The impact of Integrating Drama Techniques and Public Speaking Skills on Students' Confidence and Performance Quality: Consecutive Interpreting in Focus

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of integrating drama techniques and public speaking skills on undergraduate students’ confidence, on the one hand, and the quality of their performance in consecutive whole speech interpreting, on the other hand, through a quasi- experimental design. The participants are 50 third-year undergraduate students of English translation and interpretation in two different universities in Iran. A consecutive interpreting test and a Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker (PRCS) test were administered to both the experimental and control groups as pre-tests. The experimental group then received a twelve-week treatment that included drama techniques and public speaking skills integrated into interpreting teaching. Post-tests were administered to both groups after a three-month interval. The t-test for independent samples was conducted to analyse the data obtained. The results reveal that the participants in the experimental group show improvement in both the consecutive interpreting test and in the confidence as a speaker report.