiencing part in which each student must fully participate. There are two sections in this part: interpreting from English into Indonesian and interpreting from Indonesian into English.

• In Phase One the teacher acts as a speaker and a selected student as an interpreter, whereas in Phase Two each student plays a double role as a speaker and as an interpreter. 
• In Phase Two there are two activities: (a) interpreting a talk from a set-up formal table; and (b) interpreting a speech from a podium. Materials are selected from descriptive and expository discourses for both phases either in English or in Indonesian. 
• In Phase Three each student is assigned to interpret a message directly from a speaker in a tape/cassette or in a CD. Both English and Indonesian recording materials are selected from narrative, repartee, and dialogue discourses. 
• In Phase Four each student has a turn to interpret a message directly from a speaker in a VCD viewed through a TV monitor or through a projector (LCD) larger screen. Hortatory and procedural discourses are selected for interpreting purposes in this phase. English dialects and accents are also considered when selecting the materials. 
• For Phase Five and Phase Six all discourse genres are no longer practiced in a regular order as done in the previous phases because these are direct broadcastings, not recorded, so it is impossible to predict what kind of genre comes out first and which one is the next and so on (This is a spontaneous talk or a real-life talk). Each student has to interpret directly from radio and TV announcers by making a note of the main points. Each broadcasting is recorded for replay later on for further discussion and feedback purposes. Radio and TV broadcastings are selected from Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Voice of America (VOA) for radio and CNN for television.