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Community interpreting today and tomorrow
... Beyond the implications for individual interpreters, the prevalence of the conduit model has broader consequences at a societal level. Interpreting is a social service which evolved as a response to a social need (Roberts, 1997). Community interpreting-that which is performed to support immigrants who are not native speakers of a language with the aim of facilitating their access to statutory services (Collard-Abbas, 1989)-involves members of the dominant culture who can speak the dominant language, and immigrants or forced migrants who cannot. ...
... The scope of this study will be limited to community interpreting. Even though there is a variety of mostly equivalent terms including "liaison interpreting", "public service interpreting", "cultural interpreting", "escort interpreting" and "dialogue interpreting" among others (Bancroft, 2015), the term "community interpreting" will be used throughout this study to include medical, public service and legal interpreting (Roberts, 1997), excluding the role and activities involved in the conference interpreting setting. The international standard "Interpreting-Guidelines for community interpreting" (ISO 13611:2014) establishes that community interpreting helps those who cannot speak the societal language as well as those who are not proficient enough to access the services offered by public institutions, healthcare institutions, social services, faith-based organisations and emergency services (Pokorn & Mikolič Južnič, 2020). ...
Community interpreters hold a powerful position within any interpreted event due to their linguistic and multicultural knowledge, as well as their agency to make decisions that affect the outcomes of the interaction (Davidson, 2000; Mason & Ren, 2013). Interpreters’ power interacts with other sources of power at the individual and social levels, creating a network of power differentials intrinsic to community interpreting, where power is constantly being negotiated interpersonally through discourse and within institutions that reflect the covert hierarchies imposed by the state (Mason & Ren, 2013; Rudvin, 2005). However, these power differences are often unacknowledged as a result of non-engagement and invisibility ideals in professional interpreting, as well as cultural and linguistic hegemonies which hide systemic injustices (Coyne & Hill, 2016).
In opposition to restrictive conduit views of the interpreting role, the ally model of interpreting recognises interpreters’ power and contextualises decision-making within historic oppression and inequality, enabling interpreters to act in ways that promote social justice, empower interpreting service users, and offer equality of access (Baker-Shenk, 1991; Witter-Merithew, 1999). However, the ally model has mostly been studied from within the field of signed languages, in relation to the deaf community (Baker-Shenk, 1986; Hsieh et al., 2013). In addition, there is limited research into users’ experiences of interpreters from their own point of view (R. Edwards et al., 2005), with interpreting guidelines remaining mostly in the hands of the practitioners (Rudvin, 2007).
The purpose of this research is to explore allyship and social justice in spoken-language interpreting from a service-user perspective. The research was conducted with the Latin American community in Aotearoa, employing a horizontal methodology developed by Latin American and European transdisciplinary researchers who see research as a political commitment to improve life in public spaces (Kaltmeier & Corona Berkin, 2012). Knowledge was created collaboratively with Aotearoa-based interlocutors through four one-on-one dialogues with service users and one group dialogue involving two service users, three professional English-Spanish interpreters, and one Latin American community representative.
The results of the dialogues show a disparity between users’ expectations and the deontological ethical principles guiding interpreter behaviour. Users were found to value interpreters’ humane qualities over linguistic proficiency, which was not considered enough to meet users’ needs. Instead, professional practice was seen to require empathy, flexibility, self-reflection, and a middle ground that avoids over-intrusions and unnecessarily rigid behaviour. From this research, this approach to practice was seen to promote an understanding of situated needs and challenges and, consequently, to enable a consideration for social justice and critical perspectives. While the findings suggest that there is room for the incorporation of the ally model in spoken-language interpreting, they also reinforce the need to complement discussions about role models with the development of professional responsibility and a focus on the consequences of interpreters’ actions, similar to other caring and practice professions (Dean & Pollard, 2018; Drugan & Tipton, 2017). Therefore, this research supports recent calls to reinforce a teleological, consequence-based approach to ethics (Enríquez Raído et al., 2020) and encourages a revision of the Euro-centric bias and universality ideals in the current code and training programmes to align them with Aotearoa’s multicultural identity.
... Besides, the term community interpreting is generally used in the English-speaking countries, unlike the Great Britain which officially adopted "public service interpreting" concept (Pöchhacker, 1999). Nevertheless, Roda Roberts (1997) places public service interpreting under community interpreting as a subfield. ...
... For the definition of community interpreting, the researchers and professionals use different terms. Keeping in mind that there is no consensus on the name of the community interpreting, the most common definitions can be defined as public service interpreting as mostly used in the U.K. (Townsley, 2007;Corsellis, 2008;Polat Ulaş, 2021); cultural interpreting and dialogue interpreting (Roberts, 1997;Tipton and Furmanek, 2016) according to the function and mode of the interpreter; medical interpreting (Davidson, 2000;Hale, 2007;Angelelli, 2014;Al-Farajat, 2018), hospital interpreting (Davidson, 2001) or healthcare interpreting (Öztürk, 2015; Şener, 2017), and court interpreting (Hale, 2004;Mikkelson, 2016;Mikkelson, 2018;Aral Duvan, 2021) or legal interpreting (Bancroft et al., 2013;Lee, 2015) according to the settings that the event takes place or to the scope of the interpreting. The profession of community interpreting is given names mostly according to the settings of the action and the modes used by the interpreters and these concepts are intertwined because in healthcare interpreting, for example, an interpreter mostly uses dialogue interpreting as there are mostly two participants other than the interpreter. ...
