Publications

Publication details [#4889]

Abstract

Defining the role and task of interpreters in community settings is an issue of prime concern and controversy in the drive for professionalization of interpreter service delivery. In an effort to fuel this debate with empirical data from a context of very limited institutionalisation of community interpreting, the views of over 600 service providers (doctors, nurses, therapists and social workers) in Vienna hospitals and family affairs centres as well as the views of 16 spoken language and 16 sign language interpreters were collected on the question of what is or is not part of the interpreter’s task. The responses to nine selected task demands above and beyond the norms of faithful relaying show that service providers expect interpreters within their institutional setting to do much more than “just translate’. Interpreters themselves were found to share a rather expansive conception of their role, though there is considerable heterogeneity within the different sub-groups of persons serving as interpreters without task-specific training.
Source : Abstract in book