Interpreters' metacognitive competence as a performance (and learning) quality indicator

Abstract

The ability of professional interpreters to carry out monitoring processes enabling them to self-assess the changing purpose of their task and subsequent strategies and choices plays a pivotal role in their global attainment levels (Sawyer, 1994, p. 433).Developing a high degree of metacognitive competence is key, not only for the expert s interpreting performance itself, but for the interpreter trainee s learning process (Arumí Ribas, 2008, p. 442f): its improvement can foster a more mindful learning process, as well as a more accurate professional self-concept and better future self-regulation techniques.

The present proposal argues that measuring the metacognitive skills of an interpreter can be key to develop a quality indicator for interpreting performance and interpreter training. We will present a tool to assess self-perceived metacognition levels in the specific field of interpreting that we believe can be useful for that purpose. We have developed and statistically tested it through the analysis of a questionnaire filled in by 199 B.A. and M.A. interpreting students at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in the course of three academic years.

The tool is based on previous relevant academic contributions to the overlapping fields of Education and Interpreting: the four phases and areas of self-regulated learning (Pintrich, 2004, p. 390), a self-regulated learning questionnaire for higher education students (Torre Puente, 2007, p. 239) and a self-assessment checklist for interpreters (Doğan, Arumí Ribas & Mora Rubio, 2009, p. 74) based on the categories compiled by Moser-Mercer (2000).

According to internal consistency testing, our tool is reliable. Besides, the factor analysis provides a four-element solution that explains the construct of metacognition as an aggregate of interpreters : (1) self-knowledge perception, (2) consolidation of their own set of criteria, (3) development of an interpreting macro-strategy and (4) task-focused flow. These four dimensions allow us to transform the abstract concept of metacognition in interpreting into something more tangible, making its components more evident and thus providing an excellent opportunity at three different levels: first, for professional interpreters to reflect upon their self-perceived metacognition, second, for students to better understand the intricacies of the interpreting process and to better know what they should be monitoring, achieving and expecting at each learning stage and last, but not least, for interpreter trainers to re-examine their syllabi and teaching methods from a new standpoint.