Abstract
This handbook offers an impressive range of expert knowledge and established and novel insights into public service interpreting (PSI) both at micro-(interaction) and macro-(society) levels across different modalities (spoken and signed) and PSI settings, from health care to migration, and from asylum to legal. It is divided into three parts, with 25 contributions by 37 leading and emerging scholars. All chapters come with “Further reading” (a list of relevant sources for interested readers) and “Related topics” (for readers interested to check relevant chapters in the edited volume).
The introduction, where the editors highlight interpreter agency as a recurring theme in the handbook, draws the reader’s attention to the importance of PSI being conceptualised within a dialogic interactionist (DI) paradigm. According to the editors, this volume addresses four major issues from empirical research into PSI: (a) features of talk in interaction, (b) professionals under research, (c) complexities of PSI services, and (d) interpreter’s level of participation in challenging PSI situations.
Part I with seven chapters focuses on theoretical and methodological development of PSI as a field of research. Chapter 1 (by Carmen Valero-Garcés) opens the volume by focusing on major issues and challenges in its professionalisation and suggests relevant solutions, from requirements for training to the necessity of unity and collaboration among all stakeholders. Apart from that, the under-researched topic of de-professionalisation in the field under the impact of different factors, including remuneration levels and circumstances beyond control, is briefly touched upon here, but surprisingly nowhere in the handbook is it discussed further. In Chapter 2, Kristina Gustafsson offers a rare contribution on ethnographic interviews as a promising qualitative research method to explore the under-researched perspectives, experiences, and insights, in the form of narratives, of public service interpreters acting as witnesses and participants in multilingual communication as a socially situated activity. These narratives are important not only from a multidisciplinary perspective but also at micro- (impartiality) and macro- (society within which multilingual encounters are embedded) levels. Chapter 3 is from Claudio Baraldi, who discusses the impact of interpreter agency on interaction and the social system where interaction takes place, with a focus on the pivotal role of coordination in understanding interpreter agency in health care environments.
Chapter 4 (by Ian Mason), while highlighting the recurring theme that training interpreter service users is still in infancy, introduces to us a social pragmatics of interpreting through an engaging theoretical account of key notions of power, positioning (affected by cultural assumptions of different communities of practice), and identity, with a focus on health care and asylum settings. As corpus-based dialogue interpreting studies are gaining momentum, Chapter 5 is an important contribution by Bernd Meyer that reviews key issues of and advocates cross-fertilisation between the booming research field of corpus analysis and PSI. Difficulty in access to data and preference for qualitative research, rather than quantitative methods, are the main reasons Meyer highlights why corpus research has been very limited in PSI. In Chapter 6, Sabine Braun, Khetam Al Sharou, and Özlem Temizöz review research and current status of technology-mediated interpreted interactions in health care settings. The authors not only draw the reader’s attention to concerns about quality, and to the fact that user satisfaction and expectations about their interaction with technology are under-researched, but also raise awareness of more diversification and complexity of technology-mediated interpreted interaction in the aftermath of the pandemic. Chapter 7 (by Mustapha Taibi) is the only contribution in the handbook devoted to community translation as a means of providing linguistic minorities with linguistic access. While highlighting the role of translator agency and the need for interdisciplinary research in this area of translation, Taibi discusses key issues of quality, accessibility, and availability via effective media to improve such practices. Exploring complexities of research into the impact of gender on the nature of interpreted interactions in PSI settings (both spoken and signed modalities) as an unexplored phenomenon (Singy & Guex, 2015) could have enriched Part I even further. Despite this drawback, this part offers the reader, particularly researchers, invaluable insights and interdisciplinary research perspectives on PSI.
Part II contains eight chapters, which shift the focus onto the interplay of multiple levels in interpreter-mediated interaction in different PSI environments. Although this part is not balanced in terms of coverage of PSI settings and the presence of health care and legal interpreting as two major domains of PSI is felt both in this part and throughout the handbook much more strongly than, for example, educational interpreting, the chapters not only raise awareness among scholars, students and practitioners of the intricacies of different PSI settings, but also offer them abundant information and different perspectives on such important complexities. The topic of interpreted interactions by legal settings and different interpreting modes is addressed in Chapter 8 (Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer), and as the need for a turn in the direction of professionalisation in PSI and in asylum contexts cannot be reiterated enough, in Chapter 9, Sonja Pöllabauer reviews research, mainly data-driven, into PSI in these contexts to the benefit of migrants and refugees, and highlights difficulty in accessing authentic data and the need for specialised training of interpreters in asylum environments. As interpreting modes and relevant sub-modes are growingly being revisited in recent scholarly publications, Chapter 10 by Christian Licoppe takes a new look, beyond the standard view of consecutive interpreting, at this mode from the perspective of interpreter agency in legal settings, both onsite and remotely, and discusses how (un)constrained multimodal interactional resources in video-mediated configurations affect this mode. Researching vulnerability in interpreter-mediated encounters in charity service settings via ethnography and authentic police interview with survivors of violence is what Chapter 11 (by Rebecca Tipton) delves into.
