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COMMUNITY INTERPRETING: MODES AND SETTINGS

Teodora B. Burian, Ph.D.Chicata March Meeting, 2013t-burian@yahoo.com

Overview• Interpreting

• Definition / What interpreters do• Process of interpreting• Modes and Settings

• Community Interpreting• Various names – implications / roles

• What is common• Knowledge / Skills needed

• Lack of recognition for the profession• Universities slow to offer education• Alternate venues for learning• Current certification available

Chicata March Meeting 2013 - Community Interpreting: Modes and Settings by Teodora B. Burian

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Who I am? / Who you are?

Translator and Interpreter• Legal and medical settings

• Work for agencies

InstructorNortheastern Illinois University, Chicago, ILESL – Writing, Grammar, Listening and Speaking, Reading

Linguistics

Spring 2013: Intro to CI

What do interpreters do?Kate Tate – the offensive translator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY66ZJ0TFUI – 2:42

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What do interpreters do?

• Facilitate the cross-cultural communication necessary in today's society.

• Convert one language into another.

• Relay concepts and ideas between languages.

Meaning based translation vs. Literal Translation (Gile)

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Goal of Interpreting

The ultimate goal of interpreting is to convey a message originally expressed in a different language so that the interpreted message has the potential for evoking the same cognitive, and, optimally, the same emotional response as does the original message (Cokely, 1988).

Quoted from: Consecutive Interpreting: An Instructor’s Manual, p.11;

©2008 Program in Translation and Interpreting, College of Continuing Education, University of Minnesota

Interpreting: Mode of Delivery• Simulatenous - the interpreter

• listens and speaks (or signs) at roughly the same time someone is speaking or signing

• provides the target language message at roughly the same time the source language message is produced

• Consecutive - the interpreter • begins only after the speaker has verbalized a group of words or

sentences

• waits until the speaker has finished before beginning to speak

• Whispered Interpreting – Chuchotage• in the absence of equipment, one participant speaks and the

interpreter whispers simultaneously into the ear of one or two people who need interpreting services

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Occupational Outlook Handbook• Health or medical interpreters typically work in healthcare

settings and help patients communicate with doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.

• Legal or judiciary interpreters typically work in courts and other legal settings, such as hearings, arraignments, depositions, and trials.

• Guide or escort interpreters accompany either U.S. visitors abroad or foreign visitors in the United States to ensure that they are able to communicate during their stay.

• Conference interpreters work at conferences that have non-English-speaking attendees. The work is often in the field of international business or diplomacy, although conference interpreters can interpret for any organization that works with speakers of foreign languages.

• http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Media-and-Communication/Interpreters-and-translators.htm#tab-2• The 2012-2013 Occupational Outlook Handbook /Bureau of Labor Statistics

Interpreting: Setting or Subject MatterMikkelson: Interpreting Is Interpreting – Or Is It? (1999)

• Conference Interpreting

• Seminar Interpreting

• Escort Interpreting

• Media Interpreting

• Court Interpreting – (legal, judiciary)

• Business Interpreting

• Medical Interpreting – (health care, hospital, mental health interpreting)

• Educational Interpreting

• Over-the-Phone Interpreting

• Community Interpreting

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Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (1998, 2001)

• Conference and simultaneous interpreting

• Court Interpreting

• Community Interpreting

Working With Interpreters (23:17)

• Does a court interpreter need to be able to interpret in a simultaneous mode?

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Community Interpreting –Generic term; Businessor Community Oriented

Scope – ill defined

• community interpreting

• public service interpreting

• cultural interpreting

• dialogue interpreting

• ad hoc interpreting

• liaison interpreting

• escort interpreting

• medical and legal interpreting

From: The Critical Link: Interpreters in the Community, edited by Silvana E. Carr, Roda Roberts, Aideen Dufour and Dini Steyn

Community Interpreting

“enables people who are not fluent speakers of the official language(s) of the country to communicate with the providers of public services so as to facilitate full and equal access to legal, health, education, government, and social services."

(Carr et al, 1997)

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Philosophical Approaches to Community Interpreting

•Active Participation

•Assistance

•Cultural Brokering

•Advocacy

•Conciliation

Role: Cultural Brokering

• The Cultural Interpreter: A Cultural Link (15:10)

• What role does a cultural interpreter have?

