經貿題材為口譯教學之重要題材之一，惟教師於設計教案時多普遍感覺教材取得不易。世界貿易組織第四屆部長會議部長聲明經過初步評估後，判定適合作為口譯訓練之教材。其原因如下：第一、其平均字數約為1,000字上下，若以正常說話速度每分鐘100-120字而言，每篇時間約在十分鐘左右，不論是應用於逐步口譯或同步口譯都十分適當。第二、各國部長發言內容可按地區、民族等語言特性研究其差異，使學生熟悉非英語系國家所使用之文字特性。第三、可藉由多媒體影音資料研究各種英文口音。經世界貿易組織秘書處之同意，獲得授權自世界貿易組織官方網站下載全程132篇演說之數位錄影，此珍貴之資料極具研究與教學價值。並可克服過去課堂口譯教學無法獲得講者非口語表達(non-verbal expression)訊息所造成之缺點。第四、13萬餘字之資料可作為後續研究建立大型語料庫(corpus)之骨幹，為將來國際談判與國際會議人才之培育奠立基礎。

Utilizing general statements from the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the material, this study aims to examine the possibility of using these statements for interpreting training. This set of 130,000+ words is analyzed in two aspects. First, it is checked against the Academic Word List (AWL) for the level of difficulty and the results show that 72% of the AWL listed words appear in the material and the frequency is consistent with the AWL selection principles. Second, an experiment was conducted to evaluation the effect of terminology in the course of training. It is found that WTO terms actually create difficulties during interpreting and the provision of background information does improve the performance of the interpreters. It is concluded that this type of material can be used for multiple pedagogical purposes and is more suitable for interpreting training at the graduate school level and advanced undergraduate level.