Public Service Interpreting

Drawing on the PEACE model for investigative interviewing and the seven principles of investigative interviewing in England and Wales, the chapter aims at mapping the PEACE model into interpreter-mediated interviews and examining factors and concepts necessary for effective interpreter-mediated interviews.
The intention of this chapter, which reviews literature on investigative interviewing as well as public service interpreting, is to identify and illustrate shared principles and behaviour between both participants of the communicative event (i.e., interviewers and interpreters) suggesting that both of them work towards the same goal – obtaining best evidence, and also to argue that it is through professionalism, awareness and understanding, cooperation and trust (PACT) that they can achieve it.

Keywords: investigative interviewing, PEACE, interpreter-mediated police interviews, cooperation, principles of investigative interviewing, PACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled the importance of proper communication for public health, especially in multilingual contexts where speakers of minority languages have not had proper access to information in their languages, like indigenous peoples. Different approaches have been taken at national, regional, and local levels in this regard. In Peru, the COVID-19 pandemic enhanced the need for a government-driven provision of translation and interpreting in indigenous languages, especially in health care services. To that end, the Peruvian Government created a Centre of Interpreting and Translation in Indigenous Languages, a leading experience in the region. This paper aims at providing an overview of its implementation process through the analysis of the regulations behind it and the provided assistance a year after being launched to try to identify the possible implications of such implementation on how public service interpreting and translation in indigenous languages can move towards an articulated model of government-driven language services.

The relevance of translation has never been greater. The challenges of the 21st century are truly glocal and societies are required to manage diversities like never before. Cultural and linguistic diversities cut across ideological systems, those carefully crafted to uphold prevailing hierarchies of power, making asymmetries inescapable. Translation and interpreting studies have left behind neutrality and have put forward challenging new approaches that provide a starting point for researching translation as a cultural and historical product in a global and asymmetrical world. This book addresses issues arising from the power vested in and arrogated by translation and interpreting either as instruments of change, or as tools to sustain dominant structures. It presents new perspectives and cutting-edge research findings on how asymmetries are fashioned, woven, upheld, experienced, confronted, resisted, and rewritten through and in translation. This volume is useful for scholars looking for tools to raise awareness as to the challenges posed by the pervasiveness of power relations in mediated communication. It will further help practitioners understand how asymmetries shape their experiences when translating and interpreting.

To prepare the ground for the French and English contributions to follow, the guest editors take stock, in both languages, of the thematic and methodological richness of dialogue interpreting (DI). They first illustrate the dynamism and innovativeness of the field, by presenting some of the topics that scholars in sign and spoken language interpreting have investigated, as well as the main methods of data collection and analysis they have used to address the complexity of DI. They then provide an overview of the eleven contributions to this issue of _The Interpreters’ Newsletter_, all of which open new thematic, theoretical and/or methodological directions of research. From an interdisciplinary perspective and on the basis of authentic data, the contributors explore particular communicative phenomena and/or develop specific lenses for DI, or shed light on practices that have so far received scant attention in the literature and in the classrooms. Finally, the editors point out other promising thematic and methodological avenues that do not appear in Issue 26, which is an invitation to take some time to reflect on the wide range of research and training possibilities that characterise DI.

Keywords: dialogue interpreting, research methods, research topics, methodological interdisciplinarity, pedagogical innovations

Translation is an essential tool in diverse societies. As language conflicts grow within certain sectors of the population, translation and interpreting contribute to bridging the communication gap within multilingual nations.

Governmental social policies in the UK and Spain recognise the right to translation and interpreting in public settings, yet their implementation needs to be reinforced.

The provision of Public Service Interpreting and Translation (PSIT) has faced many challenges, and professionalisation is encouraged. The privatisation and outsourcing of court interpreting have proven to be detrimental to the profession.

In this paper, we call for close collaborations between governmental agencies and policymakers with translation organizations to ensure that the quality of PSIT is guaranteed.