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Role: Advocacy

The Ideal Interpreter

• Language skills

• Analytical skills

• Listening and recall

• Interpersonal skills

• Ethical behavior

• Speaking skills

• Cultural knowledge

• Subject knowledge

• Respect for the consumer

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Language Skills

Collocations break a habitbreak a legbreak a promisebreak a recordbreak a windowbreak someone's heartbreak the icebreak the lawbreak the news to so

break the rules

catch a ballcatch a buscatch a chillcatch a coldcatch the flucatch a thiefcatch firecatch sight ofcatch so's attentioncatch someone's eye

Examples from: http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations-lists.htm

Analytical Skills

• The language of the text• words

• grammatical signalsword endings, function words, word order

• surface vs. deep structure

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Listening skills include these abilities:

• to recognize the functions of stress and intonation to signal the information structure of utterances

• to detect key words (i.e., those which identify topics and propositions)

• to guess the meanings of words from the contexts in which they occur

• to recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants, goals

• to predict outcomes from events described to infer links and connections between events

• to deduce causes and effects from events

• to distinguish between literal and implied meanings

• to process speech at different rates

• to process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections

• to make use of facial, paralinguistic, and other clues to work out meanings

Listening and Recall

Interpersonal Skills

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-improve-interpersonal-skills

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Code of Ethics in Healthcare Interpreting

1. Accuracy2. Impartiality and Conflicts of Interest3. Confidentiality 4. Limitations of Practice 5. Protocol and Demeanor6. Maintenance and Improvement of

Skills and Knowledge7. Accurate Representation of

Credentials 8. Point out Impediments to

Compliance

Code of Ethics in Judicial Interpreting

1. Confidentiality2. Accuracy3. Impartiality 4. Boundaries5. Awareness of cultural differences6. Respect for all parties involved7. Advocacy8. Professional development9. Act in a professional and ethical

manner

Ethical Behavior

Speaking Skills

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Cultural Knowledge

Subject Knowledge• World knowledge• “You don’t need to understand it, just translate it!”

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is a part of life.

-John D. Bransford and Nancy S. McCarrell, 1974, "A sketch of a Cognitive Approach to Comprehension"

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Components of Interpreting• Bowen and Bowen (1980):1) discourse in the SL, 2) understanding and analyzing this discourse, and 3) reconstituting it in the TL.

• The Effort model of interpreting (Gile, 1989):1) The Listening and Analysis Effort 2) The Production Effort 3) A Short-term Memory Effort

Performing the same task?

• Difference in training, pay, and prestige?

• Conference interpreters – well established, extensive training, international organizations

• Hospital interpreters – limited budgets of hospitals, underpaid healthcare workers, not knowing what to expect, interpreter not required to show proof of any education – “yet, high stake setting”

• Court interpreters – ATA article – “federal certification set the performance criteria – birth of a profession”

“a profession [grew] out of the federal courts’ recognition of the duty to guarantee constitutional rights and to carry out the mandates of the 1978 Court Interpreters Act” RD Goznalez

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The laws mandating the use of language interpreters:

• The Court Interpreters Act of 1978

• The Illinois Language Assistance Services Act (1994)

• The Foreign Language Court Interpreter Act of 1999

• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Medical Interpreter Law (CA, 2003)

The Court Interpreters Act of 1978

• a federal law which establishes the right of any individual involved in federal proceedings to have a certified court interpreter if his/her communication or comprehension capabilities are inhibited because of a language barrier or a hearing or speech impairment.

• Amendments of 1988 (28 U.S.C. §§ 1827-1828)

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The Illinois Language Assistance Services Act

• which went into effect in 1994, states that arrangements must be made to provide access to health care information and services in cases where language or communication barriers exist between patients and staff.

The Foreign Language Court Interpreter Act of 1999

The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts may work cooperatively with community colleges and other private or public educational institutions and with other public or private organizations to establish a certification preparation curriculum and suitable training programs to ensure the availability of certified interpreters. Training programs may be made readily available throughout the State.

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Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

“it [is] to be the policy of the U.S. that discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin shall not occur in connection with programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance and authorizes and directs the appropriate Federal departments and agencies to take action to carry out this policy.”

This includes discrimination based on an individual’s inability to speak and/or understand English.

This means that federally funded hospitals and courts should offer their clients proactive language assistance.

Medical Interpreter Law

• California: the first state in the U.S. to pass a law requiring that health insurance organizations provide interpreting and translating services to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP).

• The law “requires health, dental and specialty insurers to provide subscribers with translators (sic), at least by telephone, while visiting their doctor, pharmacist, ophthalmologist or dentist.”

• Senate Bill 853 was officially signed in 2003, but insurance companies had until January 1, 2009 to comply with the bill.

http://www.altalang.com/beyond-words/2009/01/05/california-passes-medical-interpreter-law/(March, 2013)

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Interpreting – A profession?

Mikkelson: “vast differences in interpreters’ pay, working conditions, and status” – due to extrinsic factors

1. Status of languages

2. Multilingual environment

3. Preparation for the assignment

4. Selection of interpreters

5. Local job market

6. Organization and regulation

Recap: Interpreting requires

• Language skills

• Analytical skills

• Listening and recall

• Interpersonal skills

• Ethical behavior

• Speaking skills

• Cultural knowledge

• Subject knowledge

• Respect for the consumer

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Interpreting – A profession?

