Showing papers in "Interpreting in 2016"

Investigating the interpreter’s role(s): the A.R.T. framework

Abstract: Although the interpreter’s function in interaction has attracted significant interest in the literature, the focus is often restricted to verbal interaction alone. This paper introduces an analytical framework, based on Goffman’s construct of role, to examine how participants’ actions: (i) carry communicative meaning that complements their use of language; ii) are interdependent with those of other participants. The analysis also takes into account the normative frameworks which, to a certain extent, shape the interpreter’s and the doctor’s actions. Transcribed excerpts of two authentic medical consultations are examined, along with video stills. The recordings, with interpreting between Dutch and Russian, were made at a Belgian hospital; informed consent and ethical approval were obtained. It is shown that interpreters’ use of non-verbal resources can favour the patient’s inclusion in interaction when s/he is bypassed by the doctor, possibly interested in involving only the interpreter and in leaving little, if any, opportunity for the patient’s voice to be heard.

Test validation in interpreter certification performance testing: An argument-based approach

Abstract: Over the past decade, interpreter certification performance testing has gained momentum. Certification tests often involve high stakes, since they can play an important role in regulating access to professional practice and serve to provide a measure of professional competence for end users. The decision to award certification is based on inferences from candidates’ test scores about their knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as their interpreting performance in a given target domain. To justify the appropriateness of score-based inferences and actions, test developers need to provide evidence that the test is valid and reliable through a process of test validation. However, there is little evidence that test qualities are systematically evaluated in interpreter certification testing. In an attempt to address this problem, this paper proposes a theoretical argument-based validation framework for interpreter certification performance tests so as to guide testers in carrying out systematic validation research. Before presenting the framework, validity theory is reviewed, and an examination of the argument-based approach to validation is provided. A validity argument for interpreter tests is then proposed, with hypothesized validity evidence. Examples of evidence are drawn from relevant empirical work, where available. Gaps in the available evidence are highlighted and suggestions for research are made.

Doing ‘understanding’ in dialogue interpreting

Abstract: This paper asks what ‘understanding’ looks like in the presence of an interpreter. Much investigation of understanding in Interpreting Studies explores claims which treat it as axiomatic, rather than exploring the occurrence of comprehension itself (how participants come to accept that it is occurring, what form it takes, what its consequences are). Here we re-purpose a well-established research tool — the Map Task — to illustrate a robustly empirical approach to this issue, using complex multimodal and multilingual data. The Map Task, we contend, can play a potentially groundbreaking role in Interpreting Studies, mitigating the constraint created by the uniqueness of each interpreted exchange which otherwise hinders generalisability and theoretical expansion. In particular, we argue that the way interpreters and service users, through their talk, bring themselves collectively to points of assumed shared understanding is illuminated with particular clarity through the Map Task lens. Research within this paradigm, we suggest, may help to enable further development of Interpreting Studies, affording an opportunity to deepen our communal understanding of the collaborative and interactive nature of meaning-making in interpreted exchanges, starting with the recognition that what understanding consists of is, in essence, what interlocutors treat as understanding.

The positioning and bimodal mediation of the interpreter in a Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) service setting

Abstract: This study explores the interpreter’s positioning in a Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) service that offers bimodal mediation between people using Swedish Sign Language (SSL) and people using spoken ...

Lexical decisions and related cognitive issues in spoken and signed language interpreting: A case study of Obama’s inaugural address

Abstract: This study examined omissions, errors, and variability in lexical selection across simultaneous interpretations of President Obama’s 2009 inaugural address, in three spoken languages (French, German, Japanese) and in American Sign Language (ASL). Microanalysis of how information conveyed by 39 source speech lexical items was transferred into the target languages assessed to what extent omissions and errors reflected differences in lexical structure (relative frequency of ready lexical correspondents and of shared cognates between the source and target languages; and, for ASL in particular, size of lexicon compared to English). The highest number of errors and omissions was found in ASL, which has the smallest documented vocabulary, fewest lexical correspondents, and no shared cognates with English. If omission/error rates in interpretation of lexical units are taken as a rough indicator of interpreting difficulty, results suggest that it is more difficult to interpret the speech into Japanese than into French or German and, by the same token, more difficult to interpret it into ASL than into the three spoken languages. These findings are consistent with the idea that language structures impact cognitive load during interpreting, and that interpreting effort increases in relation to the degree of difference between the source and target languages.