El avance de nuestra sociedad hacia el multilingüismo, por un lado y hacia la globalización, por otro lado, plantea una serie de retos nuevos en cuya resolución las nuevas tecnologías juegan un papel fundamental. Ahora bien, dichos recursos no están disponibles ni son generados de la misma forma para todas las lenguas. Es nuestro propósito indagar precisamente sobre los recursos que la web ofrece al traductor / intérprete en las combinaciones de lenguas español-inglés; español-francés; español-árabe y español-rumano, con especial énfasis en el área de la traducción e interpretación en los servicios públicos (TISP) con el fin de conocer la realidad y la distancia entre las combinaciones español e inglés/francés y español y árabe/rumano. Pretendemos de este modo contribuir a avanzar en la creación de herramientas útiles entre estas combinaciones de lenguas llamadas de la inmigración y a disminuir el desequilibrio que ahora mismo existe.

This paper analyzes the general impact and the potentially adverse effects of the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in a telephone-interpreted police interview in Finland, which was recorded and transcribed. The data were analyzed manually, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The analysis focuses on issues of mutual understanding and the organization of discursive flow from the interpreter’s perspective, using theoretical and methodological tools from conversation analysis, critical sociolinguistics, and critical discourse analysis. Examples of repair initiations and candidate understandings in the data, divided into three categories based on the degree of interpreter intervention in interaction, illustrate the interpreter’s prominent role as a coordinator of discursive flow and repairer of communication problems. However, while the LF-speaking interpreter shows accommodation to the ELF-speaking migrant’s linguistic resources, the outcome is not necessarily beneficial to the migrant. The service provider’s command of English complicates the interaction. Thus, in dialogue interpreting, ELF may function as an instrument of linguistic unfairness in ways that are often unpredictable. The representations that the interpreter constructs of the other participants as persons with limited linguistic and discursive resources play an important role in such processes. The peculiar features of telephone interpreting intersecting with issues related to ELF intensify such phenomena.

Informe dut a terme pel grup MIRAS (Mediació i Interpretació: Recerca en l'Àmbit Social) del Departament de Traducció i Interpretació de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona a partir de qüestionaris adreçats als traductors, intèrprets i usuaris dels serveis públics. Detalla el nombre d'usuaris dels serveis, els idiomes més utilitzats, els problemes de comunicació que es plantegen, la formació dels professionals, les tasques que duen a terme, les dificultats amb què es troben, etc

Telephone Interpreting (TI) is a variety of remote interpreting which is increasingly present in public services of many countries such as Spain. Although it is usually carried out in liaison or bilateral interpreting, TI requires trainees to develop a number of specific skills due to its specificities (Rosenberg 2007). As one of the most used methodological tools in bilateral interpreting, role-plays have also become a key instrument in TI training. This paper aims at identifying the main elements that a role-play (either scripted or improvised) should include to help developing TI specific skills.

La manca de definicio i de delimitacio del camp d’accio de la figura del traductor-interpret als serveis publics en el context catala esta estretament lligada a la manca de formacio especialitzada, aixi com a l’absencia d’uns criteris que en regulin l’exercici. Des de les universitats, i concretament des dels centres d’ensenyament de la traduccio i de la interpretacio, ja s’ha comencat a fer evident la urgencia de donar resposta a aquesta necessitat, pero en els plans d’estudis actuals la presencia de continguts vinculats amb la traduccio i la interpretacio als serveis publics es encara molt exigua. En aquest article ens proposem dos objectius: d’una banda, oferir un estat de la questio sobre la mediacio, la traduccio i la interpretacio als serveis publics a Catalunya, tant des de la perspectiva professional com des de la recerca aplicada, i de l’altra, definir el perfil del traductor i interpret als serveis publics catalans a traves dels resultats d’un estudi empiric entorn d’aques...

This paper aims at clearly identifying and explaining the role conflict that interpreters in mental health settings often express. This is done through an analysis of the scientific literature addressing the issue of the interpreter’s role in these setting, and the conceptualization in all of its nuances of the very wide range of professional positions he/she can adopt. It ends on an indication of the research areas that we believe are top-priorities to inform practice. This detailed state of the art is first adn foremost designed to stimulate reflection and encourage the interprofessional dialogue between therapists and interpreters.

