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Ethics in Public Service Interpreting
... In fact, multiple studies have revealed a continuum between the 'invisible' conduit interpreter and the interpreter as an active participant (Angelelli, 2004;Bot, 2015;Pöllabauer & Topolovec, 2020;Schwei et al., 2019;Xu, 2021). In certain settings (e.g. ...
... Although the labels given to these roles may vary, distinctions have been made between the aforementioned conduit role, the interactive interpreter, the cultural mediator/insider, the co-practitioner, the co-ordinator/flow manager and the relationship builder (Bot, 2015;Schwei et al., 2019). The 'contributions' of interpreters thus vary widely; they may feel the need to advocate for one of the parties, solve cultural misunderstandings, explain a concept, but they might also summarize, act as a co-examiner or even impose their own values (Angelelli, 2004;Bancroft, 2015;Pöllabauer & Topolovec, 2020;Wadensjö, 1998Wadensjö, /2014). The differences in interpreter conduct are sometimes attributed to the training they (did not) receive, but this is not clear (Bancroft, 2015). ...
Public service interpreters assume a key role in rendering accessible social services to newcomer clients. They could even be considered inherent to social work settings that are multilingual in nature, such as the interactional context of unaccompanied minors and their legal guardians. However, despite the intrinsic linguistic diversity and the unique position of interpreters in this setting, guardian–minor encounters remain unexplored in research. The current study therefore aims to provide insight into the multilingual needs and challenges in these encounters, focussing particularly on the roles interpreters play in this setting and how they are perceived to affect the interaction. To this end, the study draws on twelve semi-structured interviews with guardians of unaccompanied minors, collected as part of a research project examining the impact of multilingual strategies on the communication and relationship between guardians and minors in Belgium. Through thematic analysis, the study explores guardians’ insecurities, revealing confusion about the professional status of interpreters, concerns about interpretation quality and conflicting expectations of what interpreters should (not) do. The study provides recommendations with a view to improving both the confidence of guardians and the efficiency of guardian–minor interactions, and highlights the relevance of the findings for various other social work settings.
This article explores informed consent in maternity care in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Based on findings from a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded research project carried out in 2022 in Scotland, the article examines why consent is particularly crucial in maternity care, how it is usually obtained in the case of parents with limited English proficiency, and which barriers may stand in the way of truly informed consent. By focusing on the prevalent conception of informed consent as a legal requirement vis-à-vis its wider ethical implications, the objective of the article is to understand how the professional relationships between service providers, users, and interpreters may be enhanced through a discussion of the fiduciary aspect of interpreting and of advocacy for best possible outcomes.
This article highlights some ethical questions in activist interpreting in the context of transnational patient mobility, with a specific focus on abortion travel from Poland to Austria. It presents a case study of Ciocia Wienia, a Vienna-based activist collective which facilitates access to abortion mainly for Poles and provides support and interpreting services in abortion clinics. Drawing primarily on the literature on activist interpreting and feminist interpreting and a corpus of 13 in-depth qualitative interviews with members and associates of the collective, this study explores ethical dilemmas experienced by the activist interpreters. We investigate the ways in which their translation choices are interwoven with the feminist and pro-choice agenda that the collective embraces. Our data show that Ciocia Wienia has developed a feminist approach to interpreting, one strongly informed by its political agenda. The activists adopt interventionist and sometimes highly visible strategies of interpreting, including direct confrontation or negotiation with clinic staff, and have much leeway to use an array of strategies of divergent rendition. While the priority of activist interpreters is to support and protect the women they assist, they also risk impairing patient autonomy and service-providers’ control over interactions.
Unlabelled:
Interpreters facilitate cross-cultural communication, particularly in health care systems where treatment is provided to patients who do not speak the institution language. The effectiveness of the process depends, among other things, on the ability of the interpreter and the clinician to collaborate, which the Typology of Healthcare Interpreter Positionings is intended to facilitate.
Objectives:
The primary purpose of this study was to assess the potential applicability of the Typology, previously tested in mental health settings, to a family medicine setting. The secondary objective was to verify the complementarity of the concept of interpreter stance.
Method:
A deductive thematic analysis and co-occurrence analyses were conducted following focus groups with 89 experienced and trainee family physicians.
Results:
The potential of the Typology for family physicians was confirmed. Although the concept of stance was found to be complementary, it could not be integrated directly into the Typology.
