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Language Just. Journal of Language Rights & Minorities, Revista de Drets Lingüístics i Minories. 2024. Vol. 3, no. 1
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- Expectations regarding interpreters in Brazil in the light of pandemic-enforced technological change: A pilot study(2024) Machado, Renata; Downie, JonathanThis article examines stakeholder expectations of interpreters in the Brazilian legal system and how they may have changed with the shift to remote interpreting during the pandemic. The study explores stakeholder expectations of interpreters and the interplay of these expectations with the growth of remote interpreting. To do so, it builds on the growing awareness of the need to rethink the methods used to understand stakeholder expectations. The study is based on questionnaires administered to judges, prosecution, and defence lawyers, as well as interpreters themselves. These questionnaires explored their reactions to vignettes adapted from real-life experience and to specific questions, comparing the responses from both methods. The results revealed how remote interpreting has increased tensions between the perceived needs of interpreters and the perceived demands of those involved in the legal process. This article argues that interpreters’ expectations hinge on the concept of “linguistic presence,” a concept with different meanings for language professionals and legal professionals. The discrepancy is especially pertinent given the growth of remote interpreting and how it may impact the presence of the interpreter.
- Reconceptualizing educational interpreting: A case study in US K–12 classrooms(2024) Zuo, Xinyue; Mazzei, Cristiano; Ives, DeniseIn response to students’ right to education, interpreting services have been provided to a subset of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States to make educational opportunities accessible to them. This qualitative case study delves into the nature of the interpreting services, focusing on exploring the varied responsibilities undertaken by interpreters in K–12 classrooms within a Northeastern US public school district. Data were collected through interviews and documentation and analyzed thematically combined with the constant comparative technique. The study reveals that the ELLs the interpreters worked with had diverse backgrounds, including learners with interrupted education, potential learning disabilities, and varying academic foundations. Though the interpreters were initially required to interpret instruction to make the curriculum accessible, in practice they often extended their roles to serve as instructional aides, advocates, and social-emotional guides. This expansion partly stemmed from the inherent interplay between content and language learning in educational settings and was partly driven by the interpreters’ shared experiences and empathy for ELLs. The study advocates for a reconceptualization of interpreters’ roles and responsibilities and providing expanded training programs that reflect interpreters’ everyday practices. Furthermore, it calls for a shift toward culturally responsive interpreting that acknowledges the multilingual and multicultural nature of educational settings.
- The incidence of empathy when interpreting in the field for vulnerable populations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict(2024) Barea Muñoz, ManuelThis article describes the incidence of empathy in field interpreters who work with vulnerable populations in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Qualitative data was gathered via interviews conducted in 2018 with professional field interpreters working for international organizations (both freelancers and staffers), resulting in two paradigmatic narratives (one for each professional profile) aimed at preserving the participants’ anonymity. The narratives reveal a significant incidence of empathy in certain communicative situations, and views of empathy as both a hindrance and a useful emotion for the task at hand. The article suggests that such conflicting perceptions may be addressed empowering field interpreters to reconcile themselves with their own positionality through psychological training.
- Vulnerability, moral concepts, and ethics in interpreting(2024) Yuan, XiaohuiWhile many studies have been conducted to investigate types of role that interpreters take on to represent and advocate for vulnerable populations, interpreters’ vulnerability and its source in this particular type of encounter are rather under-explored. Interpreting for vulnerable populations is conceptualised in this study as a distinct communicative context riddled with institutional, knowledge, and power politics that gives rise to emotive, nuanced, and subjective moral judgements on the obligation of care. Drawing from theories in vulnerability studies and from moral concepts, and employing the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) methodology, the author, with three professional public service interpreters, explores the key factors contributing to their situational vulnerability, the driving forces motivating their decision to support agency, the adverse effects on the interpreters attributed to the situational vulnerability of moral distress, and how to recontextualise ethics guiding interpreting for vulnerable populations. This constitutes the first study theorising the public service interpreter’s situational vulnerability, and how interpreters’ decisions are influenced by the interdependency between facets of vulnerability and moral concepts.
