Decoding Accuracy: Sentiment Analysis Meets the Art of Simultaneous Interpreting

Accurate interpretation is vital in simultaneous interpreting, where interpreters must convey the speaker’s message faithfully in real time to facilitate seamless bilingual or even multilingual communication. Assessing interpreting accuracy is a critical step in ensuring high-quality performance, yet traditional evaluation methods rely heavily on subjective human judgements, making the process time-consuming, labour-intensive, and prone to inconsistency. 

This talk explores the potential of sentiment analysis - a natural language processing technique - as an objective and innovative tool for assessing accuracy. Through two case studies, the research investigates how sentiment analysis can evaluate whether interpreters effectively convey the speaker’s sentiment. The study discusses the advantages of this approach, including increased efficiency and consistency, while addressing its limitations. By integrating computational linguistics into interpreter assessment, this work demonstrates how technology can advance methodologies and elevate standards in simultaneous interpreting.

Presented in English and accessible both in person and via Zoom.