Conclusions:
The Typology is applicable in both family medicine and mental health settings. The Typology provides conceptual guidance that the clinician and interpreter can use with confidence to deepen their collaboration.
The exceptional migratory flows in 2015-2016 have entailed several challenges for the Flemish public service interpreting sector, including a mismatch in supply and demand, a shortage of interpreters for lesser-used language varieties, and government budget constraints. In order to meet these challenges head-on, the Flemish Government Integration Agency, responsible for certifying public-service interpreters, has set up a research project designed to determine whether, and under what circumstances, briefly trained volunteer “language assistants” (LAs) could offer a valid additional form of language mediation. First, participants were trained and evaluated when interacting, mainly through role plays, with fellow trainees. Second, their interpreting performances during real-life service provision interactions were video-recorded and assessed. The LAs’ interpreting performances were assessed predominantly as unsatisfactory, with the main risks being linked to low interpreter competence, language proficiency, and deontological awareness. Those findings have been addressed in a follow-up project, by increasing the required CEFR level of Dutch and by changing the content of the training.
This paper analyzes accuracy in authentic telephone-interpreting data in which the migrant and the interpreter communicate in French as a lingua franca, namely a language that is not their first language. The data consists of an interview conducted by a law-enforcement officer in Finland. The analysis is based on the ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions of language theorized within systemic-functional grammar. The analysis shows that the particularities of both telephone-mediated interpreting and lingua-franca interpreting engender significant communication problems. As a result, accuracy is not achieved, and the interpreter has to use strategies that are questionable in terms of the codes of conduct of community and legal interpreters. The interpreter is an active agent in the co-construction, maintenance, and erasure of indexical meanings such as speaker identities. In addition, due to linguistic and contextual constraints, the interpreter takes a prominent role as a coordinator of turns. The paper suggests that inter-preters' deontological codes are based on monolithic language ideologies and unrealistic expectations that should be reconsidered to correspond to the specific features of lingua franca and telephone interpreting.
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 y 2011. 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 con a estudiantes y público interesado en la comunicación intercultural en general y en la traducción e interpretación en particular, como fuente de dialogo en sociedad 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. En esta edición de 2014 el tema central no podía ser otro que ética e ideología ante los tiempos convulsos que vivimos.
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.
The passing of the Prior Consultation Act (2011) was a turning point in Peru’s history: it enshrined the right of indigenous peoples to be consulted prior to the State’s adopting a measure that affects them and to use their own languages during the consultation, which makes interpreting essential. This article focuses on the complexities of the interpreters’ role and how the beneficiaries of their work perceive it. It reveals that the interpreters’ performance is determined by two circumstances: first, it straddles public service and business interpreting; and second, the fact that the interpreters are trained and employed by the State creates tensions in the communication between the latter and the indigenous peoples. The socio-political context and the initiatives designed to ensure compliance with the law will provide a background to our findings. These derive from observation, interviews and meetings with institutional actors and interpreters, and are illustrated by a case study.
This article focuses on Refugee Status Determination (rsd) procedures, in order to understand the relationships among language, translation / interpreting, evidentiary assessment, and what we call the 'listening state'. Legal systems have only recently begun to consider whether adjudicative processes ought to take place in multiple languages concurrently, or whether the ideal procedure is to monolingualize evidence first, and then assess it accordingly. Because of this ambivalence, asylum applicants are often left in the 'zone of uncertainty' between monolingualism and multilingualism. Their experiences and testimonies become subject to an 'epistemic anxiety' only infrequently seen in other areas of adjudication. We therefore ask whether asylum applicants ought to enjoy a 'right to untranslatability', taking account of the State's responsibility to cooperate actively with them or whether the burden ought to remain with the applicant to achieve credibility in the language of the respective jurisdiction, through interpretation and translation. © 2017
Interpreting and translation are unregulated activities in most countries, yet interpreters and translators perform challenging work in sensitive domains, such as the law, medicine and social work. Other professionals working in these sectors must complete formal ethics training to qualify, then subscribe to Codes of Practice or Ethics. When they face ethical challenges in their work, they can access ongoing support. They must undertake regular refresher training in ethics. Interpreters and translators rarely have access to this sort of ethical infrastructure. This places the onus on interpreters and translators to reflect on ethical aspects of their practice, for reasons related to both professional performance and social responsibility.