- “Not everyday business.” A caseworker perspective on interpreter provision for deaf refugees and cooperation with interpreters(2024) Pöllabauer, SonjaThis contribution discusses the communication needs of deaf asylum applicants from the viewpoint of asylum interviewers (caseworkers). The study is based on 13 qualitative interviews with Austrian caseworkers in late 2020, which sought to explore how caseworkers perceive asylum claims involving deaf applicants and how they approach finding and engaging with interpreters in such cases. The results show that both finding interpreters and interviewing deaf applicants are perceived as challenging. Due to lack of knowledge about deaf people’s communicative needs and lack of expertise in working with signed languages (SL) and Deaf or signed language interpreters (SLI), caseworkers trust in the expertise of interpreters and representatives of deaf associations and cooperate with them to determine a suitable arrangement for the interview situation and finding interpreters. There are no institutionalised support structures in place, so caseworkers rely on their subjective perceptions and intuitive ad hoc solutions and feedback from the interpreters. The study also suggests a need for awareness-raising regarding the needs of deaf applicants and the context-inherent risks of perpetuating an ableist perspective, as well as the need for interprofessional training among caseworkers and interpreters.
- “I faced so many barriers”: Access to support for deaf female survivors of domestic violence in the UK(2024) Napier, Jemina; Clark, Lucy; Leeson, Lorraine; Quigley, LianneThis article examines the potential vulnerability of deaf female British Sign Language (BSL) signers who experience domestic violence (DV) in reporting DV and accessing information and communication support. Based on online semi-structured interviews with eight deaf women in the UK, their perceptions of the factors that contribute to creating barriers in gaining adequate access and support are discussed. We present findings that concentrate around seven key barriers identified by the interviewees including: (i) access to interpreting; (ii) lack of information in BSL; (iii) lack of deaf cultural awareness; (iv) needs for on-going support; (v) deaf-specific services; (vi) training/education needs; and (vii) recognition of diversity. In considering deaf women’s reporting of DV incidences through an intersectional lens, it is clear that they experience a double, or even triple or quadruple disadvantage. We found that, despite professional interpreting services being widely available in the UK, structural barriers still exist for deaf women in gaining access to support for DV, and that barriers are created through inaccessible services, inaccessible information, and lack of awareness of the needs of deaf women in this context. These barriers can be mitigated through training and resources for sign language interpreters, police officers, and other support service providers. We conclude with suggestions for how this research can be applied to interpreting for female DV survivors in other minority communities as well as deaf communities, with suggestions for further research.
- Asylum hearings in Italy: Who mediates between cultures?(2024) Amato, Amalia Agata Maria; Gallai, FabrizioAccording to several legal scholars and practitioners, the most crucial factor for refugee status determination (RSD) is whether or not asylum seekers can provide credible evidence of a “well-founded fear” of persecution. However, this adjudication process is extremely complex as psychological, linguistic, and general cultural factors have a substantial impact on credibility. Through examining interpreter-mediated asylum hearings in Italy, our aim is to bring to the fore the interconnections between asylum interpreting practices and (inter)cultural factors. More specifically, emphasis will be put on the roles of communication and culture to elucidate how interpreting enables and restrains asylum seekers in their efforts to establish themselves as deserving of protection. We argue that culturally-bound norms negatively and unevenly influence the outcomes of some asylum cases and support this claim with evidence from interpreter-mediated hearings with asylum seekers and immigration officers in central Italy. In order to analyse this data, we adopt an interaction- and discourse-centred approach. Training for interpreters working in this environment and improving the quality of asylum interpretation services will ultimately lead to fairer refugee status determination procedures and better professional ethics for interpreters.
- Interpreting for vulnerable populations: Tracing the role of interpreters in contexts of vulnerability(2024) Ruiz Rosendo, Lucia; Martin, ConorThis contribution serves as the introductory framework for the articles featured in the special issue of Just. Journal of Language Rights and Minorities, Revista de Drets Lingüístics i Minories exploring interpreting for vulnerable populations. Noting the increasing interest in the role of interpreters who work with populations experiencing varying degrees of vulnerability in different settings, this introduction starts by examining some nuanced definitions and causes of vulnerability and the ways in which we are vulnerable to others. The guest editors then focus on language as an important element which can engender vulnerability and consider how interpreters play a pivotal role in mitigating this vulnerability when facilitating access to communication. They discuss how the articles in this special issue address the notion of vulnerability and the complex role of interpreters who work for specific categories of vulnerable populations in different institutional and geographical contexts. The articles describe the elements that interpreters must navigate when managing these challenging situations characterised by high stakes for the vulnerable person and often (highly) asymmetrical power dynamics and dependency.
