Volume 4, Issue 1 - Special Issue: Non-professional interpreting and translation: translational cultures in focus / Guest Editors: Feyza Evrin and Bernd Meyer

The editorial gives an impression on what this special issue is all about and the relevance of the topic.

Child-brokering (MediAzioni 2010) lies on the continuum of ad-hoc translation/interpreting. Using various field-specific lenses, from educational linguistics, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, communication, and translation/interpreting studies, the case of bilingual youngsters and children who have interpreted for their families and immediate communities has been the focus of different studies (e.g. Bialystock & Hakuta 1999; Borrero 2006; Cline, Crafter and Prokopiou; Orellana 2003, Valdés, Chavez and Angelelli et al. 2000, Valdés, Chavez, Angelelli 2003) with different linguistic groups of various ages in different parts of the world. Focusing on Latinos who live on the US/Mexico border and using a mixed paradigm, in this study we analyze the ways in which Spanish/English bilinguals perceive, discuss and characterize their experiences as they continue to broker communication for their families and immediate communities. We focus on youngsters’ perceived agency and explanations of the relationship between child-language brokering and academic achievement. The findings reported here are part of a larger study that includes the adaptation of a valid and reliable instrument to measure bilingual youngsters’ perceptions about their role (Angelelli 2014 and 2015), its administration and results, and their recall during interviews. Since most/many of the public-service/community interpreters of today were interpreters in their late childhood and adolescence, understanding their life experiences and perceptions of their roles as family language brokers is important for interpreter educators (Angelelli 2010b). In addition, research on bilingual youngsters and children brokering communication for adults allows us to problematize the constructs of language access and language policies of the societies these bilinguals inhabit (Angelelli 2010a). The results have theoretical and practical implications for current conceptualizations of multilingual societies, border areas, community interpreting (interpreting in public services) and for teaching and testing of interpreters.

A debate that has revolved around the organisation of Italian healthcare interpreting services concerns the choice adopted by most institutions to employ intercultural mediators rather than professional interpreters. Intercultural mediators do not necessarily have a professional training in interpreting, they are, however, preferred to professional interpreters in that they are considered more competent in mediating the possibly different perspectives of healthcare providers and migrant patients. This preference provides food for thought for reflections on professionalism in interpreter-mediated interaction in healthcare. Drawing form a 10-year research on mediator-interpreted interactions in healthcare and a set of data comprising around 250 consultations, our contribution sets out as an attempt to clarify what is involved in this mediating work. Our analysis shows that mediators’ agency is relevant both in providing renditions of participants’ utterances and in promoting their active participation in the interaction. We describe the different ways in which mediators’ agency is displayed in interactions and the interactional constraints on mediators’ choices of action. Suggestions derived from our analysis may have an impact on the improvement of both mediators’ and interpreters’ professionalism with particular reference to facilitating communication with migrant patients, an aspect that has been recognized as highly problematic in the literature.

A 2011 Gender Violence Macrosurvey carried out by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS, Spanish Centre for Sociological Research) in collaboration with the Spanish Government warns that “the prevalence of gender-based violence amongst foreign women is twice that of Spanish women.” The problem gets worse when these women do not speak the contact language, in this case Spanish. The efforts of the Spanish Administration and the information and support provided to every gender violence victim hardly ever reach foreign victims, who essentially need the assistance of interpreters. When the presence of qualified interpreters (or interpreters at all) is not guaranteed, this may lead to inadequate, inaccurate and inefficient communication. The main purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey conducted in 2013 amongst the main agents involved in the communication process with foreign victims of gender violence who do not speak Spanish or co-official languages. The sample size is about 600 answers by agents distributed in four fields (police, legal, health, welfare) with the majority of respondents from the police. The survey includes questions about how communication problems without an interpreter are solved, which protocol – if any – is followed to seek the assistance of an interpreter, how often they use interpreters, what problems they have experienced working with them and what they think is the interpreters’ role as well as what strategies or specific knowledge interpreters may have.

Research in Translation Studies has witnessed an increased interest in translation phenomena in cities as well as in links between translation and migration. Although non-institutionalized translation is not at all new, contemporary migration realities offer opportunities for innovative research in this area. Outside more immediate immigration flows, many European cities have both longer and more recent histories of translational interaction between local populations and immigrants. This paper deals with non-professional translation among such groups both within and outside the family. To do so it presents the results of a case study on forms of non-professional translation in a social housing project in Ghent (Flanders, Belgium). The article focuses on such issues as the actors, circumstances, and the degrees of stereotyping and/or stigmatization involved in non-professional translation practices. The case study draws on qualitative and quantitative research that addresses the following questions: – Who translates and who has translated what and under which circumstances? – What is the exact position of translation, language and cultural transfer in the daily life of the residents of the block of flats in Ghent? – To which extent are these translational exchanges illustrative of contemporary life in our cities?

