Emotions experienced and strategies used in Chinese-English interpreting: A journal study of two MA students

Background and Purpose: As two key variables in interpreting, emotions and strategies have been much researched, but the research is far from adequate. Furthermore, they have often been studied separately. This journal study thus simultaneously examined the emotions experienced and strategies employed by two Chinese MA students when interpreting between Chinese and English. Methodology: The two participants kept writing journals for 17 weeks of an 18-week term, which resulted in a total of 36 journals. Findings: The study revealed two major findings: 1) The participants experienced anxiety and joy when interpreting between Chinese and English due to learner-related, task-related and environment-related factors. They also reported feeling happy, sad or regretful, depending on whether they were prepared, followed the speaker and/or performed well when interpreting from one language to the other; and 2) the participants used different strategies when interpreting between Chinese and English, and utilized more and similar strategies when interpreting from English to Chinese. Contributions: This study was one of the few that explored different emotions experienced and strategies employed by student interpreters simultaneously when interpreting between Chinese and English. The findings not only enrich the current literature but also shed light on the teaching and learning of interpreting.