Prosodic features such as fluency are key components of natural speech and, thus,
also of simultaneous interpreting. Disfluencies, such as hesitations, vowel
lengthening and repairs, are particularly significant in the output of
simultaneous interpreters, which presents a pattern of pausing and disfluencies
that differs from other forms of spontaneous speech. This paper provides an
overview of aspects of fluency and a brief introduction to previous research in the
area of fluency and user perceptions, and describes a study conducted by the
author at the University of Vienna. The results of this experiment indicate that
there may be a link between perceived fluency of an interpretation and users’
assessment of the interpreter’s accuracy. There also appears to be a link between
self-assessed comprehension and assessment of the interpreter’s performance.