Face, or the public self-image that each individual claims for him-/herself, is continuously constructed and negotiated in interaction. In interpreter-mediated events, the interpreter’s actions may threaten, maintain or enhance the primary participants’ face, as well as their own. This single case study of a real-life interview between a prison psychologist and a foreign language-speaking inmate, interpreted by another inmate, aims to explore how and why the three members of the triad engage in face-threatening acts (Brown and Levinson 1987) and face-boosting acts (Bayraktaroglu 1991). The transcribed audio recording of the interview shows how this non-professional interpreter actively seeks to protect and improve his fellow prisoner’s face, as a potential expression of his in-group loyalty, but ultimately prioritizes his own social image in an attempt to present himself as cooperative and trustworthy before the psychologist. This analysis shows how underlying issues of social distance, power and trust forcefully shape conversational behaviors in the prison environment.

Emerging internet technologies have revolutionized and invaded our private and professional lives in ways that are as yet hard to assess. These developments have also affected the field of translation. Professional translators’ workplaces and routines have changed profoundly and translation markets have been affected by increasing globalization. Furthermore, new forms of translation have emerged on the internet, including amateur translators’ communities which offer their time and efforts for a variety of different goals, not all of them exclusively charitable. Some are also commercial, others just for fun. In this context, the present article demonstrates the ways in which recent developments related to the internet have started to call into question a series of long-established categories. Online phenomena have not only contributed to blurring the lines between the consumption and production of content; it has also become increasingly difficult to distinguish between amateurs and professionals or between work and leisure, and to differentiate between play and labour. Drawing on examples from an ongoing research project on collaborative translation communities, this article illustrates how members of internet communities perceive, describe and construct their own translation activities. The paper then addresses the issue of how the internet paved the way for new forms of exploitation, which are also identifiable in the field of translation. By looking at the intersections between labour, fun and exploitation in internet translation communities, the paper aims to make a critical contribution to the debate on (ethical) questions that arise in relation to new online phenomena.

Transcripts of second language interaction and within publications in languages differing from the data discussed often must be translated to make the results of discourse analysis accessible. Transcription follows strict rules to achieve a scientific standard recipients can rely upon. Its main task is to picture a piece of authentic interaction by means of writing as detailed as possible and necessary, to make readers able to follow an analysis and judge it by themselves. But what is true for transcriptions does not hold for their translations. Surprisingly, reflection of transcript translation tends to be neglected in literature. This might be due to several reasons: the different language systems and cultural imaging habits make it difficult, if not impossible, to propose an all-fitting translation guideline for transcription. Further, discourse analysts usually are (experienced) non-professional translators and do not often have a theoretical translation background. It is an additional (practical) challenge to align the demands of transcript theory and readability with editorial requirements. While translating transcripts analysts would have to reflect five different aspects: (1) the status of translation in transcription, (2) a (not yet established) standard for transcript translation, (3) the translation‘s readability (recipients should be able to follow it with only little effort), (4) the potentially extremely differing systems of source and target language (representation of syntax and semantics), and (5) translation problems (e.g. cultural aspects) with regard to the given language pair. The article considers the status of translation in transcription. The few theoretical findings are analyzed and contrasted with examples from discourse analysis. The article is complemented with the results of a survey among analysts concerning their translation behavior. Finally, some proposals for solutions are outlined.

The Swedish Association for Applied Linguistics, ASLA (Association suédoise de linguistique appliquée) was formally founded as an autonomous Swedish affiliate of AILA in 1966. The constituting meeting was held at Lund University on April 12, 1966 during which the first chairperson, Professor Bertil Malmberg, was elected. This means that ASLA will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016. However, according to available documents from the time, the original initiative came from Max Gorosch, Professor of Spanish at Stockholm University, who had already started to prepare the way for the establishment of the new association in 1964. Professor Gorosch was appointed secretary on the first board and Dr. Alvar Nyqvist-Goës, became its first treasurer.

This paper reports on a long-term European project collaboration between academic researchers and non-academic institutions in Europe to investigate the quality and viability of video-mediated interpreting in legal proceedings (AVIDICUS: Assessment of Video-Mediated Interpreting in the Criminal Justice System).