Healthcare Interpreting

This volume – the first-ever collection of research on healthcare interpreting – centers on three interrelated themes: cross-cultural communication in healthcare settings, the interactional role of persons serving as interpreters and the discourse patterns of interpreter-mediated interaction. The individual chapters, by seven innovative researchers in the area of community-based interpreting, represent a pioneering attempt to look beyond stereotypical perceptions of interpreter-mediated interactions. First published as a Special Issue of Interpreting 7:2 (2005), this volume offers insights into the impact of the interpreter – whether s/he is a trained professional or a member of the patient's family – including ways in which s/he may either facilitate or impair reliable communication between patient and healthcare provider. The five articles cover a range of settings and specialties, from general medicine to pediatrics, psychiatry and speech therapy, using languages as diverse as Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Italian and Spanish in combination with Danish, Dutch, English and French.

Laura Callahan, The City College of the City University of New York, on Linguist List: Vol. 19-115 (2008):
This volume offers a very coherent examination of healthcare interpreting in a wide range of settings, and as such it will be of great use to students and instructors in courses having to do with this profession. Its editing is impeccable, and the presentation of data in each article is clear and easy to follow. The book will also be of interest to scholars and practitioners in other disciplines, such as translation, discourse analysis, and linguistic minorities. Each of the papers contains authentic data as well as a wealth of theoretical models. The book reviews that close the volume constitute another valuable resource for researchers. Another common conclusion is the importance of providing training for community interpreters, as well as for the healthcare professionals who will work with them. As can be seen from this collection, both types of training are still fairly scarce worldwide. Healthcare Interpreting represents a step in the right direction, since it documents the need with empirical evidence.