This contribution presents original UK-based research with one type of professional ‘clients’ who rely on interpreters and translators, social workers and social work students prior to their first work experience placement. Findings suggest that insufficient attention has been paid to such professional clients and that ethical aspects of professional communication can be compromised as a result. By framing ethics training and ongoing support in terms of social responsibility, we point to some ways in which the different professional groups might communicate and work more effectively with one another and with service users.
Purpose:
To identify best practice in interpreter use in suspect and intelligence interviews conducted by an international sample of experienced law enforcement practitioners in Asian Pacific jurisdictions (Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea and Sri Lanka).
Methods:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 121 practitioners who
described their experiences with and perceptions of interpreter-mediated
interviews. Responses were transcribed and coded by trained research assistants, achieving a high degree of inter-rater reliability.
Findings:
The practitioners agreed that interpreters changed the interview dynamic,
and identified benefits and risks of interpreter use. The responses revealed misconceptions about interpreter codes of practice regarding neutrality. Major concerns were maintaining control of the interview, accuracy loss, maintenance of nonverbal communication, interview duration and fatigue. Strategies used to manage interviews were the selection of the interpreter, advance preparation regarding ground rules and content, and placement of the interpreter (behind/adjacent to the interviewee). The key to a successful interview was a skilled, experienced interpreter.
Research Limitations:
Although the purposive sample was not representative, data from multiple practitioners revealed commonalities across jurisdictions. Self-reports are subject to memory distortions and cannot be validated, thus future research in a controlled experiment is recommended.
Practical Implications:
Interviewer training is needed: (i) to familiarise interviewers with differences between trained, accredited interpreters and untrained bilinguals; and (ii) effective strategies to ensure accurate information, maintain nonverbal communication and the legal right of interviewees to a fair interview.
The CO-Minor-IN/QUEST research project (JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2961, January 2013 - December 2014) studied the interactional dynamics of interpreter-mediated child interviews during the pre-trial phase in criminal procedures. This automatically involves communication with vulnerable interviewees who need extra support for three main reasons: their age (i.e. under 18), native language and procedural status (as a victim, witness or suspect). An on-line questionnaire, originally distributed in six EU Member States enabled the researchers to map the existing expertise, beliefs and needs of the main actors in the field of pre-trial child interviewing meaning interpreters, police and justice, and child support professionals. In this contribution, we will focus on ImQM (interpreter-mediated questioning of minors) in Belgium through the quantitative analysis of several statements on the role of the interpreter. The narratives then allow for a qualitative analysis to underpin the quantitative results, and paint a more complete picture of the needs in ImQM. Just like an interdisciplinary approach is central to research, teamwork is the keyword in daily ImQM practice.
Ethical interpreting practice must be predicated on an ongoing analysis of relevant contextual factors that arise in the interpreting situation. Although endorsed to some degree in interpreting pedagogy, this assertion runs counter to much of the history and continuing rhetoric of the interpreting field. Interpreting students receive a mixed message when educators assert a non-contextual, rule-based approach to ethics while simultaneously responding to both ethical and translation questions with "It depends" - an obvious reference to the centrality of context in decision making. This article elucidates a teleological (outcomes-focused) ethical reasoning framework which hinges on a continuing analysis of the dynamic context of the interpreting situation. Grounded in the construct of practice profession responsibility, this approach scrutinizes the co-created dialogue between the interpreter, the consumers who are present, and the context of their collective encounter. It is argued here that critical reasoning in the service of work effectiveness equates to ethical reasoning, even if an ethical dilemma per se has not arisen. The authors' approach to context-based interpreting work analysis and decision making, the demand control schema (DC-S), has been the subject of several research studies, including a recently-concluded dissemination project involving 15 interpreter education programmes across the United States.
In bilingual or diglossic situations, shifting or switching between languages can be a common phenomenon amongst groups or individuals. In interpreting situations, a shift in the constellation of languages, i.e. from language a and language x to language a and language y, is perhaps not so common. It can only occur in interactions between multilingual clients and multilingual interpreters, typically when clients wish to shift to their dominant language and interpreters also have proficiency in this language. Twenty Australian-based interpreters, out of a sample of sixty, reported engaging in shifting in the course of interpreting. Responses to hypothetical shifts in the language of interpretation are discussed, in which interpreter informants provide acceptability judgements of courses of action and justifications for accepting – or refusing to accept – a shift in the language of interpretation. Ethical considerations relevant to interpreters in these situations are discussed and the AUSIT Code of Ethics is examined to see which guidelines relate to this phenomenon.