Sociaal tolken komen voortdurend in aanraking met vakspecifieke terminologie. Daar ze binnen verschillende domeinen tewerkgesteld worden, worden ze dan ook geacht van verschillende terminologische markten thuis te zijn. Uit voorgaande studies blijkt echter dat terminologie vaak een probleemfactor vormt voor zowel niet-opgeleide als opgeleide sociaal tolken. Dit exploratieve onderzoek werpt licht op
de perceptie van sociaal tolken bij de Brusselse sociaal tolk- en vertaaldienst Brussel Onthaal vzw ten aanzien van terminologische problemen en vertaalstrategieën. Door middel van een gesloten vragenlijst worden de percepties van de bevraagde gecertificeerde en niet-gecertificeerde tolken in beeld gebracht. Als conclusie kan
gesteld worden dat de bevraagde tolken zich bewust zijn van de terminologische problemen die gepaard gaan met sociaal tolken. Daarnaast wordt vastgesteld dat zowel de niet-gecertificeerde als de gecertificeerde tolken op de hoogte zijn van wat in voorgaande studies als goede vertaalstrategieën worden beschouwd.

Being a patient with Covid-19 is a traumatising experience for everyone, but more so if you do not speak the language of your healthcare provider. This article explores the importance of community interpreters in society now and their potential future role, particularly in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

University of Wrocław / Faculty of Letters / INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH STUDIES / Department of Translation Studies

cordially invites translation and interpreting scholars to contribute to the monograph volume titled:

"Interpreting in the 21st century: practices, problems and challenges"

The monograph volume will continue the publishing activity of the Department of Translation Studies, established in October 2012 in the organisational structure of the Institute of English Studies. The volumes addressed by the previous calls for contributions are currently in the edition and review process and will have been published in 2016.

We seek papers discussing various aspects of interpreting in the 21st century. The 21st century is the time of globalisation, the time of constant exchange and transfer of information and knowledge. One of the ways in which it occurs is through interpreting.

Thus, we are interested in contributions presenting various approaches to interpreting practices, problems and challenges. The topic may include (but are not restricted to) such aspects as cognitive and psychological aspects, interpreting training and education, interpreting competence, community interpreting, the figure of an interpreter, interpreting in different contexts, methods of interpreting, interpreting research etc. All papers should centre around interpreting and its practices, problems and challenges in the 21st century.

All interested authors are hereby asked to send their paper proposal by December 31, 2016 to: marcin.walczynski@uwr.edu.pl. The deadline for submitting complete papers is February 28, 2017. The papers should be sent to the above-indicated email address.

All papers submitted to the volume will undergo the reviewing process (blind review). After the reviews, the papers will be returned to contributors with reviewers’ remarks and a request to improve them or reply to the review.

The contribution should adhere to the style sheet guidelines, attached hereto.

Editor:
dr Marcin Walczyński

Fourth Community Interpreting Conference, Dublin City University, Ireland, 27 June 2014

Interpreting assignments in legal settings make up the bulk of the average community interpreter’s work. Given the gravity of legal decision-making, however, this area of interpreting practice tends to be treated too lightly by practitioners, who--having become familiar with the various legal settings--often underestimate the importance of developing their legal competence further. Acknowledged as a requisite for legal translation, legal competence appears to be conceived of by interpreters as familiarity with fundamental legal procedures and terminology. The average community interpreter, who seldom had dealings with members of the legal profession before embarking on an interpreting career, would have learnt about law through work experience supplemented by somewhat basic interpreting training. Whereas, from a lawyer’s perspective, that will never be on a par with law school education, the question arises of what constitutes sufficient legal competence required for interpreting in legal settings.

The author suggests that it is high time community interpreters stepped outside their comfort zone demarcated by frequently used legal formulas and dictionary definitions. Instead of following the well-trodden path of the layman’s understanding of law, they should explore the abstruse world of comparative law, jurisprudence, legal reasoning and statutory interpretation, preferably through specialised formal training. While, for obvious reasons, such training would only be scratching the surface, it would nevertheless allow community interpreters to increase their legal competence through connecting the dots, rather than relying on guesswork in their practice. Only when equipped with a sufficient degree of legal competence, in addition to bilingual proficiency and interpreting techniques, will interpreters be able to navigate successfully through the murky waters of jurisdictional peculiarities and successfully facilitate bi- or multilingual proceedings. This paper focusses on interpreting in criminal proceedings and legal competence required to translate legal concepts between languages of common law and civil law systems.