The need for communication across the world leads the need for community interpreters to increase especially in governmental institutions, such as courts, hospitals, and immigration offices. Considering the cruciality of such settings in terms of the lives of the language deficient people, community interpreting is of high importance, and the profession requires the application of ethical principles for quality interpreting accordingly. Therefore, this study aims to analyze how the community interpreters from different subfields perceive the ethical principles, the conditions within the field and the actors involved in this process. It is presumed that there is a lack of professionalization in the field of community interpreting. In this sense, the perceptions of 12 community interpreters were analyzed through semi-structured in-depth interviews by adopting a phenomenological approach to understand how they perceive the phenomenon of ethical principles and professionalization. The interview questions consist of 5 parts as General Qualifications and Experiences, Role, Ethical Principles, Actors, and Institutionalization and Professionalization. Within the framework of Actor-Network Theory by Callon and Latour, these questions were used to map the network of community interpreting in Turkey and to define the actors within with the aim of understanding how the interpreters see the profession and the effect of other human and non-human actors. Through the data obtained from these interviews, it is aimed to demonstrate whether it is possible to speak of norms in the field within the concept of professional norms by Chesterman. According to the findings, each sub-network has its own human and non-human actors that vary depending on their interests in the network. The lack of professionalization in Turkey leads the interpreters to adapt themselves to the expectations of the other actors causing their roles to change continuously and to turn into more active than necessary. As a result, the adoption of ethical principles also varies according to these expectations which shows that the actors through their expectations affect the perceptions, behaviors and roles of the community interpreters. It is concluded that the lack of an association in the field of community interpreting in Turkey causes the prevalence of other actors' expectations to exercise control over the behaviors of the community interpreters. This study is thought to contribute to the field in terms of understanding the perceptions of the community interpreters as the central actor, but the perceptions of the other actors need to be analyzed to understand and evaluate the network thoroughly as a whole.
... In the present study, we identified three factors that may threaten the validity of interpreterassisted interviewsnamely, interpreters' shared backgrounds with asylum-seekers, their limited familiarity with asylum-seekers' religions and their distortions of interviewers' questioning style. Our findings illustrate the philosophical view that interpreters, rather than simply bridging language barriers, actively participate in the interview and affect the fact-finding process (Roberts, 1995). Earlier studies on legal interpretation have shown, for instance, that interpreters influence the amount of information elicited, with interviewees reporting fewer details in interpreter-mediated interviews than when communicating directly with the interviewer (e.g. ...
Religious persecution is a leading cause of global displacement. In the absence of supporting evidence, presenting a credible oral asylum claim based on religion is a difficult task for asylum-seekers. Asylum officials, in turn, face considerable challenges in evaluating the credibility of asylum-seekers' claims to determine their eligibility for refugee status. We reviewed 21 original manuscripts addressing credibility assessments of asylum claims based on religion. We focused on (a) interviewers' methods of eliciting a claim of religion; (b) their credibility assessments of particularly complex asylum claims, namely those based on religious conversion, unfamiliar religions, and non-belief; and (c) issues related to the presence of an interpreter. We found deviations in officials' assessment patterns from established knowledge in legal psychology and religious studies. Closer collaboration between asylum practitioners and researchers in these fields is needed to improve the validity and reliability of credibility assessments of asylum claims based on religion.
... Whereas the surge in subdisciplines attests to a growing and diverse field, it also encourages a somewhat divisive view. Early researchers (Gentile et al., 1996;Gentile, 1997;Mikkelson, 1999;Roberts, 1997) argued that the exchange of ideas needed to develop strong theoretical concepts may be hindered by this division into setting-based, siloed compartments -a position that continues to draw support (Downie, 2021;Grbić & Pöllabauer, 2006). It is unarguable that the concept of setting provides a framework that facilitates analysis by assuming consistencies within that setting. ...
This article proposes a framework for analysing interpreted events mediated by non-professionals. It is based on an examination of individual contextual factors rather than on traditional definitions of setting-based features. This approach promises to be more productive for the study of non-professional interpreting and for analysing contexts that do not fit into existing categories of setting. For these purposes, this article examines a corpus of 26 prison-based mental health interviews mediated by non-professional interpreters in order to analyse the collaboration and negotiation processes that emerge among the members of the communicative triad. First, it outlines contextual factors from a conceptual perspective. Second, it describes those contextual factors that are most relevant to analysing collaboration and negotiation processes. Finally, it describes the context of prison-based mental health interviews through the lens of these factors and examines their influence on specific instances of collaboration and negotiation extracted from this corpus.
... Анализ определений административно-социального перевода [Roberts, 1997;Pöllabauer, 2002;Wadensjö, 2002] показывает, что в дефинициях находит отражение специфика клиентов миграционного дискурса (недостаточное знание или полное незнание языка и культуры), используемая техника перевода (устный последовательный абзацно-фразовый перевод) и его подвиды (перевод в сфере здравоохранения, психотерапии, образования, социальных услуг и в юридической сфере). ...
The paper covers a range of issues related to the specifics of Russian language mastering by Indian students studying in English and Russian. The research is based on an integrative methodological platform that combines approaches to multilingualism formation from the standpoint of psychological linguistics, cognitive linguistics, the theory of language contacts, discourse and communication science. The research involves the techniques of psychological and semantic analyses and verbal associations, the methods of contextual analysis and comparison. The material of the paper is the data obtained from online surveys of Indian students who have been studying at universities in North Ossetia-Alania for six years (elementary and pre-intermediate levels of Russian language proficiency). The study is aimed at identifying perception channels that represent the features of foreign students cognitive style in the Russian natural environment, descripting level-by-level interfering influence of native languages and weak interference of English. Based on text fragments and lexical units, vectors and methods of interlingual interference were demonstrated, its leading types were determined, that are phonetic, phonemic, graphemic, phonemic-graphemic, morphological and lexical. The role of English as a communicative mediator is defined. The analysis done confirmed complex application of auditory, visual and kinesthetic channels at the information input, and revealed the dominance of the auditory perception channel at the information output while learning the Russian language by Indian students. The Indian students cognitive style tends to be simplified through contamination of written and oral speech, compression, abbreviations usage, intensification of associative and semantic links. Strategies for using Internet translation, imitation of mastering the Russian language, literal translation from English into Russian, strategies for the implementation of graphic, phonetic-graphic principles of writing, phonemic and grammatical reduction were identified as the basic communication strategies of Indian students learning Russian.
... En líneas generales, los códigos éticos de la profesión defienden que la MILICS debe aspirar a su invisibilidad y neutralidad y respetar los principios de actuación de precisión, imparcialidad, limitación de competencias y control de la interacción comunicativa. En cuanto a los investigadores, las opiniones muestran un continuo que va desde la neutralidad absoluta o invisibilidad a la participación directa de conciliador, con posiciones intermedias que hacen referencia a la participación activa, la asistencia, la intermediación cultural y la defensa del usuario (Roberts, 1997). No obstante, tanto los propios códigos deontológicos como los investigadores coinciden en señalar que la realidad es compleja e impredecible y, en consecuencia, resulta muy difícil que la MILICS se mantenga invisible durante la interacción comunicativa y se abstenga de intervenir consciente o inconscientemente (Hsieh, 2006;Rudvin, 2002;Angelelli, 2004). ...
