Papers by Valentina Baselli
Testo a fronte teoria e pratica della traduzione, 69/2 , 2023
Over the last few years, a technological breakthrough has dramatically changed how interpreters w... more Over the last few years, a technological breakthrough has dramatically changed how interpreters work since the use of remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) and AI-powered computer-assisted interpreting tools (CAI tools) has significantly increased. With the recent integration of speech-to-text technology and CAI tools into RSI platforms, the development of new tools aims to increase the efficiency of interpreters’ workflow and improve their performance. Further research is being conducted to facilitate the accessibility of RSI platforms for visually impaired interpreters.
In 2022, we started teaching a new remote simultaneous interpreting class at IULM University, using the Converso Education Platform. Firstly, this contribution aims to present the new function for visually impaired interpreters in this platform. Our blind interpreting students can now access and use Converso Education through specific shortcuts or a special stream deck. Secondly, the performance of interpreting students with and without the new speech-to-text technologies has been assessed as the Converso platform has recently integrated real-time speech transcription into its features. Following Prandi’s multimethod approach, this study will analyse simultaneous interpreting from English into Italian performed by students with the support of the full ASR transcript, with real-time suggestions of numbers and specialised terms extracted from the transcript or only with the use of a traditional electronic Microsoft Word glossary. Data on the three terminology management solutions adopted in this study will be compared to determine whether a terminology search carried out while interpreting simultaneously shows differences in the precision of the rendition and cognitive overload, which occurs when simultaneous interpreting “problem triggers” - i.e., numbers and specialised terms - require increased resources
The Avatar-Interpreter: Simultaneous Interpreting using VR Headsets, 2025
While technological innovation has significantly changed the interpreters' work, few professional... more While technological innovation has significantly changed the interpreters' work, few professionals seem to have interpreted in the Metaverse or in Virtual Reality (VR). Limited data are available on simultaneous interpreting (SI) in virtual environments. This paper investigates the feasibility of simultaneously interpreting using VR headsets through a study conducted on 20 students enrolled in the Master's degree programme in Conference Interpreting at IULM University. The study focuses on turn-taking and the need for handover during simultaneous interpreting in VR, leading to the assumption that SI using VR headsets is feasible and constitutes a stimulating and immersive experience for interpreters. Data from this study suggest that SI shifts using VR headsets in virtual reality and in the Metaverse by means of avatars can last up to 20 minutes, followed by longer breaks to allow interpreters to rest from the stimuli and cognitive load perceived as considerably high in virtual environments.
Designing a Multimodal Corpus of ELF in ESP: Challenges and Issues
Designing a Multimodal Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) for the Interpreting Classroom: Challenges and Issues
Which language do interpreters use in Consecutive Interpreting
This paper is based on a study about Consecutive Interpreting notes used by interpreters. In Cons... more This paper is based on a study about Consecutive Interpreting notes used by interpreters. In Consecutive Interpreting, note-taking facilitates the interpreter’s job in not overloading the interpreters’ processing capacity and memory. This paper in particular investigates which language is chosen by the interpreters in note taking, whether the A-language or the B-language as well as the source language or the target language, what are the reasons behind this choice, and if the third language (or C language) influences the note-taking, by analysing consecutive notes of students in English-Italian and German-Italian language pairs.
Designing a Multimodal Corpus of ELF in LSP: Sustainable Data Collection and Analysis
ELF and Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) appear to be intrinsically intertwined phenomena in ... more ELF and Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) appear to be intrinsically intertwined phenomena in the interpreting practice (see Albl-Mikasa 2010; 2013) and deserve to be one of the core topics in formal interpreter training. To explore and model the impact of ELF in LSP on interpreting students, we have designed a case study adapted from Bale (2013). Here, authentic video recorded LSP conferences in ELF scenarios are used as teaching material in MA level English-to-Italian SI classes. Primary teaching objectives are exposing students to real life situations and raising their awareness on quality benchmarks. In this case study, teaching material is being gathered in a multimodal corpus along with the audio recordings and transcriptions of the student\u2019s interpreted text, and an in-depth terminology analysis of the source texts. The resulting corpus is designed as a dynamic unit and its benefits are at least threefold: It can help i) modeling the impact of ELF in LSP on the studen...
