Article published in:
Tangible translation: Migration and materiality
Edited by Andrea Ciribuco and Anne O’Connor
[Translation and Interpreting Studies 17:1] 2022
► pp. 66–87

Some material aspects of an interpreted university lecture

Gaining insight into the realities of interpreter-mediated teaching and learning

| Stellenbosch University

Through the material orientation of actor network theory and its understanding of “translation,” this article provides insight into what students and interpreters experience from moment to moment at less visible levels of a spoken language interpreted university lecture. It reveals the arduous conditions in which interpreters must make decisions in the blink of an eye while nonhuman actors often restrict their choices. The data show a disconnect between interpreters and their material environment, which impairs their ability to “enroll” their users and to enable their “translation” into academics with full membership in their communities of practice. The article proposes a negotiated rearrangement of the space that integrates interpreters in a cohesive and enabling material environment. On a conceptual level it proposes a redefinition of role that provides them with the agency to manage the challenges that arise from moment to moment in the real-life conditions of an interpreted university lecture.

Keywords: educational interpreting, actor network theory, materiality, ethnography, academic literacy, translation
Article outline
  • Background and context
  • Education interpreting practices: Some guiding tenets from education sciences
  • Actor network theory: Weaving nonhumans into the investigation
  • Ethnographic methods: Situated, experienced, and practiced
  • Materiality observed in the field
  • How the material acts in constructing the role of the educational interpreter
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 09 May 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.21010.bre
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