Resumen: El presente trabajo pretende acercar la deontología y las propuestas de los códigos deontológicos de interpretación en los Servicios Sanitarios (SS) y de mediación intercultural a la práctica profesional de las intérpretes y mediadoras a partir del análisis de mis propias actuaciones como MILICS[1] en el contexto de la Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (SSyR) con usuarias de origen chino. La principal hipótesis plantea que, atendiendo a la gran distancia cultural que se da entre la cultura china y la española, se espera que la MILICS deba relativizar la aplicación de ciertos principios generales de actuación establecidos en los códigos deontológicos en numerosas ocasiones y optar por un rol preferentemente activo en la interacción comunicativa cuando desempeñe su trabajo en el ámbito de la SSyR con mujeres de origen chino.Abstract: This article aims at approaching Public Service Interpreting deontology and professional practice by analysing my own performances as a PSI or cultural mediator in the context of reproductive health services with users of Chinese origin. The main hypotheses suggests that due to the wide cultural gap observed between the Chinese and the Spanish culture, the PSI/mediator will often have to consider the transgression of the ethical principles established in the Standards of Practice for Healthcare Interpreters and adopt a more active role.[1] Desde el Grupo CRIT abogamos por una figura integrada de la intérprete en los servicios sanitarios y la mediadora intercultural a la que denominamos MILICS.
... 25 teórica acerca de las bases metodológicas del ejercicio profesional, la formación y la investigación (cfr. Roberts 1997;Pöchhacker 2000;Martin y Abril 2002;Angelelli 2003;Valero-Garcés y Martin 2008). Gran parte de esas reflexiones está vinculada a una preocupación por la definición del campo o la actividad de mediación 22 y a la necesidad de contar con una perspectiva integrada para su estudio a nivel internacional. ...
... Court interpreting is a necessary means to ensure judicial justice [2][3][4][5][6]. The correct understanding of the role of the court interpreters is the prerequisite for the successful interpretermediated communication. ...
... It is therefore advisable to consider a redefinition of this term in the nearest future. However, these struggles reflect only the very same problems that have been already signalized while defining the scope of English terms such as community interpreting, public service interpreting or cultural interpreting (Roberts, 1995). Community interpreting is still not recognized as a standard subject worth mentioning in the academic curriculum. ...
Community interpreting is a new and still developing field of research in Poland. With the outbreak
of the Ukrainian Crisis in 2014, followed by the Refugee Crisis in 2015, its role has become especially
crucial and apparent. However, more detailed formal legislation in that regard is still lacking. There
are also many complex issues connected with the perception of community interpreting in Poland. The
paper will focus on the actual status of community interpreting in Poland, in connection to already
existing formal legislation, role and possible work opportunities in the field of community interpreting.
... In spite of the fact that research in the area of community interpreting has been conducted worldwide for decades now (see e.g. Roberts 1997, Niska 2002, what lacks is the systematic observation or analysis of CI in newly emerging markets (see Mizuno 2007), with the focus on the settings in which an interpreter is a participant or the attitudes and perceptions of interpreters across settings. This is deemed crucial in understanding the interpreters' perceptions of their own roles, their beliefs, and their behavior in practice. ...
p>The present paper surveys the development and the current position of community interpreting (CI) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), by providing an insight into the emergence of this “out of necessity” concept. The paper is a reflection of the origins and major features of the profession, from the perspective of active participants in this process. Since the research in this field practically does not exist in BiH, the paper attempts to highlight the fundamentals of the profession, fields of practice, professional organizations and training opportunities. The paper portrays the historical background
of CI in the context of BiH, trying to capture the interpreting activities and the accompanying practicalities both in the conflict (1992-1995) and post-conflict periods. CI in BiH is mainly performed my semi- and non-professionals, due to the fact that education and training institutions for community interpreters are traditionally non-existent in this country. The paper brings a historical
paradigm into the emergence of the interpreting profession and its inherently embedded international character in BiH. The study of CI may not have such a long tradition as other disciplines, but has immensely gained in popularity in recent decades, particularly in the context of ever-growing interest
by scholars. The paper follows these recent global trends aiming at contributing to a more comprehensive research in the field in the context of BiH, highlighting the importance of CI in the evolving society challenged by the newly-emerging social phenomena.</p
... It is therefore advisable to consider a redefinition of this term in the nearest future. However, these struggles reflect only the very same problems that have been already signalized while defining the scope of English terms such as community interpreting, public service interpreting or cultural interpreting (Roberts, 1995). ...
Community interpreting is a new and still developing field of research in Poland. With the outbreak
of the Ukrainian Crisis in 2014, followed by the Refugee Crisis in 2015, its role has become especially
crucial and apparent. However, more detailed formal legislation in that regard is still lacking. There
are also many complex issues connected with the perception of community interpreting in Poland. The
paper will focus on the actual status of community interpreting in Poland, in connection to already
existing formal legislation, role and possible work opportunities in the field of community interpreting.
... In countries with a more established immigration history (e.g. in Europe, the UK and Sweden) the implementation of integration policies by the central and local governments led to the creation of linguistic services (in the form of community interpreting) aimed at facilitating access to a range of services in a variety of languages (Roberts 1997). ...
This paper will present the findings of a wide-scale research aimed at studying the phenomenon of Child Language Brokering (henceforth CLB) in Italy. After providing a description of recent immigration patterns and the provision of language services in Italy, and an overview of current research in this field, this study will discuss narrative data obtained by means of a school contest, Traduttori in Erba (Translators in Bud). The analysis of the children's narratives on their experiences as language brokers will show the impact that this practice has on their lives and the huge contribution that these children make in order to help their families interact with the institutions of their new country of residence.
