Akzent und Dolmetschen – Informationsverlust bei einem nichtmuttersprachlichen Redner

English has become the world’s dominant <i>lingua franca</i> and conference language. Consequently, interpreters are increasingly confronted with non-native speakers whose pronunciation differs from Standard English. Since the recognition of speech sounds depends on prior knowledge, non-native source texts which deviate from familiar acoustic-phonetic patterns make perception more difficult for the interpreter, who is forced to devote most of his attention to understanding. For students and novices in the interpreting profession such situations are particularly difficult to cope with. The paper describes a study carried out at the University of Vienna to demonstrate the detrimental effect of a strong non-native accent on students’ interpreting performance.