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- Volume 18, Issue, 2016
Interpreting - Volume 18, Issue 2, 2016
Volume 18, Issue 2, 2016
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Doing ‘understanding’ in dialogue interpreting
Author(s): Graham H. Turner and Andrew J. Merrisonpp.: 137–171 (35)More LessThis 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.
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Investigating the interpreter’s role(s)
Author(s): Demi Krystallidoupp.: 172–197 (26)More LessAlthough 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.
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The positioning and bimodal mediation of the interpreter in a Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) service setting
Author(s): Camilla Warnicke and Charlotta Plejertpp.: 198–230 (33)More LessThis 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 Swedish. Positioning subsumes the ways in which interpreters orient themselves to the contingencies of the setting on a moment-by-moment basis, in relation to the impact of technology, participants’ knowledge asymmetries (e.g., prior experience of VRI), their physical separation, and the need for two arenas (visual and auditive). The interpreting is bimodal, each of the two users being in direct contact with the interpreter through a different medium (telephone for one, videophone for the other). Nine excerpts from two calls within the VRI service serve as examples to show how the interpreter’s positioning emerges dynamically in relation to contingent variables of the setting, such as the initial importance of briefing users on the service, temporary loss of sound and image, the perceived need to inform either user of extralinguistic items, or situational awareness that it is time to conclude the interaction. This new research perspective on VRI can afford a better understanding of its moment-by-moment complexity and specificities, thus helping improve it and train interpreters better for it.
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Test validation in interpreter certification performance testing
Author(s): Chao Han and Helen Slatyerpp.: 225–252 (28)More LessOver 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.
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A survey to profile conference interpreting practice in China
Author(s): Chao Hanpp.: 259–272 (14)More LessThis 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.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 26 (2024)
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Volume 25 (2023)
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Volume 24 (2022)
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Volume 23 (2021)
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Volume 22 (2020)
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Volume 21 (2019)
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Volume 20 (2018)
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Volume 19 (2017)
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Volume 18 (2016)
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Volume 17 (2015)
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Volume 16 (2014)
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Volume 15 (2013)
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Volume 14 (2012)
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Volume 13 (2011)
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Volume 12 (2010)
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Volume 11 (2009)
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Volume 10 (2008)
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Volume 9 (2007)
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Volume 8 (2006)
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Volume 7 (2005)
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Volume 6 (2004)
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Volume 5 (2000)
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Volume 4 (1999)
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Volume 3 (1998)
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Volume 2 (1997)
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Volume 1 (1996)
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The bilingual individual
Author(s): Francois Grosjean
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