... In contrast to the narrow focus in the medical literature, work on interpreters' roles in social sciences ranges more widely (e.g. Cohen-Emerique 2003; Drennan & Swartz 1999;Jalbert 1998;Roberts 1997;Weiss & Stuker 1998) but remains mainly theoretical, with few empirical studies. ...
This volume – the first-ever collection of research on healthcare interpreting – centers on three interrelated themes: cross-cultural communication in healthcare settings, the interactional role of persons serving as interpreters and the discourse patterns of interpreter-mediated interaction. The individual chapters, by seven innovative researchers in the area of community-based interpreting, represent a pioneering attempt to look beyond stereotypical perceptions of interpreter-mediated interactions. First published as a Special Issue of Interpreting 7:2 (2005), this volume offers insights into the impact of the interpreter – whether s/he is a trained professional or a member of the patient's family – including ways in which s/he may either facilitate or impair reliable communication between patient and healthcare provider. The five articles cover a range of settings and specialties, from general medicine to pediatrics, psychiatry and speech therapy, using languages as diverse as Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Italian and Spanish in combination with Danish, Dutch, English and French.
In Germany today, we cannot deny that we are living in a migration society with thousands of migrants facing major integration difficulties due to existing language barriers. Although the German Immigration Act of 2005 provides different mechanisms to improve the active integration of newly arrived immigrants, with all of these mechanisms being practical and necessary, they nonetheless only become effective in the longer term (integration and language courses). However, the act does not contain any offers that immediately provide support or help to eliminate the language barriers that these population groups with German as a foreign or second language are confronted with in everyday situations.
Background
Community interpreters (CIPs) play a crucial role in various community services, including healthcare, when service providers and users do not share a common language. However, there is a lack of evidence-based data on this population globally. This explorative cross-sectional study aims to gain a better understanding of CIPs and their work in Germany.
Methods
A nationwide online survey was conducted among CIPs in Germany to collect data on their qualification background, working conditions, mental health, interpreting-related psychosocial distress and sociodemographics. Participants were recruited through interpreting pools, training institutions and migrant organizations. Data were analyzed descriptively, dependent t-test, multiple logistic and hierarchical stepwise regression analyses were performed to predict participation in interpreting-specific training, interpreting competence and interpreting-related psychosocial distress.
Results
Across all 16 federal states, N = 873 responses were used for analysis. Most participants are female (74%), born abroad (77%) and have a high level of education (69%). The vast majority interpret occasionally in their leisure time (44%) and are self-employed/freelance (51%). 34% interpret solely or additional on a voluntary basis (unpaid). The median hours of interpreting per month are 10 h, 75% do not exceed 30 h. On average interpreters work in four different settings. 69% attended any kind of interpreting training with a median of 25 h in total. Interpreting in more settings emerged as an associated factor with participation in training. Of those who have never attended any training, 69% consider themselves as rather/very competent in interpreting. Interpreting more frequently, having less severe anxiety symptoms, getting higher and more often paid and being less satisfied with the payment is associated with self-reported interpreting competence. In total, 36% reported moderate or severe psychosocial distress regarding interpreting. Higher general psychosocial distress and depressive symptoms, higher interpreting frequency and lower payment satisfaction were found to be associated with higher distress regarding interpreting. Additionally, factors such as precarious work conditions, lack of recognition and discrimination (e.g. racism and sexism) were reported as distressing.
Conclusion
This study provides a first comprehensive evidence-based national database on CIPs in Germany. The findings can be valuable for the development of qualifications, guidelines, policies and the process of professionalizing the field of CIPs.
This chapter argues that languages are symbols of social identities and that managing translation and interpreting (TI) builds upon existing social hierarchies and power dynamics. Within this overarching context, the role TI play role in supporting and challenging oppressive social systems is explored. The chapter highlights how the contributors to this collective volume expose similarities and differences in how institutions operate TI when serving different populations. Throughout the examination, different forms of power emerge as differently instrumentalizing TI to perpetuate or contest established power dynamics. The contexts explored span a wide spectrum, encompassing international intergovernmental organizations and public services. This broad scope serves to reveal contradictions and shared dynamics. The chapter finally foregrounds human causation and highlights the rationales and the epistemological and social benefits of plotting new routes into unexplored spaces of institutional translation and interpreting.
This article presents a snapshot of citizen translators as cultural mediators in public services settings by investigating their role in multicultural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they attempted to resolve potential conflicts in a crisis situation. The study, which focuses on university communities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China, is one of the rare cases examining community translation and interpreting in a non-immigrant country where non-Chinese speakers are in a linguistically weaker position. The role of citizen translators in cultural mediation is outlined by recontextualizing mediation through interview-based qualitative research. During times of crisis, citizen translators arguably go beyond linguistic mediation and resolve conflicts by assuming extra duties and social responsibilities to ensure equal access to public services in multicultural communities, thus contributing to the emotional stability of the community and the smooth delivery of information on anti-epidemic measures.
In today’s globalised and multilingual world, healthcare professionals assist users who do not speak the language of the country they are living in. There is evidence of language barriers resulting in experiencing more adverse events, less involvement in the care, less information received, difficulties in shared decision-making or misunderstandings. There are also studies focused on the advantages of using professional interpreters in healthcare settings such as a complete understanding, better treatment adherence and compliance and, less stress for patients and their families and an improvement in access and quality of healthcare. Therefore, communication plays a key role in healthcare encounters. Despite communication is a complex phenomenon, interpreting in end-of-live encounters and grief therapies has been given scant attention in the literature. This paper aims to explore perceptions and expectations of interpreters working in end-of-life areas such as palliative care and grief therapies from the perspective of Spanish healthcare providers and psychotherapists who conduct grief therapies. Experiences of the use of ad-hoc and professional interpreters are also explored. Consequences of using child language brokers (CLB) in end-of-life are also included. Moreover, this study draws attention to interpreter’s burnout and emotional management in sensitive situations in which they are the voice of emotionally-affected people. This research considers briefing and debriefing as essential to allow better understanding of participants’ role, to prepare the encounter, to discuss care plan, to create an atmosphere of trust, to let interpreters vent their feelings and, hence, to benefit interpreters’ well-being. Debriefing can happen after the encounter or it can include supervision at a later stage understood as the psychological support given to the interpreter working in end-of-life contexts. Our aim is to show some results to bring to light the need of professional interpreters in the end-of-life area and the importance of interpreters’ emotional support and wellbeing to achieve the aims of the medical and therapeutic encounter. Results will also contribute to increase interpreters’ visibility and to emphasise the need of regulation and professionalization of public service interpreters in Spain.KeywordsCommunication barriersEmotional distressEnd of lifeVicarious traumaCompassion fatigue
Although voice and speech are fundamental communication tools, spoken-voice management and development doesn't always feature prominently in professional interpreter training programs. My thesis is dedicated to the effects of spoken-voice intervention on interpreting students’ vocal performance during interpreting. A mixed-method study design was applied, with both quantitative and qualitative data reflecting the learners’ performances in consecutive interpreting. The students’ interpreting was recorded at two specific moments during their training, and three external assessors – a voice coach, an interpreting instructor and a lay assessor – evaluated their performances. Based on the conclusions, the spoken-voice intervention approach yielded a highly positive intervention outcome, resulting in significant levels of improvement in vocal performance in relation to the delivery of interpreting delivery for the three intervention groups. However, the level of improvement varied due to the different intervention activities, regimens, and instruction approaches. This study recommends incorporating metacognitive instruction into interpreter training. It is not only beneficial for students’ speaking-voice skills but may also enhance students’ interpreting skills.