This is a post-print version of the following article: Orozco-Jutorán, Mariana; Vargas-Urpí, Mireia (2022). Children and teenagers acting as language brokers: the perception of teachers at secondary schools. Across languages and cultures 23 (1). p. 14-35

The purpose of this document is to support the education and training of community interpreters. It does so by providing structured and detailed guidelines for professional conduct in accordance with principles and values that underlie widely accepted practice in the field. The concept of communicative autonomy is introduced in this document as a fundamental principle. Communicative autonomy is defined here as the capacity of each party in an encounter to be responsible for and in control of his or her own communication (despite language and cultural barriers).

This exploratory study analyses the functions of small talk in interpretermediated healthcare encounters. Drawing on a dataset of hospital visits with participation of five trained interpreters, analysis of particular excerpts reveals that small talk helps both patients and providers to fulfil functions similar to those reported in monolingual visits, thus (a) supporting interpersonal relationship building (e.g. establishing trust) and (b) goal achievement (e.g. minimising pain). Successful attainment of small talk functions relies heavily on healthcare interpreters, who are observed to co-construct and participate in small talk pursuing their own set of objectives, such as reassuring patients and facilitating the
providers’ clinical work.

El avance de nuestra sociedad hacia el multilinguismo, por un lado y hacia la globalizacion, por otro lado, plantea una serie de retos nuevos en cuya resolucion las nuevas tecnologias juegan un papel fundamental. Ahora bien, dichos recursos no estan disponibles ni son generados de la misma forma para todas las lenguas. Es nuestro proposito indagar precisamente sobre los recursos que la web ofrece al traductor / interprete en las combinaciones de lenguas espanol-ingles; espanol-frances; espanol-arabe y espanol-rumano, con especial enfasis en el area de la traduccion e interpretacion en los servicios publicos (TISP) con el fin de conocer la realidad y la distancia entre las combinaciones espanol e ingles/frances y espanol y arabe/rumano. Pretendemos de este modo contribuir a avanzar en la creacion de herramientas utiles entre estas combinaciones de lenguas llamadas de la inmigracion y a disminuir el desequilibrio que ahora mismo existe. Palabras clave: comunicacion intercultural, trad...

Violence against women is a type of gender based discrimination suffered by women all over the world and it aects dierent groups of women in different ways. Migrant women who do not speak the host country language are especially vulnerable due to their cultural, social and linguistic isolation. To guarantee their rights, governments have an obligation to provide means for such victims to understand and be understood, including the provision of quality translation and interpreting. This paper denes the characteristics of police and court interpreting for gender violence (GV) victims and ascertains the training needs of interpreters to work in these contexts. Fieldwork results from the SOS-VICS1 Project were analysed, including the questionnaire and interviews with agents2 working with GV victims, as well as the survey carried out on interpreters providing attention to victims. The results conrm that interpreters require specialised training for their role in building communication br...

Zwei Ausgangspunkte
1. „Die postmigrantische Gesellschaft verändert die Vorstellung von Integration grundlegend und paradigmatisch. Da sie die Anerkennung der einwanderungsgesellschaftlichen Realität als Ausgangspunkt nimmt und das Versprechen der Gleichheit – in diesem Sinne auch Zugänge zu gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen, definiert als Chancengleichheit für alle – in den Mittelpunkt rückt, entfernt sie sich vom Assimilationsdruck und von der Vorstellung einer Bringschuld der Migrant*innen.“ (Foroutan 2019:40)
2. Bringschuld wird auf der Webseite DWDS (Digitales Wörterbuch der
Deutschen Sprache – Der deutsche Wortschatz von 1600 bis heute), einem Projekt der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, im übertragenen Sinn folgendermaßen definiert: „die moralische Verpflichtung, eine bestimmte, gesellschaftlich erwartbare Leistung von sich aus zu erbringen“. Bei den Beispielen für Kollokationen steht beim Genitivattribut an erster Stelle der Migrant: „mit Genitivattribut: die Bringschuld der Migranten, der Arbeitgeber, der Unternehmen, der Wissenschaft, der Politik, des Staates“. (DWDS 2020)
Inhalt:
1 Dolmetscherinnen als Erfüllungsgehilfinnen des neoliberalen
Bürgerschaftsstaats oder Garantinnen der (post)migrantischen
Gesellschaft?
2 Die große Verheißung oder die große Illusion: Von Engagement
über Qualifizierung zu Professionalität
3 Bürgerschaftliches Engagement der Gut-Integrierten oder die
(Un)Heiligkeit des Ehrenamts
4 Drei Schlusspunkte

The objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the negotiation of meaning between the participants of a bilingual interpreter-mediated interaction by analysing the effects of the verbalization of the inferences by the interpreter. The conceptual tools of Relevance Theory were applied to three interpreted excerpts of Russian-French psychotherapeutic interactions. The results suggest that by verbalizing inferences, the interpreter co-creates a shared cognitive environment, reinforces intra- and inter-discursive coherence, diminishes the cognitive efforts of the recipient, and encourages primary parties to cooperate. The analysis of the cognitive processes at work in the excerpts tends to show that what has so far been treated as the interpreter’s “additions” or “expanded renditions” enables the latter to exercise cooperative coordination of interaction, and could therefore be more precisely called “collaborative renditions”. Keywords: dialogue interpreting; ...

In June 2018, the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel operating in the Mediterranean Sea, rescued 630 migrants at sea and asked to dock at the nearest port. First Italy and then Malta refused and the dramatic situation of those on board made the news and highlighted the increasingly restrictive nature of European migration policies. Progressive parties in the Valencian regional and Spanish central governments provided the conditions to offer a safe berth and to implement the regional government’s plan to assist refugees in a crisis situation. This chapter will offer an overview of the plan, focusing on its linguistic component, and analyze how translation and interpreting were approached by the policymakers responsible for its inception and development. A distance between the values protected by translation and interpreting professional codes of practice and those that policymakers desire to advance in crisis situations will be evinced as revolving around the role of translation and interpreting in mediating asymmetries.

This study explores interaction in two authentic interpreter-mediated police interviews with suspects. The analysis focuses on the interpreting regime used: stand-by interpreting. The interactional regime in the analysed interviews featured exolingual communication in English between a Spanish-speaking suspect with emerging competencies in English and English-speaking interviewers, with intermittent interpreter participation. Drawing on Conversation Analysis and interactional sociolinguistics, this study analyses how the interpreting regime was negotiated, how it was constructed over the course of the interviews, and the observable function of interpreting episodes. The analysis revealed a markedly collaborative nature of stand-by interpreting, differences in the distribution of interactional power over interpreting episodes among the three participants depending on their activity role and the interview phase, and the multimodal nature of turn-management. Interpreting was used selectively as a resource to either repair or prevent miscommunication, aligning with the way the interpreting regime was set up. Rather than advocating for or against the stand-by mode of interpreting, this paper describes its features in the police interview and highlights both its potential and its risks for communication in interpreter-mediated police interviews as a discourse genre.

The paper focuses on the roles and competencies of a community  interpreter  highlighting  their  complexity. Community interpreting is  viewed as interaction,  trialogue  and  intercultural  communication where  the  interpreter does  not merely act as a conduit  but  is an active  participant. The paper also presents the  results of a questionnaire  addressed to the immigrants residing in Poland on the status of community interpreting in Poland, as well as the roles and competencies of a community interpreter. Not only did the study provide an invaluable insight into immigrants’ perspective but also  confirmed the author’s opinion that  community  interpreting is still neglected and marginalized in Poland.

