When and why conference interpreting caught the attention of Turkish media, and how they conseque... more When and why conference interpreting caught the attention of Turkish media, and how they consequently represented professional interpreters to the public.
This study explores the representation of interpreters in the Turkish news media by analyzing the... more This study explores the representation of interpreters in the Turkish news media by analyzing the online editions of the three most circulated Turkish newspapers between June 2017 and March 2021. It looks at what triggers a media discourse on interpreters and how interpreters are represented in the news media. It also juxtaposes the current portrayal of conference and diplomatic interpreters with the media coverage of conference interpreters in two previous studies. The results indicate that although references to interpreters working in legal settings are by far the most numerous, these references are almost always in passing, giving interpreters in these settings no visibility or voice. The same applies to interpreters working in refugee settings. In contrast, news items on sign language and football interpreters accord significant visibility and voice to these interpreters. News reports on conference and diplomatic interpreters, on the other hand, seem to reflect a marked shift towards negative coverage, characterized by the absence of interpreters’ voices and a media discourse that contests their neutrality, the latter view of interpreters being at least partly related to political tensions in the country.
This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in pro... more This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in professional and student Turkish (A)-English (B) simultaneous interpreters as a function of simultaneous interpreting (SI) experience and working memory capacity (WMC). A Turkish visual-world eyetracking prediction task examined whether the accusative versus the nominative case markers on the initial nouns of sentences could be used as cues to predicting an upcoming argument. The participants' WMC was measured using an automated operation span task. We found a prediction effect (a significantly higher increase in fixations to the plausible agent with time in the accusative than in the nominative condition) for the professionals, but not for the students. WMC contributed positively to the prediction effect in the professionals. Our findings indicate an SI-related advantage for prediction in professional versus student interpreters. Importantly, the present findings revealed an SI-related advantage in a prediction task that did not require interpreting.
A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction,... more A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction, co-created and (self-) translated by Enis Batur & Yigit Bener.
Despite the change in the academic discourse foregrounding "agency" in translation and ... more Despite the change in the academic discourse foregrounding "agency" in translation and interpreting, the image of conference interpreting in the eyes of the outsiders still centers around the "non-presence of the interpreter in his/her own interpretation". Outsiders continue to praise interpreters when they think the interpreter is fully loyal to the speaker and criticise them very harshly when they think there is a deviation from the word of the speaker. This is especially true in the representation of the profession(al) by the media. This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the discourse on conference interpreting by reviewing the recent examples of news reporting on conference interpreting in the mainstream and social media, and by critically reflecting on the (in)adequacy of the response of the professional world to these developments.
As social entities, professions shape and are shaped by the discourse (i.e. language use) pertain... more As social entities, professions shape and are shaped by the discourse (i.e. language use) pertaining to that specific field. As in other professions, the identity, image and status of simultaneous conference interpreting (here referred to as SI) are intertwined with the way the profession and the professional are
This article examines the historical evolution and current status of conference and community int... more This article examines the historical evolution and current status of conference and community interpreting in Turkey, while also highlighting the legal frameworks, fields of practice, professional organisations, training opportunities, and future directions for each area of interpreting. In addition to spoken language interpreting, the article surveys the development of Turkish Sign Language and signed language interpreting as well as its prospects in Turkey. Keywords: Dragomans, Turkish sign language, conference interpreting, community interpreting, court interpreting, signed language interpreting, professionalization
This paper looks at how simultaneous interpreting and interpreters were presented in the Turkish ... more This paper looks at how simultaneous interpreting and interpreters were presented in the Turkish press and television from September 1988 through March 2003. The materials analysed include newspapers, magazines, journals, TV news and programs. The study provides insight into when and why the profession enters the limelight in the Turkish media and explores the divergences and convergences in the views and attitudes reflected by the voices of press and the professional interpreters themselves.