Translation and Interpreting Studies research has traditionally drawn on progress models to describe professionalisation processes. In this paper, I will argue that an alternative approach based on two processual concepts, namely Anselm Strauss’s ‘social worlds’ ( 1978 ) and Thomas Gieryn’s ‘boundary work’ (1983) might offer new insights. Social worlds are interrelated agglomerations of agents who participate in certain activities and develop shared commitments and ideologies. Boundary work refers to the construction and maintenance of similarities and differences for inclusion in and exclusion from a group. To demonstrate the application of this theoretical-methodological framework, I will map the social worlds involved in the organisation of sign language interpreting in Austria at three crucial stages. I will discuss how the interrelations between the social worlds have influenced institutionalisation and professionalisation and how these in turn have shaped the social world of the sign language interpreters as well as the social world of deaf people.
This paper investigates how participants coordinate interaction when using 2 different interpreting methods: (1) Face-to-face interpreting (F2FI) and (2) Video remote interpreting (VRI). It focuses on the coordination of repair and the role of monitoring, based on micro-analytic research using multimodal/interactional theory.
The present study aims to demonstrate the relevance of topic modeling as a new research tool for analyzing research trends in the T&I field. Until now, most efforts to this end have relied on manual classification based on pre-established typologies. This method is time- and labor-consuming, prone to subjective biases, and limited in describing a vast amount of research output. As a key component of text mining, topic modeling offers an efficient way of summarizing topic structure and trends over time in a collection of documents while being able to describe the entire system without having to rely on sampling. As a case study, the present paper applies the technique to analyzing a collection of abstracts from four Korean Language T&I journals for the 2010s decade (from 2010 to 2019). The analysis proves the technique to be highly successful in uncovering hidden topical structure and trends in the abstract corpus. The results are discussed along with implications of the technique for the T&I field.
Abstract—
Taking into consideration the problems, dangers and challenges they faced, the overall aim of
this paper is to advance a clear picture of the interpreting situation and the roles played by community
interpreters in war zones namely in Iraq. It draws upon the results of questionnaires sent to more than 30
interpreters who worked for the coalition forces during the 2003 war in Iraq. Now they are living in Iraq
and some other foreign countries they immigrated to. It is also based on a number of letters of
recommendations given to these interpreters during their work with the military. The paper tries also to
prove that interpreters adopted other roles other than the linguistic ones. They were given a multiplicity of
tasks to help facilitate the military missions.
Keywords— community interpreting, interpreters, narrative theory, war zones, Iraq.
Ongoing discussion continues to debate the role interpreters should embrace, whether the interpreter should be an impartial agent or whether impartiality can be demanded from a human agent at all. The current discussion favours the idea that roles are negotiated through interaction and that the ideal of impartiality may be compromised in specific situations or settings. This negotiation, far from constituting an academic discussion, is determined by the parties to the communicative situation. It is therefore relevant to be able to assess interpreters' and users' views as to what a particular situation requires of the interpreter. Based on a content analysis of the existing literature on the interpreter's role, we developed a model to account for opposing perceptions of what interpreters are and should do in their professional practice, and represent those views as possibilities on a continuum rather than as opposing and excluding options. This paper presents a tool based on that model which allows perceptions to be made explicit and discussed. The model and preliminary experiences of the application of the tool in interpreting teaching and in one professional context are presented.
This chapter begins by focusing on the two basic concepts fundamental to better understand the context of the interpreting industry: services and externalities. Community interpreting is defined from the standpoint of services and is explored in relation with the concept of externalities to the community members who are vulnerable as they experience the incidental consequences of the government policies of immigration. The chapter also looks at the theoretical framework of community interpreting and provides a backdrop of these services in the Australian context from the White Australia Policy in 1901 to the multicultural policy as an element of Australia’s nation building. Finally, the chapter concludes by dwelling on the major stakeholders in the profession of community interpreting in Australia such NAATI as the credentialing authority, training institutions, government, and other professional representative bodies.
This paper examines the fundamentals of professionalism focusing on the code of ethics as a pivotal parameter. Attention is paid to the difficulties of implementing two of the core principles of codes of ethics for interpreting in a refugee context: impartiality and accuracy. The aim of this article is to explore interpreters’ appreciation of these principles and self-identification with them versus actual observance in refugee settings. Ninety-six US-based interpreters completed a survey on self-perceptions regarding adherence to the principles and real actions performed. Findings show that a high number of interpreters do not comply with the principles despite having previously declared their full endorsement and self-identification with them. Impartiality presented more deviations than accuracy. Internal and external demands have proven to be stronger than adherence to the code. Calls to rethink and refine codes of ethics for interpreting in a refugee context are also presented.
