Chapter 2. “You are just a disembodied voice really”
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Sabine Braun
Abstract
This contribution is devoted to the voices of users of video remote interpreting (VRI) in a particular setting, namely legal interpreters and police officers. Focusing on an aspect that has received little attention to date, viz. the interpreters’ and legal stakeholders’ perceptions of VRI as a novel configuration in the legal setting, we use the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) as a theoretical framework to analyse a set of interviews that were conducted with interpreters and police officers after they had completed a simulated VRI session. As a first step, the participants were prompted to compare this simulated experience to their real-life experience to check the degree of reality of the simulated encounters. Next, they were asked to talk about attitudes towards VRI and to reflect on their experience with VRI during the simulation. Among the key outcomes of this investigation is that the two social groups – police officers and interpreters – have different views, but also that there is a considerable degree of variation among the interpreters, indicating a low degree of stabilisation of VRI as a concept and practice among the interpreters.
Abstract
This contribution is devoted to the voices of users of video remote interpreting (VRI) in a particular setting, namely legal interpreters and police officers. Focusing on an aspect that has received little attention to date, viz. the interpreters’ and legal stakeholders’ perceptions of VRI as a novel configuration in the legal setting, we use the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) as a theoretical framework to analyse a set of interviews that were conducted with interpreters and police officers after they had completed a simulated VRI session. As a first step, the participants were prompted to compare this simulated experience to their real-life experience to check the degree of reality of the simulated encounters. Next, they were asked to talk about attitudes towards VRI and to reflect on their experience with VRI during the simulation. Among the key outcomes of this investigation is that the two social groups – police officers and interpreters – have different views, but also that there is a considerable degree of variation among the interpreters, indicating a low degree of stabilisation of VRI as a concept and practice among the interpreters.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Chapter 1. “Going video” 13
- Chapter 2. “You are just a disembodied voice really” 47
- Chapter 3. Remote interpreting in dialogic settings 79
- Chapter 4. Role-space in VRS and VRI 107
- Chapter 5. The importance of video recordings in signed language interpreting research 127
- Chapter 6. Gesture functions and gestural style in simultaneous interpreting 151
- Chapter 7. Going video : Understanding interpreter-mediated clinical communication through the video lens 181
- Chapter 8. Eye-tracking in interpreter-mediated talk 203
- Index 235
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Chapter 1. “Going video” 13
- Chapter 2. “You are just a disembodied voice really” 47
- Chapter 3. Remote interpreting in dialogic settings 79
- Chapter 4. Role-space in VRS and VRI 107
- Chapter 5. The importance of video recordings in signed language interpreting research 127
- Chapter 6. Gesture functions and gestural style in simultaneous interpreting 151
- Chapter 7. Going video : Understanding interpreter-mediated clinical communication through the video lens 181
- Chapter 8. Eye-tracking in interpreter-mediated talk 203
- Index 235