The relationship between working memory capacity and simultaneous interpreting performance: a mixed methods study on professional Auslan/English interpreters

Abstract: This experimental study investigated the relationship between signed language interpreters’ working memory capacity (WMC) and their simultaneous interpreting performance. Thirty-one professional Auslan (Australian Sign Language)/English interpreters participated: 14 native signers and 17 non-native signers. They completed simultaneous interpreting tasks from English into Auslan and vice versa, an English listening span task and an Auslan working memory span task; each interpreting task was followed by a short semi-structured interview. Quantitative results for the sample as a whole showed no significant correlations between bilingual WMC and overall simultaneous interpreting performance in either direction. The same trend was established for both the native signers and the non-native signers, considered as two separate groups. The findings thus suggest that professional signed language interpreters’ WMC as measured by complex span tasks is not closely associated with the overall quality of their simultaneous interpreting performance. Data regarding educational and professional background showed mixed patterns in relation to participants’ interpreting performance in each language direction. In the interviews, participants reported various triggers of cognitive overload in the simultaneous interpreting tasks (e.g. numbers, lists of items, a long time lag, dense information, fatigue) and mentioned their coping strategies (e.g. strategic omissions, summarization, generalization, adjusting time lag).

A survey to profile conference interpreting practice in China

Abstract: This report presents findings from an online survey of 140 English/Chinese conference interpreters, conducted as a follow-up of an exploratory diary study (Han 2015), to provide a detailed account of real-life interpreting practice in China. Three main tendencies are identified: a) conference-related materials (mainly programmes and speakers’ scripts/notes) are often received late, leaving little preparation time; b) interpreters do a much wider variety of simultaneous interpreting tasks than previously thought, albeit with varying degrees of frequency; c) difficulties are felt to arise mainly from technical subject matter and terminology, speakers’ delivery (strong accent, speed), and lack of preparation. These findings largely support the diary study results and previous scholarly descriptions.

Towards a broader approach to the community interpreter's role: On correspondence between role perceptions and interactional goals.

Abstract: The community interpreter’s role has been described in various ways, associating it with labels (Roberts 1997), tasks (Pochhacker 2000), dynamic positioning (Mason 2009), and the interpreter’s relative (in)visibility (Angelelli 2004). Increasingly, conceptions of role are seen not as static and absolute, but as related to the differing (and subjective) viewpoints of the various participants involved. This study uses semi-structured interviews, conducted immediately after five interpreter-mediated encounters (four medical, one legal), to examine: (1) how participants in each encounter differ in their comments on the interpreter, and (2) whether the resulting perspective on the interpreter’s role is related to each respondent’s specific conversational goal on the occasion in question. Twenty-six excerpts from the interviews are discussed: all three participants (service provider, service user, interpreter) were interviewed in three cases, while the interpreter was unavailable for interview in one case and the service recipient in another. The interpreted meetings and subsequent interviews took place in London and Manchester, the languages involved being English (service providers) and Polish (service recipients). The various respondents seemed to differ in their perceptions of the interpreter’s role, ostensibly reflecting their own conversational goals, but not necessarily in line with their status as service provider, service recipient or interpreter.

Ad-hoc interpreting in international educational settings: The problem of renditions.

Abstract: This paper examines interactions during educational activities in international camps for children, with English used as a lingua franca. Data were collected mostly at different camps in Italy (2006–7), but also in Brazil and the USA (both in 2013). The study focuses on 11 extracts from transcribed video and audio recordings of occasions when Italian children experience difficulty understanding and speaking English. On such occasions, Italian educators acting as ad-hoc interpreters often provide renditions not fully consistent with what has been said in English: reduced, summarised or expanded renditions are frequent, with some turns not rendered and others added. In this way, what is purported to be interpreting is often more concerned with achieving preassigned educational tasks. Talk in English is thus reduced to normative explanations, and ad-hoc interpreting takes the form of gatekeeping, the effect of which is to limit children’s active participation in social interactions. This educationally oriented gatekeeping can be avoided by involving children in sequences of conversational exchanges, using Italian: they are thus enabled to express their perspectives, the gist of which can be formulated in English, ensuring a stronger dialogic component in communication and closer attention to the children’s contributions.