An empirical study on impact of suggestopedia on student interpreters’ anxiety

Abstract This paper aims to investigate if suggestopedia, a teaching method that advocates “learning with both brains and learning while relaxing”, could help reduce interpreting anxiety and improve interpreting results when applied to interpreting classes. By using this teaching method in an experimental class and comparing the interpreting quality with that of the control class, the paper draws conclusions on the influence of suggestopedia in reducing interpreting anxiety. Two interpreting results and two questionnaires on interpreting anxiety, one before using the method and the other after, are collected to analyze the link between suggestopedia and interpreting anxiety. The experiment took place over eight weeks and involved 51 students. The experiment focused on English-Chinese consecutive interpretation.