Recent studies have challenged the assumption that the interpreter is an ‘invisible’ mediator and have demonstrated a departure from the ‘conduit’ role often assigned to interpreters in their professional ethics guidelines (e.g. Russell 2000, Wadensjö 1998, 2004; Yoshida 2007). In this paper, I address the issue of interpreter’s role as an invisible mediator through an examination of interactional ‘repairs’, one of the key aspects of interaction management mechanisms in the tradition of Conversation Analysis. The context of interpreting is Australian Federal Police interviews mediated by Japanese-English interpreters. While some repair sequences in interpreter-mediated police interviews followed common patterns of monolingual police interviews, there were also some features of repairs specific to interpreter-mediated discourse. In particular, due to the interpreting of each turn, in some cases, it is not always possible to ascertain whether it was the primary speaker’s turn or the interpreted version that was the source of ‘trouble’ leading to an interactional repair. The paper demonstrates interpreters’ vulnerability to being identified as the ‘troublemaker’ in repair sequences and consequential face-saving strategies. These strategies included modifying the primary speaker’s utterances or providing explanations for why a need to repair was perceived or why a repair sequence failed to rectify a problem. It is demonstrated that in engaging in these types of problem solving activities, interpreters at times shift roles, sometimes pushing the boundaries of their professional ethics. The paper argues that, while interpreters are often viewed as operating within a third ‘invisible’ space between interlocutors, this invisibility needs to be questioned. It is suggested that the expectation of a completely invisible, or neutral, third space is unrealistic, and that interpreters as cultural and linguistic mediators, and as social beings, continuously negotiate their identity with their clients while interpreting.
This article poses the existence of a relational model of interpreting that is already rooted in culturally Deaf ways of using evolved interpreters for intercultural communication.
Deaf criticism of professional interpreters directs attention to the history of simultaneous interpretation and its origins at the Nuremberg trials. The birth of professional spoken language simultaneous interpretation occurred as a result of new technology used in a new situation. In that setting, the role space of the interpreter was created and confined within a language regime based on unquestioned and therefore non-negotiable values.
The Deaf voice has been raised in protest against some of the restrictions of this model for half a century. During this time, sign language interpreters and practitioner-researchers have been watching and learning. Finally, recent theoretical concepts have begun to shape the framework of an alternative paradigm.
Interpreters in the legal domain, especially those involved in the Convention refugee hearing process, perform a variety of intercultural functions. The manner in which these functions are carried out determines the success of the communication process in terms of the acceptance or rejection of a given refugee’s claim. On the basis of interviews conducted as part of a research project designed to establish what motivates a Convention refugee to choose one host country rather than another, this paper sets out to provide a description of the functions performed by interpreters in the context of refugee hearings. Examples are offered to elaborate the range and complexity of intercultural mediation in these hearings, as well as the obvious deficiencies of the present legal system in terms of its limited utilization of the vast resources offered by interpreters.
Many deaf persons served in mental health settings show significant language dysfluency in the best language, usually ASL. Sign language dysfluency in deaf people has four major causes: neurological problems associated with the etiology of deafness, language deprivation, aphasias, and psychotic disorders. Each cause can effect language development and usage in a particular way. In this article, numerous examples of sign language dysfluency are offered along with a discussion of their implications for interpreting, especially in mental health settings. The authors draw upon the Demand- Control interpreting approach of Dean and Pollard to illustrate interpreter decision-making when faced with the challenge of dysfluent language. The advantages and disadvantages of collaboration with deaf interpreters are reviewed. Finally, suggestions for best practice in interpreting for language dysfluent deaf persons in mental health settings are reviewed.
In court interpreting, the law distinguishes between the prescribed activity of what it considers translation - defined as an objective, mechanistic, transparent process in which the interpreter acts as a mere conduit of words - and the proscribed activity of interpretation, which involves interpreters decoding and attempting to convey their understanding of speaker meanings and intentions. This article discusses the practicability of this cut-and-dried legal distinction between translation and interpretation and speculates on the reasons for its existence. An attempt is made to illustrate some of the moral dilemmas that confront court interpreters, and an argument is put forward for a more realistic understanding of their role and a major improvement in their professional status; as recognized professionals, court interpreters can more readily assume the latitude they need in order to ensure effective communication in the courtroom.