Laura Gavioli and Raffaela Merlini have devoted Chapter 12 to concerns about interpreter roles, issues of empathy, and rapport in health care settings. What is noteworthy about this chapter is that it not only points to the role of the interpreter agency in coordination of talk but also draws our attention to how participants exercise their agency with the help of the interpreter. As there is a lack of training for service providers and for degree of proficiency of interpreters, Charlotta Plejert, in Chapter 13, uses original data from video-recorded cognitive testing for dementia to engage the reader in an exploration of complexities of PSI in health care settings and offers hands-on suggestions to compensate for this lack of training. Chapter 14 (by Dorien Van De Mieroop, Antoon Cox, and Koen Kerremans) explores provision of linguistic help to people in need via under-researched interpreter-mediated communication within social care contexts. It raises awareness of nonavailability of public service interpreters, pros and cons of lacking interpreter training, and of widespread use of both informal interpreters (family members, relatives, and friends) and technological solutions instead of professional interpreters in such contexts. Chapter 15 (by Sigrid Slettebakk Berge), drawing on the author’s doctoral thesis, discusses inclusion and participation of deaf students in interpreter-mediated education and enriches her discussion with suggestions for further collaboration between teachers and interpreters, and for future research.
Part III, which is the longest with 10 chapters, points to the fact that training and education for PSI is at the centre of much attention in this handbook. Instead “of training and professionalisation”, this part should have read “training, education, assessment, and professionalisation” to give adequate visibility to the topics that are its primary concern. As PSI still cannot be considered a full-fledged profession, Hanne Skaaden has penned Chapter 16 on professionalisation under the impact of fragmentation and conflicts about roles, agency, core ethics, and accuracy in these settings, where training for interpreters and service providers on how to work with interpreters is lacking. In Chapter 17, Christopher Stone, Cynthia B. Roy, and Jeremy L. Brunson discuss complexities of and innovation in signed language interpreter education in light of issues of power, social justice, and beliefs, not just skills. The term “training” enjoys a much longer tradition than its counterpart “education”, but the chapter title should have read “educating signed language interpreters for public service interpreting”, as the authors suggest that “education is a more appropriate term as this not only focuses on the technical skills but also a more comprehensive liberal education that better frames the work that PSIs undertake” (p. 279). Drawing on the author’s doctoral dissertation, Chapter 18 (by Magnus Dahnberg) is a pedagogically important contribution on different types of role-play and guidelines on how to apply role-play to the situated training and assessment of public service interpreters, and briefly touches upon trainer and assessor training.
Chapter 19 (by Elisabet Tiselius and Birgitta Englund Dimitrova) is instrumental in the reader’s understanding of monitoring (i.e., the interpreter monitoring his or her own cognitive processing and monitoring and coordinating the turn-taking of other participants) in (teaching) dialogue interpreting using transcripts of encounters and reviews relevant ongoing research into this cognitive process necessary for coordination of interactive discourse. As there is a dearth of studies on interpreter and translator training in this mode, Gry Sagli and Hanne Skaaden, as authors of Chapter 20, continue the educational theme of this part by delving into blended learning as one type of effective instruction to promote a learner-centred training paradigm for public service interpreters. The authors show that role-play for onsite activities (turn taking) and theoretical topics and text-only chats can be taught online. However, the critical topic of interaction management in applying role-play to interpreter training in virtual and blended learning environments still awaits further debate and research beyond this chapter. In Chapter 21, Natacha Niemants, Jessica Pedersen Belisle Hansen, and Elizabeth Stokoe offer novel insights into the complexities of PSI for service providers, and also for training of trainer (ToT) from a socio-communicative perspective as they discuss CARM as an activity grounded in conversation analysis methodological approach to train PSI practitioners and trainees.
The focus of attention of Chapter 22 (by Anna Claudia Ticca, Véronique Traverso, and Emilie Jouin) is the use of REMILAS data for training interpreters and service providers in asylum contexts. It discusses complexities of PSI with a focus on multimodal communication involving the interplay of semiotic resources such as gaze. Chapter 23 (by Demi Krystallidou) brings to the fore interprofessional education (IPE) as a type of inter-learner-centred instruction for interpreting trainees in health and social care, with a focus on the interdisciplinary nature of interpreting. Surprisingly, Krystallidou fails to point out that pedagogical approaches such as IPE in fact came into being under the impact of the so-called sociological turn on interpreting studies characterised by interpreter social agency and interdisciplinarity of the field, which are, in turn, two important prevalent themes in this edited volume. Chapter 24 (by Tatjana R. Felberg and Gry Sagli) is an important contribution as it can spark serious interest in the under-explored topic of training of service providers in how to work with interpreters. No less significant is Chapter 25 (by Mira Kadrić and Sonja Pöllabauer), which closes the handbook. The chapter is dedicated to the education of interpreter educators in PSI in particular and in interpreting in general, an under-researched topic that deserves growing recognition. Although in Part III signed language modality is under-represented; pressing topics in testing and assessment, particularly developing aptitude tests for public service interpreters (both spoken and signed modalities) are missing; and the important topic of training of researchers in PSI settings, particularly in terms of methodological skills and challenges in ethnography and conversation analysis, is surprisingly left out, the chapters still offer trainers, curriculum developers, students, practitioners, and other stakeholders, including service providers in plurilingual settings, a mine of information on training and education of interpreters, service providers, and interpreter educators in PSI settings.
Overall, this edited volume sets PSI scene theoretically, methodologically, environmentally, and educationally, maps out the boom and the interdisciplinary enrichment PSI has experienced in terms of training and research, and clearly shows how this relates to the interactional dynamics in actual professional practice in PSI settings. I should praise the erudite insightful editors for this impressive collection of contributions with diverse perspectives that not only help broaden the scope of the field, but may also facilitate reshaping PSI into a transdisciplinary field of inquiry in closer ongoing dialogue with relevant disciplines, particularly medicine and law. This book should be high on the reading list of all those passionate about interpreting in asymmetrical settings and of other stakeholders in relevant fields, from medicine to law, interested in multiparty interaction.