Beratungs- und Betreuungsgespräche in der Jugendhilfe sind aufgrund zahlreicher Faktoren komplex und potenziell konfliktbehaftet: Die verschiedenen (Gesprächs-)Ziele der Beteiligten, die Vulnerabilität vieler KlientInnen, die Bedeutung von Entscheidungen für deren weiteren Lebensweg, die Emotionalität und Asymmetrie der Gesprächssituationen, u.v.m. Zusätzlich herausfordernd werden Gespräche, wenn mit dem/der DolmetscherIn eine zusätzliche Person in die Interaktion eingebunden ist. Dabei gilt es nicht nur eine gemeinsame Sprache zu finden, sondern auch über verschiedene kulturelle und soziale Hintergründe sowie über auseinandergehende Erwartungen und Wissensstände hinweg zu kommunizieren. Hier werden die wesentlichsten Punkte für die Arbeit mit DolmetscherInnen in der Jugendhilfe gesammelt.

The definition of quality has traditionally been at the forefront of research in Interpreting Studies. Despite being a contended issue for decades, a consensus seems to have been reached over the fact that there is no absolute notion of quality; rather, there are as many qualities as there are circumstances and evaluators (Collados Aís & Gile 2002). In community settings, where the perceptions of interpreting users are often at odds with the opinions of experts in the field, especially when unqualified interpreters are involved, evaluating interpreting quality seems to require an interactional and intersubjective approach.
This paper aims to examine expectations about and evaluations of performances of non-professional interpreters working in prison settings from the perspectives of three groups: prisoners, officers and interpreting experts. An evaluation model is specifically designed for such purposes and applied to 19 interpreted-mediated events in two Spanish prisons. Results suggest that the tripartite approach allows for a broader vision over interpreting quality, which can be highly influenced by interpersonal factors in this particular context.
*****
Martínez-Gómez, Aída. 2015 “Interpreting quality in prison settings: A proposal for an assessment tool”. In: Zwischenberger, C. & M. Behr. Interpreting Quality: A look around and ahead. Berlin: Frank & Timme. Pp. 205-230.

Keywords: public service interpreters, language rights, social role, status.

The recognition of interpreting as an activity which ensures the protection of human rights was already expressed in the Commission’s Communication entitled A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism, which reported that “Interpreters help the institutions of multilingual societies to function. They support immigrant communities in courts, hospitals, police and immigration services. Properly trained, interpreters contribute to safeguarding human and democratic rights.” (2005: 11). It is therefore safe to assume that public service interpreters are the pillars on which intercultural dialogue is built. The fundamental social role interpreters play in society should be acknowledged more than ever before in a European society which is becoming increasingly multilingual (Viezzi 2014), where the presence (or absence) of an interpreter in a court or an hospital can really make the difference between freedom and captivity, between life and death. Their symbolic capital, which is understood as a combination of social values embodied by a professional is high, as interpreters who work in these settings provide a valuable service to society. However, despite growing awareness of the need for professionalisation, the way interpreters perceive their role in in society has been grievously understudied. Scholarly literature to date has focused on the interpreter’s role in single mediated interactions, but scarce attention has been devoted to how interpreters consider the importance of their work in contemporary society. The paucity of research in this field raises a few questions concerning the role of interpreters: are interpreters important to society? What is the relationship between interpreting and democracy? To what extent do interpreters contribute to safeguarding human rights? This paper illustrates the provisional results of a worldwide survey concerning the professional status of public service interpreters with a special focus on responses given in the following questionnaire sections: the social value of interpreting, interpreting and democracy, the European Directive 64/2010 and its impact on the enhancement of interpreters’ professional status in the EU.

Bibliography

Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32010L0064:EN:NOT.

European Commission (2005) A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2005:0596:FIN:en:PDF.

GIaluz, M. (2011), “Novità Sovranazionali”, Processo Penale e Giustizia, 2, pp. 9-13, http://www.processopenaleegiustizia.it/public/riviste/2/articolo_18.pdf.

Rudvin, M. & Spinzi, C. (eds) (2013), Mediazione Linguistica e Interpretariato. Regolamentazione, Problematiche Presenti e Prospettive Future in Ambito Giuridico, Bologna, CLUEB.

Special Interest Group for Translation and Interpreting for Public Services Final Report, 9 December 2011, http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/scic/news/2011_sigtips_en.htm.

Viezzi, M. (2014) “Multilinguismo, Interpretazione e Democrazia”, in C. Falbo & M. Viezzi (2014) Traduzione e Interpretazione per la Società e le Istituzioni, Trieste, Edizioni Università di Trieste.