PhD School of Modern Languages (SML)
Email: j.feng13@newcastle.ac.uk
Research Interests
- Audio-visual processing in simultaneous interpreting
- Cognitive mechanisms of multimodal comprehension and production processes
- Experimental Psycholinguistics
- Speech Perception and Production
- Prosody
- Phonetics and Phonology
PhD Topic: Adaptation to Adverse Conditions: Audio-Visual Evidence from the Voices and Gaze of Simultaneous Interpreters
Supervisors: Michael Jin and Kai Alter
My PhD project focuses on the adaptation of interpreters to multimodal inputs during simultaneous interpreting (SI). Characterised by parallel listening and speaking under intense time pressure, SI is inherently cognitive taxing. The proposed study investigates whether and how interpreters may adapt to adverse audio-visual conditions by adjusting acoustic features (fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration) and/or gazes (fixation duration, fixation count, and dilation) to achieve the simultaneity of SI. An interdisciplinary method combining acoustic analysis and eye-tracking is therefore employed. Informed by the multimodal facilitation effect in human communication, my research interest lies in incorporating multisensory learning (e.g., self-paced online practice modules) and evaluation strategies into interpreting education that accommodate the interpreter-specific adaptive patterns used in SI.
By examining individual adaptive patterns of interpreters, often regarded as advanced language users, we aim to offer a preliminary insight into the operational dynamics of simultaneous interpreting and the underlying factors contributing to the more complex multisensory facilitation phenomenon.
Update: 31 July 2025