This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on inter... more This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on interpreters as professionals working in socio-cultural contexts and on the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI behavior. While previous research on SI has been dominated by cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches, Diriker’s work explores SI in relation to the broader and more immediate socio-cultural contexts by investigating the representation of the profession(al) in the meta-discourse and by exploring the presence of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance at an actual conference. Making use of participant observations, interviews and analysis of conference transcripts, Diriker challenges some of the widely held assumptions about SI. She suggests that the interpreter’s delivery represents not only the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions, and that this multiplicity may well be a source of tension or vulnerability, as well as strength, for interpreters. Her analysis also highlights how interpreters negotiate meaning in SI, and underscores the need for more concerted efforts to explore SI in authentic contexts.
When and why conference interpreting caught the attention of Turkish media, and how they conseque... more When and why conference interpreting caught the attention of Turkish media, and how they consequently represented professional interpreters to the public.
This study explores the representation of interpreters in the Turkish news media by analyzing the... more This study explores the representation of interpreters in the Turkish news media by analyzing the online editions of the three most circulated Turkish newspapers between June 2017 and March 2021. It looks at what triggers a media discourse on interpreters and how interpreters are represented in the news media. It also juxtaposes the current portrayal of conference and diplomatic interpreters with the media coverage of conference interpreters in two previous studies. The results indicate that although references to interpreters working in legal settings are by far the most numerous, these references are almost always in passing, giving interpreters in these settings no visibility or voice. The same applies to interpreters working in refugee settings. In contrast, news items on sign language and football interpreters accord significant visibility and voice to these interpreters. News reports on conference and diplomatic interpreters, on the other hand, seem to reflect a marked shift towards negative coverage, characterized by the absence of interpreters’ voices and a media discourse that contests their neutrality, the latter view of interpreters being at least partly related to political tensions in the country.
This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in pro... more This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in professional and student Turkish (A)-English (B) simultaneous interpreters as a function of simultaneous interpreting (SI) experience and working memory capacity (WMC). A Turkish visual-world eyetracking prediction task examined whether the accusative versus the nominative case markers on the initial nouns of sentences could be used as cues to predicting an upcoming argument. The participants' WMC was measured using an automated operation span task. We found a prediction effect (a significantly higher increase in fixations to the plausible agent with time in the accusative than in the nominative condition) for the professionals, but not for the students. WMC contributed positively to the prediction effect in the professionals. Our findings indicate an SI-related advantage for prediction in professional versus student interpreters. Importantly, the present findings revealed an SI-related advantage in a prediction task that did not require interpreting.
A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction,... more A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction, co-created and (self-) translated by Enis Batur & Yigit Bener.
Despite the change in the academic discourse foregrounding "agency" in translation and ... more Despite the change in the academic discourse foregrounding "agency" in translation and interpreting, the image of conference interpreting in the eyes of the outsiders still centers around the "non-presence of the interpreter in his/her own interpretation". Outsiders continue to praise interpreters when they think the interpreter is fully loyal to the speaker and criticise them very harshly when they think there is a deviation from the word of the speaker. This is especially true in the representation of the profession(al) by the media. This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the discourse on conference interpreting by reviewing the recent examples of news reporting on conference interpreting in the mainstream and social media, and by critically reflecting on the (in)adequacy of the response of the professional world to these developments.
As social entities, professions shape and are shaped by the discourse (i.e. language use) pertain... more As social entities, professions shape and are shaped by the discourse (i.e. language use) pertaining to that specific field. As in other professions, the identity, image and status of simultaneous conference interpreting (here referred to as SI) are intertwined with the way the profession and the professional are
This article examines the historical evolution and current status of conference and community int... more This article examines the historical evolution and current status of conference and community interpreting in Turkey, while also highlighting the legal frameworks, fields of practice, professional organisations, training opportunities, and future directions for each area of interpreting. In addition to spoken language interpreting, the article surveys the development of Turkish Sign Language and signed language interpreting as well as its prospects in Turkey. Keywords: Dragomans, Turkish sign language, conference interpreting, community interpreting, court interpreting, signed language interpreting, professionalization
This paper looks at how simultaneous interpreting and interpreters were presented in the Turkish ... more This paper looks at how simultaneous interpreting and interpreters were presented in the Turkish press and television from September 1988 through March 2003. The materials analysed include newspapers, magazines, journals, TV news and programs. The study provides insight into when and why the profession enters the limelight in the Turkish media and explores the divergences and convergences in the views and attitudes reflected by the voices of press and the professional interpreters themselves.