This article is a study of how the participation status of asylum-seeking children is interactively constructed in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings. We have undertaken a discourse analysis of 50 non-repair side-sequences from 26 hearings with Russian-speaking, asylum-seeking children in Sweden. A side-sequence is here defined as a monolingual sequence conducted in only one of the languages involved in the interviews. It involves the interpreter and only one of the primary interlocutors. In this article, four extracts are chosen for a microanalysis in order to elucidate how interpreters can challenge asylum-seeking children's participant statuses. We show that the right of the child to make his or her voice heard can be challenged, especially when the interpreters exclude, distort, discredit and guide the voices of the children, which is often done with the tacit approval of caseworkers.
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.
This book explores the intricacies of court interpreting through a thorough analysis of the authentic discourse of the English-speaking participants, the Spanish-speaking witnesses and the interpreters. Written by a practitioner, educator and researcher, the book presents the reader with real issues that most court interpreters face during their work and shows through the results of careful research studies that interpreter’s choices can have varying degrees of influence on the triadic exchange. It aims to raise the practitioners’ awareness of the significance of their choices and attempts to provide a theoretical basis for interpreters to make informed decisions rather than intuitive ones. It also suggests solutions for common problems. The book highlights the complexities of court interpreting and argues for thorough training for practicing interpreters to improve their performance as well as for better understanding of their task from the legal profession. Although the data is drawn from Spanish-English cases, the main results can be extended to any language combination. The book is written in a clear, accessible language and is aimed at practicing interpreters, students and educators of interpreting, linguists and legal professionals.
In most countries, it is not compulsory to be trained to work as an
interpreter in community settings. A comparison across jurisdictions
reveals that different requirements exist, from a simple selfevaluation
of language competence, to passing a certification or
accreditation test. Even in countries where certification or accreditation
systems exist, such as the USA and Australia, there is no
legislation to prevent any bilingual from working as interpreter. In
legal settings, this situation has led to a lack of clear guidelines
regarding interpreter recruitment, and to many examples of
incompetent interpreting that have impacted legal outcomes.
Little research has been conducted to systematically assess the
value of training on interpreter performance. This paper presents
results of a live experimental study conducted in Sydney, New
South Wales, Australia, showing significant differences between
the performance of trained interpreters and untrained bilinguals
in simulated police interviews. The study is one of a few to
compare performance based on interpreter background, using a
large sample and a sophisticated method to assess performance.
Procedural justice refers to fairness in police dealings with members of the public. By facilitating communication between the police and people with whom they do not share a common language, interpreters assist policing organisations to provide fair and equitable services for all members of the community. Yet research findings suggest that interpreters’ presence, behaviour, and interpreting choices can negatively impact the fairness of police investigative interviews. To contribute to enhanced procedural justice in interpreted investigative interviews, this study explores the under-researched topic of interpreters’ perceptions of such interviews. Twenty community interpreters from diverse languages participated in interviews, in line with the procedural justice concept of voice. Inductive thematic analysis of transcripts revealed interpreters’ perception that effective interpreting is impeded both by systemic issues arising from the structure of the interpreting profession and situational aspects of the police interview. Interpreters’ accounts urged police interviewers to develop familiarity with this developing profession and elaborated on what is helpful to them in interpreted police interviews whether on site or via telephone. Practical strategies for police interviewers to assist interpreters include familiarising them with interview rooms, giving advance briefings to prepare for emotional content, allowing time to check infrequently used words, and debriefing at the conclusion. Overall, the findings indicate some practical ways in which the procedural justice goals of neutrality, respectful treatment, and trustworthiness may be enhanced in interpreted investigative interviews. Further research is needed to assess the impacts of these suggestions on procedural justice outcomes in practice.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BQUKZTPIVDFYDAERP5CJ/full?target=10.1080/10439463.2018.1447572
