The impact of directionality on the process and product in consecutive interpreting between Chinese and English: evidence from pen recording and eye tracking

Directionality is a recurring topic in interpreting studies. Focusing on consecutive interpreting (CI), this study aims to contribute further empirical data to the topic by analysing the impact of directionality on the process and product of CI, with special attention paid to the cognitive aspect. Pen recording and eye tracking were used to record CI with notes amongst professional interpreters with Chinese as L1 and English as L2. The direction of interpreting was found to affect the cognitive processing and product in both phases of CI. Phase I of L2 to L1 interpreting seemed to burden the interpreters with a higher level of cognitive load than L1 to L2 interpreting, leading to a strategic choice of using more language notes (full words rather than abbreviations) and fewer symbols. Phase II of L2 to L1 interpreting appeared to be less cognitively demanding than the other direction and the interpreters produced a more fluent target speech, but the target speech was less accurate.