Negative Cultural Transfer in English Interpreting and Its Coping Strategies

Abstract

Negative transfer can be phonological or lexical. This thesis takes the negative cultural transfer as the research scope. The study of interpretation is cross-linguistic; it is a kind of transformation activity between two languages or among more than two languages. However, it is a communicative act different from simple oral expression. In the early stage of learning, the students are potentially affected by the thinking mode, conventional habits or culture of mother tongue. As a result, they make inexact interpretation or even misinterpretation. What they interpret does not convey the connotations of the speaker, thus, negative cultural transfer arise. The author investigates the reasons which cause negative cultural transfer of the beginners of interpreting, and combines it with interpretation teaching practice. It is a bold attempt and brand-new perspective to study linguistics and interpretation teaching.