This paper will discuss ethical dimensions of interpreting in asylum hearings where the language of the system has a dominant position vis-à-vis the languages of the applicants. Based on value theory and virtue ethics, this paper will look at professional morals relevant to the interpreters in this field. This framework will be used to analyse a selection of working principles contained in a handbook used in workshops for training lay interpreters in Austria. These principles will be mapped to moral values and virtues in order to determine to what extent justice – as a central ethical value – plays a role in this context. Esta presentación explora las dimensiones éticas de la interpretación en vistas judiciales de solicitud de asilo, en las que la lengua del sistema ocupa una posición dominante respecto de las lenguas de los solicitantes. Partiendo de la teoría de los valores, el artículo estudia la moral profesional que afecta a los intérpretes en este contexto. Desde ese marco, se analiza una selección de principios de trabajo contenidos en un manual utilizado en talleres para la formación de intérpretes legos en Austria. Estos principios se comparan con los valores y las virtudes morales para determinar qué función desempeña la justicia, como valor ético central, en este contexto. Palabras clave: interpretación; valores morales; ética de la virtud; vistas de solicitud de asilo; justicia
This paper investigates an interpreter’s handling of a distinctive ‘paternalistic’ (following Tates et al. 2002) participation framework in a Belgian criminal court, whereby the defendant is the topic –but not the addressee –of the interaction. The hearing analysed, which was recorded and transcribed, was part of a drugs trial. An experienced court interpreter provided consecutive and whispered interpreting, almost always asymmetrically, so that the French-speaking defendant could follow everything said to/about her in Dutch; the Dutch-speaking bench and counsel listened to the defendant’s French. The paternalistic participation framework seems to prompt various strategies by the interpreter, leading her to disregard major aspects of the code of ethics she works by. First, she sets up a separate participation framework with the defendant as the addressee of the interpretation (the ‘interpreter’s dyad’), systematically using the deictic coordinates of this framework in presenting the court’s interaction. Second, she tends sometimes to position herself in the role of principal, arguably as a result of the dyad arrangement. Finally, though interpretation is required only for the defendant, the latter’s French is occasionally interpreted into Dutch for the court –sometimes at the interpreter’s own initiative, possibly to protect the interests of the defendant in response to a verbal challenge from the judge.
This article investigates discourse markers in interpreter-mediated police investigative interviews. Drawing on Goffman’s participation framework and Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory, I show how pragmatic alterations of discourse markers in interpreters’ renditions impact on contemporary police interviewing techniques and procedures. The discussion draws on analysis of authentic interpreter-mediated interviews and sheds light on the ways in which interpreting can disempower the interviewee as a result of substantive pragmatic interference. The article builds on earlier discussions about the interpreter’s purported invisibility in legal interpreting and considers the role played by discourse markers in creating the illusion of an invisible mediator. I conclude that effectiveness of interrogation is affected by the extent to which interpreters and officers understand interpreters’ pragmatic competence and call for greater attention to its development in police and interpreter training, and recognition in Codes of Practice.
The current volume contains selected papers submitted after Critical Link 5 (Sydney 2007) and arises from its topic – quality interpreting being a communal responsibility of all the participants. It takes the much discussed theme of professionalisation of community interpreting to a new level by stating that achieving quality depends not only on the technical skills and ethics of interpreters, but equally upon all other parties that serve multilingual populations: speakers, employers and administrators, educational institutions, researchers, and interpreters. Major articles outline both innovative practices in legal and medical settings and prevailing deficiencies in community interpreting in different countries. While Part I, A shared responsibility: The policy dimension, addresses the macro environment of specific social policy contexts with constrains that affect interpreting, Part II, Investigations and innovations in quality interpreting, reveals a number of admirable cases of interpreters working together with their client institutions in a variety of social settings. Part III is dedicated to the questions of Pedagogy, ethics and responsibility in interpreting. The collection is an important reference book catering to the interpreting community: interpreting practitioners and interpreter users, researchers, educators, and students.
Professional interpreters in Australia have little opportunity to undertake education on issues of violence against women. This article observes a lack of awareness of gender violence-related issues among community interpreters. It then notes examples of gender-related problems arising in the work of interpreters assisting migrant women. It repeats Maree Pardy's call for interpreter education, but diverges from her 1995 work by explicitly recommending this education be informed by feminist principles. It observes that, although community interpreters are key to migrant women accessing social services in Australia, the profession resists calls for specialized education. This resistance occurs in a country that is recognized internationally for its progressive public service interpreting policies. We question why this is the case, and suggest that adherence to a peculiarly superficial notion of "impartiality" dulls the profession's responsiveness to the reality of male violence. We draw on government and non-governmental organization (NGO) reports, as well as interpreting scholarship using a gender lens, to theorize the need for feminist education of professional community interpreters.
