An examination of the evaluation patterns of court interpreters : Focus on mode-specific and score variations.

In this paper, the results of the certification examination for court interpreters were analyzed to investigate how different evaluation criteria impact overall scores based on the examinees' score ranges. The findings revealed that, regardless of the interpreting mode, examinees who scored below 70 points (failing) were most significantly affected by the fluency of the target language. In dialogue interpreting, low target language fluency resulted in poor outcomes, independent of other factors. Once target language fluency was achieved, faithfulness to the original message became the primary factor influencing the results. In consecutive interpreting, note-taking proficiency was found to have a substantial impact on performance. Unlike dialogue interpreting, where note-taking was not required, candidates who were less familiar with the note-taking process tended to struggle, even with target language fluency. This suggests that note-taking proficiency played a critical role in consecutive interpreting. For sight translation, the ability to naturally convey specialized terms and expressions determined pass or fail outcomes. Although sight translation does not rely heavily on memory, faithfulness to the content still played a significant role in the success of candidates scoring above 70 points, indicating frequent omissions or mistranslations among lower-scoring candidates.