Gonzalez:

…the quality of court interpreting [and any other interpreting- TBB], the growth of the profession, and the quality of language access depends upon the establishment of a national academic infrastructure of translation and interpreting undergraduate and graduate degree programs with an emphasis on interpreting and a focus on judicial settings (The ATA Chronicle, February 2013, p.22).

THE CENTER FORtranslation studiesUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCONNECTING ACROSS CULTURESwww.translation.illinois.edu

MA in Translation and Interpreting Specializations in:

• Translations for the Professions

• Literary and Applied Literary Translation

• Conference and Community Interpreting • Online------ OR------ Campus-based

• Turn your love of languages into a marketable career!

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Obstacles to education

• Lack of recognition of interpreting (compared to translation)

• “Higher ed slow to recognize the need to train capable interpreters for judicial, medical, and other critical settings”

Interpreter Demand

• Nationally, according to the section on Interpreters and Translators in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• About 50,900 jobs in 2008 were held by interpreters and translators

• A 22% increase is projected in the number of jobs between 2008 and 2018 (to 62,200 jobs; this is much faster than average growth)

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Interpreter Demand

Jobs held by Interpreters and Translators

2008: 50,900

2010: 58,400

2020 projected: 83,100 jobs

Demand strong: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish;

Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages and the principal East Asian languages: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Media‐and‐Communication/Interpreters‐and‐translators.htm#tab‐6

Interpreter Demand

According to the Administrative Office of the US Courts, the number of federal court events requiring the use of interpreters: •increased by 14.9 percent in fiscal year 2008, •increased by 11 percent in fiscal year 2009,

• (in both years, Spanish the most-used language, • increase in # of lgs from 113 in 2008 to 120 in 2009)

•increased by 13.8 percent in fiscal year 2010.

http://www.uscourts.gov/News/TheThirdBranch/11-05-01/Interpreting_An_Every-Day_Event_in_Federal_Courts.aspx

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Interpreter Demand - Nationally

Interpreter Demand - Chicago

According to the 2010 FY report by the US District Court for the NDI, 30 lgs. represented in 2,840 in-court events

• 1,732 Spanish

• 70 Mandarin

• 51 Polish

• 31 Korean

• 20 Romanian

• 18 Arabic

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Certification of Interpreters

• Federal Court Interpreter Certification

• National Center for State Courts

• CCHI – endorsed by the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)

• The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters

Federal Court Interpreter Certification

• exists only for Spanish (1980), while the certification programs for Navajo and Haitian Creole are no longer offered. The federal court also has categories for professionally qualified interpreters, who must meet certain criteria.

• http://www.ncsc.org/fcice/

• The National Center for State Courts is contractor to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts for the development and administration of the Spanish/English Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination.

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The National Center for State Courts

• provides court interpreter certification to the member states of the Consortium:• Full examinations in Cantonese, French, Haitian

Creole, Hmong, Ilocano, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese

• Abbreviated exams in Arabic, Chuukese, Marshallese, Turkish and Bosnian

The CCHI’s certification

• a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program - two credentials:• Certified Healthcare Interpreter (CHITM) – a

language specific credential currently available in Spanish only

• Associate Healthcare Interpreter (AHITM) – a credential for entry point into professional certification for healthcare interpreters regardless of the language(s) they interpret

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The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters • offers a credible, valid and reliable national certification program for healthcare interpreters. • Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI) –

• currently offered for Spanish only,

• but oral exams for Russian, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean will be ready soon

• Written exam is available to all interpreters as it is entirely in English.

Venues for learning and developing

• Workshops alone not enough for gaining respect for the profession, but…

• Agnese Haury Institute

• Workshops by NCSC and other entities (Bridges, Language Access Resource Center, Interpreter Education Online)

• Waubonsee Community College, Harold Washington, Kankakee Community College

• ATA, MATI, NAJIT

• Chicata – Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters Conferences/Workshops and monthly meetings

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Common Sense Advisory

• Report Commissioned by Interpret America

• P. 28 - formal education

• P.30 – how many hold certificates

Legal JokesRecently reported in the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal, the following are 22 questions ACTUALLY asked of witnesses by attorneys during trials and, in certain cases, the responses given by insightful witnesses:

1. "Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?“

2. "The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?"•

3. "Were you present when your picture was taken?"•

4. "Were you alone or by yourself?"•

5. "Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?"•

6. "Did he kill you?"•

7. "How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?"•

8. "You were there until the time you left, is that true?"•

9. "How many times have you committed suicide?"

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Legal Jokes. Q: "So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?"• A: "Yes."• Q: "And what were you doing at that time?"•

• Q: "She had three children, right?"• A: "Yes."• Q: "How many were boys?"• A: "None."• Q: "Were there any girls?"•

Q: "You say the stairs went down to the basement?"A: "Yes."Q: "And these stairs, did they go up also?"•

•

Q: "Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?"A: "No, this is how I dress when I go to work."•

Q: "Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?"A: "All my autopsies are performed on dead people."•