This article explores the conduit model so often promoted in community interpreting and its connection with ethical behaviour. The author begins by exploring the origin of the model and the pathways through which it came to be applied in community interpreting. He then considers the model against the backdrop of competing ethical approaches and questions why it continues to be promoted in the face of mounting evidence of its shortcomings. Finally, he presents new information derived from interviews with stakeholders in the healthcare sector. The author argues that this information indicates practitioners may be willing to work with interpreters who take on a wider role, and he concludes by underlining the need to recognize the complexity in the work interpreters do.
In this timely study, Inghilleri examines the interface between ethics, language, and politics during acts of interpreting, with reference to two particular sites of transnational conflict: the political and judicial context of asylum adjudication and the geo-political context of war. The book characterizes the social and moral spaces in which the translation of the spoken word occurs in ways that reflect the realities of the trans-nationally constituted, locally and globally informed environments in which interpreters work alongside others. One of the core arguments is that the rather restricted notion of neutrality that remains central to translator and interpreter practices does not adequately reflect the complex and paradoxical nature of these socially and politically inscribed encounters and others like them. This study offers an alternative theoretical perspective on language and ethics to those which have shaped and informed translation and interpreting theory and practice in recent years.
This article investigates occupational intercultures generated between interpreters and social workers, and is informed by
research in Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Bourdieusian concepts of field, habitus and zones of uncertainty are
used to illuminate the particular status of interpreter mediation within the interculture as a backdrop to theorising about
the impact of interpreter mediation on the nature of social workers' change agency and reflexive approaches to practice. The
article reports on an exploratory and mixed-methods qualitative study in which interpreters and social workers in statutory
and non-statutory services were interviewed about their perceptions of the ‘occupational Other’, and in which a discourse-analytical
approach to the data helped take account of the researcher's position as an insider of the interpreting community in the final
analytic write-up. The findings suggest that the interculture can often be weakened due to poor understandings of the structural
weaknesses in the constitution of public service interpreting and the ‘recontextualising’ practices that occur in interaction;
furthermore, interpreter mediation appears to challenge communicative practices in social work in ways that practitioners
do not always have the resources to address effectively. The article ends with a call for more research at the micro level
of interaction.
The current volume contains selected papers submitted after Critical Link 5 (Sydney 2007) and arises from its topic – quality interpreting being a communal responsibility of all the participants. It takes the much discussed theme of professionalisation of community interpreting to a new level by stating that achieving quality depends not only on the technical skills and ethics of interpreters, but equally upon all other parties that serve multilingual populations: speakers, employers and administrators, educational institutions, researchers, and interpreters. Major articles outline both innovative practices in legal and medical settings and prevailing deficiencies in community interpreting in different countries. While Part I, A shared responsibility: The policy dimension, addresses the macro environment of specific social policy contexts with constrains that affect interpreting, Part II, Investigations and innovations in quality interpreting, reveals a number of admirable cases of interpreters working together with their client institutions in a variety of social settings. Part III is dedicated to the questions of Pedagogy, ethics and responsibility in interpreting. The collection is an important reference book catering to the interpreting community: interpreting practitioners and interpreter users, researchers, educators, and students.
Using ethnographic evidence on asylum proceedings for refugee recognition from various sources (Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, and Canada), this paper updates Gumperz's notion of crosstalk by exploring the massively flexible and multilingual nature of late-modern communication as epitomized in one of the most complex adjudication procedures performed by Western nation-states. Every year thousands of displaced people seek the protection of various European countries by filing asylum claims, which are examined by national commissions. This paper explores how the problematic nature of these encounters can be traced to the nature of late-modern communication, characterized as it is by asymmetrical power, multiple communicative agents with competing agendas, multilingual and hybridized talk, and creolized forms of interaction.
This article explores the interplay between language and intercultural communication within refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France, using material taken from ethnographic research that involved a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis in both countries over a two-year period (2007–2009). It is concerned, in particular, to examine the role played by interpreters in facilitating intercultural communication between asylum applicants and the different administrative and legal actors responsible for assessing or defending their claims. The first section provides an overview of refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France, introducing the main administrative and legal contexts of the asylum process within which interpreters operate in the two countries. The second section compares the organisation of interpreting services, codes of conduct for interpreters and institutional expectations about the nature of interpreters' activity on the part of the relevant UK and French authorities. The third section then explores some of the practical dilemmas for interpreters and barriers to communication that exist in refugee status determination procedures in the two countries. The article concludes by emphasising the complex and active nature of the interpreter's role in UK and French refugee status determination procedures.