This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on inter... more This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on interpreters as professionals working in socio-cultural contexts and on the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI behavior. While previous research on SI has been dominated by cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches, Diriker’s work explores SI in relation to the broader and more immediate socio-cultural contexts by investigating the representation of the profession(al) in the meta-discourse and by exploring the presence of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance at an actual conference. Making use of participant observations, interviews and analysis of conference transcripts, Diriker challenges some of the widely held assumptions about SI. She suggests that the interpreter’s delivery represents not only the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions, and that this multiplicity may well be a source of tension or vulnerability, as well as strength, for interpreters. Her analysis also highlights how interpreters negotiate meaning in SI, and underscores the need for more concerted efforts to explore SI in authentic contexts.
De-/Re-Contextualizing Conference Interpreting: Interpreters in the Ivory Tower?, 2004
Here are a few examples showing critical decision-making, hence 'agency', in conference interpret... more Here are a few examples showing critical decision-making, hence 'agency', in conference interpreting. There are 68 such instances in total.
This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on inter... more This groundbreaking study explores Simultaneous Conference Interpreting (SI) by focusing on interpreters as professionals working in socio-cultural contexts and on the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI behavior. While previous research on SI has been dominated by cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches, Diriker’s work explores SI in relation to the broader and more immediate socio-cultural contexts by investigating the representation of the profession(al) in the meta-discourse and by exploring the presence of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance at an actual conference. Making use of participant observations, interviews and analysis of conference transcripts, Diriker challenges some of the widely held assumptions about SI. She suggests that the interpreter’s delivery represents not only the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions, and that this multiplicity may well be a source of tension or vulnerability, as well as strength, for interpreters. Her analysis also highlights how interpreters negotiate meaning in SI, and underscores the need for more concerted efforts to explore SI in authentic contexts.
Elinizdeki kitap, konferans çevirmenliğinde güncel uygulamaları ve araştırmaları ele almayı amaçl... more Elinizdeki kitap, konferans çevirmenliğinde güncel uygulamaları ve araştırmaları ele almayı amaçlıyor. Kitabın iki ana temasından biri olan 'Güncel Uygulamalar' kısmında, Türkiye'nin üyelik perspektifi çerçevesinde, Avrupa Birliği'nin kendine özgü 'çok dillilik' politikası ayrıntılı olarak irdeleniyor, bu politikanın sözlü ve yazılı çeviri uygulamalarını nasıl biçimlendirdiğine değiniliyor. Bu politikanın katılım öncesi ve sonrası dönemde Türkiye'de çeviri uygulamalarına ve eğitimine olası yansımaları mercek altına alınıyor. Kitabın ikinci ana temasını oluşturan 'Güncel Araştırmalar' bölümünde ise 1950'lerde başlayan ve son yirmi yıldır hızla gelişen eşzamanlı konferans çevirisi araştırmaları inceleniyor. Konferans çevirmenliği konusunda yapılan araştırmaların, tarihsel, içeriksel ve yöntemsel olarak gelişimi ve meslek açısından etkileri değerlendiriliyor. Avrupa Birliği'ne uyum sürecinin ve konferans çevirmenliği araştırmalarının konferans çevirmenliği mesleğine etkilerini daha geniş kitlelere iletmekte bu kitabın önemli bir rol oynayacağına inanıyoruz.
A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction,... more A review of a thought-provoking work on conference interpreting, at once fiction and non-fiction, co-created and (self-) translated by Enis Batur & Yigit Bener
Uploads
Papers by Ebru Diriker