Examining Predictive Validity of Simultaneous Interpreting Trainees’ Performance in Two Interpreting Exercises Considering Listening Comprehension, EQ and Self-efficacy

The present research is an interdisciplinary study between interpreting studies and psychology. The study tried to predict student trainees’ performance in two simultaneous interpreting exercises, namely oral cloze and listening and memory recall exercises considering EQ, self-efficacy and listening comprehension as predictor variables. To this end, 70 English Translation students in their 8th semester selected through the convenience sampling method and they voluntarily participated in the research. To gather the data, the Persian version of the EQ questionnaire developed by Samouei (2003) and the self-efficacy questionnaire (Sherer et al., 1982) were administered. Moreover, participants sat for oral cloze and listening and memory recall exams at separate sessions. These two exercises are used to train simultaneous interpreters (Lambert, 1992). To examine their listening skill, the listening module of IELTS was also administered. The results of the multiple regression showed that %28 of variance in SI aptitude total (oral cloze+ listening and memory recall tests) was explained by the 5 predictor variables (i.e. self-efficacy, proficiency, flexibility, self-respect, stress tolerance), which could be considered as a medium to large effect size according to Cohen’s (1988) guidelines for effect size. However, separately, only proficiency was making a significant contribution to the model. The findings of the study confirmed the irrefutable importance of listening comprehension ability in simultaneous interpreting, which in turn highlighted the necessity of investigating simultaneous interpreting trainees’ listening skill at the time of attending the course.