Four current models of translation ethics are described, based on the ideas of representation, service, communication and norms. There are problems with all these models: they are in several respects incompatible, and have different ranges of application. An alternative approach is therefore offered based on Alasdair MacIntyre’s ideas about virtues and the deontic force of excellence in a social practice. This leads to a fifth possible model, an ethics of professional commitment, comparable with Maria Tymoczko’s suggestion that translation is a commissive act. At the centre of such a model there might be an official oath, comparable to the Hyppocratic Oath for the medical profession. I end with a proposal for a Hieronymic Oath for translators.
Approximately 42 million people worldwide are displaced due to persecution, war or natural disaster (UNHCR, 2008). Many seek refuge in countries far from their own. Where host countries supply refugee mental health services, these services rely heavily on the work of interpreters. Despite interpreters being exposed to significant client distress, little attention has been paid to the impact of mental health interpreting on the well-being of interpreters themselves. This study set out to build on limited previous work in this area.A total of 157 interpreters contracted by Glasgow Translating and Interpreting Service, UK, were surveyed in April 2007. Responses were analysed using grounded theory analyses. Of the 18 interpreters who responded, 56% reported having been emotionally affected by mental health interpreting, 67% reported that they sometimes found it hard to put clients out of their minds and 33% reported that interpreting for clients with mental health difficulties had had an impact on their personal life. Respondents experienced a range of emotions in relation to their work, including anger, sadness, hopelessness and powerlessness, and 28% reported sometimes having difficulty moving onto their next job due to distress associated with a previous client. These findings are discussed in relation to good practice guidelines.
This paper focuses on interpreting in asylum hearings, a field of research thus far largely neglected in Translation Studies. Specifically, it is based on a discourse analytical study of authentic asylum hearings recorded at the Federal Asylum Office in Graz (Austria). Some aspects of the role and responsibilities of interpreters are discussed. The results clearly suggest that interpreters in asylum hearings frequently assume discrepant roles which may at times be determined by the perceived expectations of the officers in charge, and that these roles are not clear-cut. Interpreters are found to shorten and paraphrase statements, volunteer explanations, try to save their own — and if possible, also the other participants' — face, and intervene if they deem it necessary.
The following review on ethics in interpreting is published as an invitation to our readers for short contributions on a highly explosive subject in the field of interpreting. Please address all contributions to the Editors (
massaro@fuzzy.ucsc.edu
,
Barbara.Moser@eti.unige.ch
) with a copy to the author (
hmikkelson@miis.edu)
. The results of this open discussion will be published in an upcoming issue of Interpreting.
This paper presents a case study of an interpreting event in a Danish courtroom setting. The study investigates the interpreter's influence on the interaction as well as factors influencing the behaviour of all the participants involved. The study also investigates what happens when the interpreter's performance is perceived by participants as inadequate in order to achieve the communicative goal of the event. The model of translation culture, in which cooperativeness, loyalty and transparency are key concepts, is used as an explanatory tool. Although the interaction under study, like all courtroom interaction, is determined by the inherent institutional power differential, it is appropriate to describe it in terms of cooperativeness. The conflict regarding the interpreter's non-normative behaviour is negotiated and settled by way of consensus, and the trial is carried through with the same interpreter despite doubt about her competence. The paper concludes by discussing the effect of special contextual conditions, as well as ethical implications.
Deaf Professionals and Designated Interpreters: A New Paradigm defines a new model that depends upon strong partnerships between the growing number of deaf experts and their interpreters. Editors Peter C. Hauser, Karen L. Finch, and Angela B. Hauser have called upon more than a score of widely respected researchers to discuss the new dynamics of interpreting for deaf professionals. Divided into two parts, this volume first delineates Designated Interpreting, in which interpreters team with deaf professionals to advance a shared point of view. Chapters in this section include the linguistics of the partnership (Look-Pause-Nod); the varying attitudes and behavior of deaf professionals and their interpreters; interaction in the work-related social setting to ensure equal participation; interpreting as affected by conversational style and gender factors; academic and educational interpreting for deaf academics; and adjusting company policies with professional interpreter guidelines. Part II, Deaf Professional and Designated Interpreter Partnerships, offers relevant examples of interpreting for deaf professionals in real estate, contemporary art, medicine, business administration, education, mental health, film-making, and information technology. These anecdotal chapters demonstrate the critical complexity of the relationships between professionals and interpreters, a revolutionary transformation that will be appreciated by interpreter preparation programs, instructors, interpreters, and their clients alike.