ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 describes the methodology of this research project. It details the process and methods of developing the Auslan source text, recruiting Auslan/English interpreters as participants, administering the Auslan-to-English simultaneous interpreting task to participants, engaging them in a post-task interview, assessing the quality of participants’ interpreting performance by using a rubric that was specifically designed for this study, conducting microanalysis of the corpus of simultaneous interpretation data using both ELAN and Excel, conducting local analysis of interpreters’ accurate English renditions of challenging Auslan segments, and conducting thematic analysis of participants’ qualitative interview data. The assessment rubric includes four macro-level assessment criteria, namely accuracy, target text features, delivery features, and processing skills. The rubric can be adapted for evaluating simultaneous interpreting performance involving other language combinations. One innovation is conducting local analysis of Auslan-to-English simultaneous interpretations to provide insights into imported cognitive load, current cognitive load, and exported cognitive load. This mixed methods study integrates the aforementioned different data sources to shed light on both interpreting process and performance quality.
