Socratic Method in Interpretation Pedagogy
Over the years, I have taught Interpretation at various Hong Kong universities. The courses were at Master, undergraduate, or associate degree level.
A typical 14 week introductory course would consist of sight interpretation exercises; a mid term project and final exam. The mid term project would require students to investigate 2 related Eastern/Western cultural topics and conduct a 15 minute presentation in English and Chinese with a 5 minute Question and Answer session. Recent projects have included reports on Chinese Tea and Coffee; Chinese and Western Opera; Chinese Spirits and Western Wine. One of the purposes of the project is to give students an opportunity to speak in English and Chinese in front of an audience, as many students have yet to develop the public speaking skills required of an interpreter.
Attempts are also made to incorporate elements of the Socratic Method; where through guided questioning students are encouraged to emulate and discover the thinking processes and thought patterns of interpreters. The process is slow and laborious and as much as half a semester is required in laying down the foundation and background information before the Socratic questioning can begin. The timing of the questioning requires judicious assessment of the students' grasp of the teaching material.
Sight interpretation is the first skill students should master. The goal is to pick up a piece of text and after a few minutes of preparation interpret from one language into another. A brief description of a computer chess program perhaps can be used to explore the thinking processes of sight interpretation. In simplistic terms, a computer chess program uses brute force to examine all possible moves on each turn. Each move is evaluated and given a score, with checkmate having the highest score. Capture of opponent pieces, delivering check, tactical/strategic moves and so on are scored according to programming objectives. The computer chooses the move with the highest score, thus imparting the impression of "playing" chess.
Humans obviously do not think in this manner. Instead, we rely on intuition; experience; heuristics. Previous experience or training guides our thought processes and we only analyze a small fraction of possible moves versus the computer's comprehensive evaluation. The human "algorithm" is so to speak much more efficient in finding promising moves. In fact, the human capacity for identifying patterns makes possible the rapid recognition of checkmating/material gain/drawing positions.
By analogy, if a computer were programmed to do sight interpreting, it would have to search through a large bilingual database of words, phrases, acronyms etc; then refer to a complex set of rules to reformulate the individual components into a grammatically correct and meaningful sentence. The human interpretation process, like playing chess, is radically different; so what exactly does the human expert do?
The following are possible questions used to illustrate the interpretation process:
Q: Using an electronic dictionary or similar device, one could translate sequentially word for word for any given text; however, the output would most likely be ungrammatical. If humans can do a better job of sight interpreting, would that suggest humans possess a more advanced interpreting "algorithm"?
Q: Some students would argue that expert interpreters rely on a great store of experience to perform sight interpretation tasks. Does that imply they have a large database of some sort; and if so, shouldn't they take longer than a novice to do sight interpretation since they have to process a larger amount of information?
Q: If expert interpreters possess an efficient algorithm, what features would this algorithm have?
Through question and answer; discussion and debate it is hoped that students will be afforded a glimpse into the interpreter's mind. They will discover the skills involved and become aware of what they need to develop in order to accomplish interpretation tasks.
Finally, I would like to summarize with Zhuang Zi's, 庖丁解牛, translated by I-kuan Tao:
| A cook was butchering an ox for Duke Wen Hui. The places his hand touched, His shoulder leaned against, His foot stepped on, His knee pressed upon, Came apart with a sound. He moved the blade, making a noise That never fell out of rhythm. It harmonized with the Mulberry Woods Dance, Like music from ancient times. Duke Wen Hui exclaimed: "Ah! Excellent! Your skill has advanced to this level?" "What I follow is Tao, The cook puts down the knife and answered: Which is beyond all skills. "When I started butchering, What I saw was nothing but the whole ox. After three years, I no longer saw the whole ox. "Nowadays, I meet it with my mind Rather than see it with my eyes. My sensory organs are inactive While I direct the mind's movement. "It goes according to natural laws, Striking apart large gaps, Moving toward large openings, Following its natural structure. "Even places where tendons attach to bones Give no resistance, Never mind the larger bones! "A good cook goes through a knife in a year, Because he cuts. An average cook goes through a knife in a month, Because he hacks. "I have used this knife for nineteen years. It has butchered thousands of oxen, But the blade is still like it's newly sharpened. "The joints have openings, And the knife's blade has no thickness. Apply this lack of thickness into the openings, And the moving blade swishes through, With room to spare! "That's why after nineteen years, The blade is still like it's newly sharpened. "Nevertheless, every time I come across joints, I see its tricky parts, I pay attention and use caution, My vision concentrates, My movement slows down. "I move the knife very slightly, Whump! It has already separated. The ox doesn't even know it's dead, and falls to the ground like mud. "I stand holding the knife, And look all around it. The work gives me much satisfaction. I clean the knife and put it away." Duke Wen Hui said: "Excellent! I listen to your words, And learn a principle of life."
|
-ZhuangZi 
Chap.2, 1, 3
tr. by I-kuan Tao
Suggested Reading:
1.University of Chicago Law School, The Socratic Method
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/socrates/method.html
2.Zhuang Zi, Master Butcher
http://www.chinapage.com/story/butcher.html
First published 14 November 2007. Copyright of Pierre Wong.