Lexical and syntactic ambiguities in S.I. are solved by applying different
strategies such as ref... more Lexical and syntactic ambiguities in S.I. are solved by applying different
strategies such as reformulation, omission and self-correction (Kalina 1998, Riccardi 2003). In this study we focus on the complexity and ambiguity of Scientific English (Gotti 2008), with the aim to investigate the strategies adopted by different groups of interpreters in coping with segments containing Premodified Noun Phrases (PNPs), in the language combination English-Italian.
Premodification occurs with a high frequency in medical discourse where the number of items of the compound noun can vary from 2 to 6, imposing a high cognitive load on the interpreter who has to identify the “semantic value of each word within the compound” (Gotti 2008, 74) before translating.
The subject of this study is syntactic ambiguity as an independent variable in Italian-German Sim... more The subject of this study is syntactic ambiguity as an independent variable in Italian-German Simultaneous Interpreting. Both for students and professional interpreters ambiguity is a potential obstacle, as they have to simultaneously translate in the shortest time possible, and find a prompt solution to solve the lexical or syntactic ambiguity by applying different strategies, i.e. omission, reformulation, generalization, increase of ear-voice span (or décalage), or self-correction, which have already been investigated by other researchers (Russo 1989; Barik 1994, Kalina 1998; Riccardi 1996, 1999, 2006; Bevilacqua 2009). Analysis of the results is based on an investigation of the strategies applied and not on errors made.
The aim of this paper is to present the results and observations of an empirical study regarding ambiguity resolution in Italian-German Simultaneous Interpreting, and to compare results with the findings obtained from a previous investigation carried out for the Italian-Spanish language pair by Morelli (Morelli 2005, 2009) and Molinari (2010), in order to apply these results to teaching practices.
Over the past few years, in the domain of Interpreting, new technologies have greatly reshaped th... more Over the past few years, in the domain of Interpreting, new technologies have greatly reshaped the way interpreters work, leading to a technological turn (Fantinuoli 2018) in the field of Simultaneous Interpreting, also due to the increasing use of Remote Simultaneous Interpreting (RSI) and Computer-Assisted Interpreting Tools (CAI tools). Without a boothmate, AI-based CAI-Tools are becoming “artificial boothmates” (Fantinuoli 2017), supporting the interpreter before and during the delivery of a Simultaneous Interpreting through automatic terminology lookup, identification of key terms, automatic speech recognition, real-time speech transcription and highlighting of numbers.
While some researchers have investigated the topic of Computer Assisted Interpreting, e. g. Fantinuoli (2012; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019), Prandi (2018; 2020), Frittella (2021; 2022) and Defrancq (2020), more research in the field of Computer Assisted Interpreting Training is needed, in order to include new technologies in the interpreting training and workflow since they have the potential to help interpreters face this technological turn.
This pilot study focuses on investigating the training of interpreting students on new technologies by collaborating with the RSI-platform Converso in implementing the use of the RSI-platform with a new CAI-tool specifically developed on teaching purposes.
La figura dell’interprete è sempre esistita ma è solo nel XX secolo che emerge la collaborazione ... more La figura dell’interprete è sempre esistita ma è solo nel XX secolo che emerge la collaborazione tra interpreti e in particolare il connubio interprete-tecnologia: dalla nascita dell’Interpretazione Simultanea dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale fino all’esordio dell’Interpretazione da Remoto per arrivare nel XXI secolo alla diffusione dei CAI-Tool, ovvero gli strumenti di interpretazione assistita per interpreti di conferenze. Il presente paper intende fornire una visione d’insieme sulla collaborazione nell’ambito della traduzione orale, con particolare riferimento alla nascita dell’Interpretazione Simultanea fino ad arrivare ai nostri giorni, in cui la collaborazione tra interprete e tecnologie è diventata ormai imprescindibile.
Interpreters have always existed, but it was only in the 20th century that collaboration among interpreters and, in particular, between interpreters and technology emerged: from the origin of Simultaneous Interpreting after the Second World War to the debut of Remote Interpreting and the spread of CAI tools (computer-assisted interpreting tools) for conference interpreters in the 21st century. This paper aims to provide an overview of collaboration in interpreting, with particular reference to the birth of Simultaneous Interpreting up to the present, when collaboration between interpreters and technology has become essential.
This paper is based on a study about Consecutive Interpreting notes used by interpreters. In Cons... more This paper is based on a study about Consecutive Interpreting notes used by interpreters. In Consecutive Interpreting, note-taking facilitates the
interpreter’s job in not overloading the interpreters’ processing capacity and memory. This paper in particular investigates which language is chosen by the interpreters in note taking, whether the A-language or the B-language as well as the source language or the target language, what
are the reasons behind this choice, and if the third language (or C language) influences the note-taking, by analysing consecutive notes of students in English-Italian and German-Italian language pairs.
