Discourse-based recall, language anxiety and achievement motive: revisiting interpreting aptitude testing in the Chinese context

Abstract

ABSTRACT As a replication in the Chinese context of previous aptitude testing validation studies, this research aims at exploring the validity of an interpreting aptitude test battery, composed of the Logical Memory Test (LMT), the Scale of Language Anxiety (SLA) and the Achievement Motivation Test (AMT), in the prediction of consecutive interpreting performance of Chinese interpreting trainees. A quasi-experimental and correlational research design was adopted. The aptitude test battery was administered at the beginning of the first semester for 48 post-graduate interpreting trainees, and English-Chinese (E-C) and Chinese-English (C-E) consecutive interpreting (CI) tests, used to measure the interpreting proficiency of the subjects, were conducted at the end of the semester. Scores from the aptitude tests and consecutive interpreting tests were subjected to parametric correlation analysis as well as multiple linear regression analysis. The results indicated that a) the LMT scores enjoyed a statistically significant positive correlation with C-E CI; b) the SLA scores had a statistically significant negative correlation with both E-C and C-E CI; c) there was no statistically significant correlation between the AMT scores and CI in either direction. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to interpreting candidate screening and admission testing.