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4 Results and discussion 
Before delving deeper into the interpreting difficulties investigated in the present 
case study, we will first take a closer look at some of the features of the source 
speeches and interpretations under scrutiny in Section 4.1, namely delivery rate, 
lexical density, and expansion rate. The idea here is to get a first general overview 
of all source and target speeches. These preliminary investigations will make it 
possible to outline some tendencies. 
Then, I will analyse the database in order to answer my two research questions. 
Section 4.2 presents the quantitative analysis that will highlight the most 
challenging linguistic item for interpreter trainees among four different items, 
namely complex noun phrases (three sub-patterns), single-word terms, proper 
names, and numbers. Then, a longitudinal analysis of the data will be presented in 
Section 4.3 and will answer the second research question. In fact, in this section, 
proportions of close and divergent renditions are given for each interpreting task to 
see if there is some kind of improvement across time and across students. 
Finally, Section 4.3 focuses on a case study concerning zero renditions. This type 
of rendition is really interesting to investigate as omissions can be very hard to 
judge (justified or unjustified). This case study focuses on the performances of two 
students. 
4.1 Global features 
The first global feature to be presented and analysed is delivery rate (Section 
4.1.1). Then, Section 4.1.2 focuses on lexical density while Section 4.1.3 gives an 
analysis of the third global feature, expansion rate. Finally, Section 4.1.4 sums up 
the trends outlined in the previous sections. 

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Results and discussion 
 
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