interpreting-anxiety
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- PaperLanguage Learning & Technology1 Jan 2026
Scaffolding early-stage simultaneous interpreting learning using computerized dynamic assessment
Zhaokun Jiang
A pretest-intervention-posttest study with 35 novice simultaneous interpreting learners compared Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA) providing adaptive scaffolding to static support. CDA significantly improved syntactic complexity and fluency while reducing interpreting anxiety, though accuracy gains were comparable between groups. These findings extend CDA's benefits from receptive skills to real-time oral production under cognitive and affective pressure.
Original abstract
Computerized Dynamic Assessment (CDA) integrates assessment and instruction by algorithmically delivering immediate, adaptive scaffolding to uncover and cultivate learners’ developmental potential. Although CDA has shown promise for receptive language skills (e.g., reading and listening), its effectiveness in simultaneous interpreting (SI) remains underexplored. As a high-stakes bilingual task, SI requires the concurrent processing of source-language input and target-language output, rendering it both cognitively taxing and anxiety-inducing. To address this gap, the present study employed a pretest–intervention–posttest design with 35 novice SI learners from two intact classes, with one class serving as the CDA group (n = 18) and the other as the non-CDA group (n = 17). The CDA group received adaptive, graduated scaffolding targeting five types of complex syntactic structures, whereas the non-CDA group received static, non-graduated support. Interpreting performance was assessed using seven complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) indices, and interpreting-specific anxiety was measured with a Likert-scale questionnaire. Results indicated that the CDA group achieved significantly greater gains in syntactic complexity and fluency and reported lower interpreting anxiety; by contrast, improvements in accuracy were comparable between groups. Overall, these findings provide empirical evidence that the benefits of CDA extend beyond receptive skills to facilitate integrative, real-time oral production under combined cognitive and affective pressure.