Conference Presentations by Valentina Baselli
In the literature, there is some evidence that interpreting from ELF conference speakers is more ... more In the literature, there is some evidence that interpreting from ELF conference speakers is more demanding than interpreting from native speakers of English in terms of cognitive load (Albl-Mikasa 2010; 2013a). This is mainly due to the lack of pragmatic fluency, pronunciation problems and the use of other unconventional language structures (Albl-Mikasa 2013a; Albl-Mikasa 2013b) and evidenced by an empirically observed deterioration in interpreters' performance. This additional processing cost when interpreting from non-native speakers is reported to deteriorate the interpreter's performance in terms of source-text comprehension, analysis, short-term memory management and target text production (Gile 1999; 2005; Albl-Mikasa 2010). This is particularly acknowledged in Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) conferences where a high degree of accuracy and precision is required (see Gile 1995). Effectivity balances the textual level with the extra textual one. From the standpoint of training, this means an enhancement of both encyclopedic and domain specific knowledge and a consequent use of LSP in the target text delivery.
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Papers by Valentina Baselli
In 2022, we started teaching a new remote simultaneous interpreting class at IULM University, using the Converso Education Platform. Firstly, this contribution aims to present the new function for visually impaired interpreters in this platform. Our blind interpreting students can now access and use Converso Education through specific shortcuts or a special stream deck. Secondly, the performance of interpreting students with and without the new speech-to-text technologies has been assessed as the Converso platform has recently integrated real-time speech transcription into its features. Following Prandi’s multimethod approach, this study will analyse simultaneous interpreting from English into Italian performed by students with the support of the full ASR transcript, with real-time suggestions of numbers and specialised terms extracted from the transcript or only with the use of a traditional electronic Microsoft Word glossary. Data on the three terminology management solutions adopted in this study will be compared to determine whether a terminology search carried out while interpreting simultaneously shows differences in the precision of the rendition and cognitive overload, which occurs when simultaneous interpreting “problem triggers” - i.e., numbers and specialised terms - require increased resources
strategies such as reformulation, omission and self-correction (Kalina 1998, Riccardi 2003). In this study we focus on the complexity and ambiguity of Scientific English (Gotti 2008), with the aim to investigate the strategies adopted by different groups of interpreters in coping with segments containing Premodified Noun Phrases (PNPs), in the language combination English-Italian.
Premodification occurs with a high frequency in medical discourse where the number of items of the compound noun can vary from 2 to 6, imposing a high cognitive load on the interpreter who has to identify the “semantic value of each word within the compound” (Gotti 2008, 74) before translating.
The aim of this paper is to present the results and observations of an empirical study regarding ambiguity resolution in Italian-German Simultaneous Interpreting, and to compare results with the findings obtained from a previous investigation carried out for the Italian-Spanish language pair by Morelli (Morelli 2005, 2009) and Molinari (2010), in order to apply these results to teaching practices.
While some researchers have investigated the topic of Computer Assisted Interpreting, e. g. Fantinuoli (2012; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019), Prandi (2018; 2020), Frittella (2021; 2022) and Defrancq (2020), more research in the field of Computer Assisted Interpreting Training is needed, in order to include new technologies in the interpreting training and workflow since they have the potential to help interpreters face this technological turn.
This pilot study focuses on investigating the training of interpreting students on new technologies by collaborating with the RSI-platform Converso in implementing the use of the RSI-platform with a new CAI-tool specifically developed on teaching purposes.
Interpreters have always existed, but it was only in the 20th century that collaboration among interpreters and, in particular, between interpreters and technology emerged: from the origin of Simultaneous Interpreting after the Second World War to the debut of Remote Interpreting and the spread of CAI tools (computer-assisted interpreting tools) for conference interpreters in the 21st century. This paper aims to provide an overview of collaboration in interpreting, with particular reference to the birth of Simultaneous Interpreting up to the present, when collaboration between interpreters and technology has become essential.
interpreter’s job in not overloading the interpreters’ processing capacity and memory. This paper in particular investigates which language is chosen by the interpreters in note taking, whether the A-language or the B-language as well as the source language or the target language, what
are the reasons behind this choice, and if the third language (or C language) influences the note-taking, by analysing consecutive notes of students in English-Italian and German-Italian language pairs.
Conference Presentations by Valentina Baselli