El objetivo principal de este documento es continuar con la labor de diálogo e intercambio de experiencias y proyectos llevada a cabo en los congresos específicos dedicados a la traducción e interpretación en los servicios públicos (TISP) en la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares en 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011 y 2014 y en la publicación multilingüe en línea FITISPos International Journal desde 2014. Tal tarea de intercambio se había iniciado hacía ya mucho tiempo con el I Encuentro Internacional de Traducción celebrado en 1995 bajo el lema “Cultura sin fronteras”. El objetivo siempre fue acercar a la comunidad profesional y académica, las autoridades educativas competentes y las instituciones públicas y privadas, así como a estudiantes y público interesado en la comunicación intercultural en general y en la traducción e interpretación en particular, como fuente de dialogo en sociedades multilingües y multiculturales. Ha sido una labor ininterrumpida y atenta a los cambios de una sociedad en constante ebullición tal y como lo demuestran las publicaciones derivadas de los sucesivos congresos y actividades que se organizan, directa o indirectamente en torno a la TISP en nivel mundial. En esta edición de 2017 el tema central no podía ser otro que intentar una mirada abierta hacia el presente convulso que vivimos y el futuro incierto que al parecer se avecina.
The current array of descriptions that are given of interpreting outside the conference room has bedeviled the field: from ‘community interpreting’ to ‘dialogue interpreting’ to ‘public service interpreting’ to ‘ad hoc interpreting’ to ‘non-professional interpreting’. Some descriptions avoid ‘interpreting’ altogether – ‘linguistic mediation’, ‘cultural mediation’, etc. Significantly, self-ascription by the practitioners themselves often does not match these imposed descriptions. Yet each description carries with it, implicitly or explicitly, a specific view of ethics, tied closely to perceived roles of interpreters, but often encompassing assumptions about tasks, personal or professional characteristics, or status. This messy terminological terrain is surveyed to reveal some altogether clear distinctions that can help our understanding of differentiating and common elements in interpreting. Building on that, the ethical implications of different descriptions are categorised to show that ethical responsibility in interpreting situations rests not with the interpreters alone, but with other players, particularly institutional players, in contracting language services.Resumen: La actual variedad de descripciones que se dan sobre la interpretación fuera de la sala de conferencias ha dañado al campo: desde “interpretación social” a “interpretación de diálogo”, “interpretación en los servicios públicos”, “interpretación ad hoc” o “interpretación no profesional”. Algunas descripciones evitan decir “interpretación” tal cual – “mediación lingüística”, “mediación cultural”, etc. De manera significativa, la auto-adscripción por parte de los profesionales a menudo no coincide con estas descripciones impuestas. Aunque cada descripción entraña, implícita o explícitamente, una mirada específica a la ética, ligada estrechamente a los papeles desempeñados por los intérpretes, a menudo incluye suposiciones sobre tareas, características personales o profesionales, o estatus. Este desorganizado terreno terminológico se analiza para revelar muy claras diferencias que pueden ayudar a nuestra comprensión de la diferenciación y elementos comunes en la interpretación. Al hilo de ello, se clasifican las implicaciones éticas de las diferentes descripciones para mostrar que la responsabilidad ética en situaciones interpretativas descansa no sólo en los intérpretes, sino en otras partes, especialmente las institucionales, en la contratación de servicios de idiomas.
Abstract
Generally speaking, the literature on simultaneous interpreting and professionals within the field tends to take norms like the interpreter's 'faithfulness' to the speaker and 'accuracy' for granted, without making scrupulous research descriptions or investigations. The simultaneous interpreters' 'mediation' is one of those norms. They often than not describe it as being unprofessional. In a globalized world where the need for such an activity increases, it becomes necessary and even inevitable to account empirically for the norms and principles of this practice. Therefore, the present paper studies and evaluates mediation in the context of professional conferences. It attempts to determine whether there is mediation on the part of the simultaneous interpreter, and if so, to what degree this can be acceptable.
The paper applies a multidisciplinary approach to English speeches given at real conferences and their simultaneous interpretations into Arabic. The Interpretive Theory, a pragmatic model, and some political theories formed the theoretical basis of analysis. Content analysis and comparative study constituted a perfect methodology to this end. It comes to the conclusion that there is a mediation on the part of interpreters and there are cases where it is acceptable and others where it becomes unacceptable (very few due to the high degree of professionalism presented).
Keywords: simultaneous conference interpreting, mediation, accuracy, faithfulness, Interpretive Theory.
Der Kindertransport nach Großbritannien 1938/39 war neben der zionistischen Kinder- und Jugendalijah nach Palästina eine der beiden bedeutenden Auswanderungsaktionen für Kinder und Jugendliche aus dem ehemaligen Deutschen Reich und den bedrohten Nachbarländern. Die Kinder und Jugendlichen erlebten dabei einen Wechsel von Sprache und Kultur, auf den sie oft nicht vorbereitet waren. Auf der Grundlage von narrativen Interviews werden Fallbeispiele gezeigt, und es soll diskutiert werden, wie der Spracherwerb erfolgte, und ob und wie Zweisprachigkeit in dieser historischen Konstellation im UK entwickelt werden konnte.
This paper aims to describe the organization of Public Service Interpreting and Translating (PSIT) in healthcare settings in Barcelona. In doing so, a detailed indirect observation process using semi-structured interviews has been conducted. Both healthcare professionals and staff in charge of PSIT services were interviewed. The results obtained allowed to describe the PSIT services provided in the studied centers, the profile of its users and its providers, as well as the profile of the healthcare staff. Moreover, the paper focuses in describing how the service of PSIT is being carried and how it is being assessed.
Contrary to expectations, globalization is not accompanied by the use of a single language. It is obvious that the constant influx of people from other countries and cultures is producing changes in the way society is structured as well as in how relationships are established in the European Union (EU). These changes also affect interlingual mediation and the role that translators and interpreters (T&I) have to perform. They have to act in a great variety of settings and provide very different solutions for the situations they are faced with. Such a variety also leads to questions on the ethics of translation in public services, the acceptance of the varied forms of professionalism, the importance of the role that culture plays, and the consideration of different attitudes from society and its institutions. These questions suggest the need to discuss mediation as a form of translation or, the other way around, translation as a form of mediation.
Some scholars and practitioners in Western society still consider translators to be walking dictionaries more than cultural mediators; however, in some settings and under certain conditions translators participate more actively in the communication process, producing oral or written texts in which forms and words are manipulated to extend further understanding across cultures.
