Are interpreters better respeakers?

Agnieszka Szarkowska , Krzysztof Krejtz , Łukasz Dutka , Olga Pilipczuk

Abstract

In this study, we examined whether interpreters and interpreting trainees are better predisposed to respeaking than people with no interpreting skills. We tested 57 participants (22 interpreters, 23 translators and 12 controls) while respeaking 5-minute videos with two parameters: speech rate (fast/slow) and number of speakers (one/many). Having measured the quality of the respeaking performance using two independent methods: the NER model and rating, we found that interpreters consistently achieved higher scores than the other two groups. The findings are discussed in the context of transfer of skills, expert performance and respeaking training