There are signs that this change is beginning to happen in both pragmatic business community and everyday society. In the former, there is an increasing number of publications focusing on cultural factors, as well as business courses on culture. There are also marketing policies to adapt products to the new consumers and common policies established by the corporate groups to avoid cultural conflicts.
In the latter, that is, in everyday society, and specifically when dealing with social affairs and migration, data show that at least some official institutions and non-governmental associations (NGAs) as well as those organizations providing help, consider T&Is to be cultural mediators, assigning them a wider role. Also this interlinguistic mediator assumes that part of his/her role is to
1
deal with issues and explain deficiencies in communication, even adding other related tasks (filling out forms, giving reports, offering phone help, etc.).
This study will draw your attention to the figure of the T&I as mediator, and will focus on two specific aspects: A) Attitudes towards the role of the T&I as an interlinguistic mediator; B) Notes on the debate about how visible the interlinguistic mediator as translator must be.
O texto visa estabelecer algumas relações entre aspectos teóricos e metodológicos da Arqueologia Pública com a gestão de acervos arqueológicos. Tendo como estudo de caso as práticas e políticas adotadas pelo Laboratório de Arqueologia Pública Paulo Duarte - UNICAMP, o texto aborda os principais pontos conceituais da Arqueologia Pública que podem ser levados em consideração na formulação de políticas de gestão de acervos arqueológicos.
To ensure linguistic rights as fundamental rights and the equal treatment of all before the law as well as in other social spheres, translation and interpreting are becoming a necessity; the regulation of this professional area, defined by society’s socially weakest members, is indicative of the level of democracy in a society. The article presents the Slovenian situation from the perspective of the need to ensure community interpreting, taking into account information gained by direct observation and interviews.
The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia generally guarantees linguistic rights in public settings, but their implementation depends on specific laws, thus ensuring and formally regulating interpreting only in court and asylum procedures, while no services are offered in general social and health care settings (except for sign language interpreting), resulting in a power imbalance in interpreter-mediated interactions where interpreting is managed through the improvisation and goodwill of all parties involved. The article ends with plans on how to improve the situation in Slovenia, considering that an integrated arrangement of community interpreting is necessary nowadays, respecting linguistic rights as basic human rights.
Resumen: Los traductores tienen a su disposición una gran cantidad de herramientas para gestionar la terminología, pero los intérpretes no se han beneficiado del mismo nivel de innovación. La globalización y los flujos migratorios han puesto de relevancia la necesidad de un mayor número de intérpretes en los servicios públicos para solventar la barrera interlingüística entre los usuarios que no dominan la lengua oficial y los proveedores de los mencionados servicios. En consecuencia, basándonos en la literatura precedente, en este trabajo establecemos una serie de parámetros para evaluar varias herramientas de gestión terminológica desde la perspectiva de los intérpretes en los servicios públicos. Con los resultados que obtengamos extraeremos las conclusiones, que señalarán la necesidad de tener en cuenta nuevas propuestas para implementar las herramientas de gestión terminológica en interpretación en los servicios públicos así como ofrecer nuevos procedimientos de búsqueda a los intérpretes en los servicios públicos tanto profesionales como en formación. Palabras clave: Gestión terminológica, interpretación en los servicios públicos, herramientas, necesidades, parámetros. Abstract: Translators have a great variety of tools and applications for terminology management. However, public service interpreters have not benefited from the same level of innovation. Globalization and the current mass migration highlight the need for more public service interpreters to solve the barrier of interlinguistic communication among users who do not speak the official language and public service providers. Consequently, in this paper we establish a set of parameters to assess to what extent terminology management tools meet public service interpreters' needs. From the results, conclusions are drawn which might suggest a need to take into account new proposals in order to implement terminology management from the view of public service interpreting as well as to inform new searching procedures used by trainees and professional public service interpreters.
In the light of recent waves of mass immigration, non-professional interpreting and translation (NPIT) is spreading at an unprecedented pace. While as recently as the late 20th century much of the field was a largely uncharted territory, the current proportions of NPIT suggest that the phenomenon is here to stay and needs to be studied with all due academic rigour. This collection of essays is the first systematic attempt at looking at NPIT in a scholarly and at the same time pragmatic way. Offering multiple methods and perspectives, and covering the diverse contexts in which NPIT takes place, the volume is a welcome turn in an all too often polarized debate in both academic and practitioner circles.
RESUMEN Los traductores tienen a su disposición una gran cantidad de herramientas para gestionar la terminología, pero los intérpretes sociales no se han beneficiado del mismo nivel de innovación y su metodo de trabajo todavía es rudimentario. En consecuencia, basándonos en la literatura precedente, en este trabajo establecemos una serie de parámetros para evaluar varias herramientas de gestión terminológica desde la perspectiva de los intérpretes sociales. Con los resultados que obtengamos extraeremos las conclusiones, que señalarán la necesidad de tener en cuenta nuevas propuestas para implementar las herramientas de gestión terminológica para la interpretación social así como de ofrecer nuevos procedimientos de búsqueda a intérpretes sociales tanto profesionales como en formación.
Palabras clave: gestión terminológica, interpretación social, herramientas de traducción asistida por ordenador, evaluación, parámetros .
0 Vorbemerkungen Bei der Videokonferenz (VK) handelt es sich um eine relativ neue Form der technisch vermittelten Kommunikation, die dem weltweit steigenden Kommunikationsbedarf in ganz spezifischer Weise Rechnung trägt – vor allem seit entsprechende Entwicklungen in der Telekommunikationstechnologie, Datenübertragung und-kompression die Durchführung von Videokonferenzen mit einem leistungsfähigen PC über ISDN erlauben. Der Einsatz derartiger Videokonferenzen bedeutet nicht nur Reisezeit-und Reisekostenersparnis. Eine ISDN-VK ist – im Gegensatz zu älteren Formen der Konferenzschaltung (z.B. über das vermittelte Breitbandnetz der Telekom oder über Satellit) – auch kostengünstig und läßt sich noch dazu gut in die gewohnte Büroumgebung der Nutzer (PC, ISDN) integrieren.
p>Unlike translators, who have a great variety of computer-assisted tools for terminology management, interpreters have not benefited from the same level of innovation. In fact, the task of community interpreter is to allow people who do not speak the official language(s) of the country to communicate
with the providers of public services so as to facilitate full and equal access to legal, health, education, government and social services. Thus, having taken into account the special needs of community interpreters, in this paper we establish a set of parameters from the conclusions drawn from the literature review to assess to what extent terminology management tools meet these needs. Then, a selection of terminology management tools are analysed. From the results, conclusions are drawn which might suggest a need to take into account new proposals in order to implement terminology management in computer-assisted tools from the view of community interpreting as well
as to inform new searching procedures used by trainees and community interpreters.</p
Throughout this chapter, the author will examine the current professional standards, and the perceived problems with these standards in the Public Service Interpreting industry. She will then focus on the importance of achieving standards in the training of public service interpreters, including a description of the current awards and training courses available as well as the description of the author’s experience of developing and delivering a suite of short continuous professional development (CPD) courses for PSI, at a UK university. Finally, and by way of conclusion, the author will offer potential solutions to the previously highlighted problem that the PSI industry is currently facing, that of achieving much-needed professional standard which can be agreed upon, delivered and adhered to. This chapter will focus on spoken interpreting rather than on BSL interpreting.
Our societies are undergoing a process of transformation entailing new challenges. One of these challenges includes the urgency to address certain needs that arise from the rate of change affecting the multilingual and multicultural societies in which we live. In turn, new technologies, which involve the inevitable creation of new terms, are evolving rapidly as we try to incorporate them into our daily business. We live, therefore, with terminology, whether we are experts or not. In fact, there are a number of institutions with which we have an almost daily relationship and which have their own specialised languages. The question is
how
to handle these situations, what problems arise therein, and what the most immediate solutions are when this kind of event occurs in environments where terminology, specialised languages, and less widely used languages come into play. Throughout this chapter, and using all of the available information relevant to this matter, I will attempt to answer the following questions: Is specialised language used as part of the interaction between service providers and external users in the public services sector? How do participants handle such specific terminology? What types of documentation do mediators/translators and interpreters have access to? What strategies do they use when translating concepts or expressions into the target language? How reliable is their work? Is special training required? Are there specialised resources in less widely spoken languages that meet those needs?
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the professional status of public service interpreters and that which sociologists (Etzioni, 1969; Abbott and Meerabeau, 1998) have attributed to semi-professionals such as nurses. Drawing on the sociological theories of professionalization (Albrecht et al., 2003) and on certain hypotheses suggested by interpreting scholars (Sela-Sheffy and Shlesinger, 2011), the concept of semi-profession will be defined and discussed. Subsequently, the three sociological features shared by the two professions – the lack of specialised training, increasing feminisation and the caring nature of their tasks – will be analysed from a sociological perspective. To test these assumptions, the results of a global questionnaire on the status of public service interpreters – which gathered 888 responses – will be illustrated and commented. The data showed a close relationship between the two professions, which appears to confirm the hypothesis that nurses and public service interpreters are still following the path towards full professionalization.Resumen: Mediante este trabajo pretendemos analizar la relación entre el estatus profesional de los intérpretes de SSPP y el estatus que algunos sociólogos (Etzioni, 1969; Abbott and Meerabeau, 1998) han atribuido a semiprofesionales como las enfermeras. Basándonos en las teorías sobre el proceso de profesionalización (Albrecht et al., 2003) y en las hipótesis sugeridas por algunos estudiosos de interpretación (Sela-Sheffy y Shlesinger, 2011), vamos a definir y discutir el concepto de semiprofesión. Además, las tres principales características sociológicas comunes a las dos profesiones – la falta de educación especializada, la creciente feminización y la actitud solidaria de algunas de las tareas que desarrollan – se analizarán desde una perspectiva sociológica. Para probar estas afirmaciones, los resultados de una encuensta global sobre el estatus profesional de los intérpretes que trabajan en los SSPP – que obtuvo 888 respuestas – serán analizados y comentados. La evidencia ha mostrado una relación cercana entre las dos profesiones, que parece validar la hipótesis de que la interpretación de SSPP y la enfermería todavía están siguendo el camino hacia una mayor profesionalización.
The community interpreter’s role has been described in various ways, associating it with labels (Roberts 1997), tasks (Pöchhacker 2000), dynamic positioning (Mason 2009), and the interpreter’s relative (in)visibility (Angelelli 2004). Increasingly, conceptions of role are seen not as static and absolute, but as related to the differing (and subjective) viewpoints of the various participants involved. This study uses semi-structured interviews, conducted immediately after five interpreter-mediated encounters (four medical, one legal), to examine: (1) how participants in each encounter differ in their comments on the interpreter, and (2) whether the resulting perspective on the interpreter’s role is related to each respondent’s specific conversational goal on the occasion in question. Twenty-six excerpts from the interviews are discussed: all three participants (service provider, service user, interpreter) were interviewed in three cases, while the interpreter was unavailable for interview in one case and the service recipient in another. The interpreted meetings and subsequent interviews took place in London and Manchester, the languages involved being English (service providers) and Polish (service recipients). The various respondents seemed to differ in their perceptions of the interpreter’s role, ostensibly reflecting their own conversational goals, but not necessarily in line with their status as service provider, service recipient or interpreter.
Les interprètes communautaires doivent faire passer des messages entre des langues souvent très différentes, avec le plus de précision possible. De plus, les aprioris socioculturels des locuteurs primaires sont extrêmement variés, ce qui rend très difficile la tâche de trouver des équivalences pragmatiques en temps réel. Dans cet article, nous examinons la façon dont des unités de communications plus longues, en l’occurrence des histoires racontées par les clients, sont transmises lors de sessions avec interprète. Nous posons la question de la perception de la signification du discours, d’un point de vue culturel et situationnel, dans le domaine de l’interprétariat en milieu de santé mentale, où la communication verbale est d’une importance primordiale pour diagnostiquer et traiter le patient. Les résultats sont issus d’entretiens avec des interprètes et des professionnels de santé mentale en Irlande, et démontrent l’importance de recherche et formation supplementaires.
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