Developing and Cultivating Expert Interpreter Competence

This paper explores the way in which 10 professional interpreters develop and cultivate their expert interpreter competence. It draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews and carries forward the previous process- and experience-based account of interpreter skills and (sub)competencies based on the same 90,000 word corpus (cf. Albl-Mikasa 2012). The main points addressed are the requirements that can be learned, the timeline of acquisition of the various (sub)competences, and the ways in which they are further developed. These ways include formal continuous professional development, semi-formal assignment- geared knowledge building, informal off-the-job acquisition of relevant information, on-the-job learning by doing, and the evolvement of savoir-faire in the course of professional life

Express-ability in ELF communication

In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers' restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision. In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett's effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin's Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communicatio

Express-ability in ELF communication

In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers’ restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision. In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett’s effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin’s Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communication

Training video interpreters for refugee languages in the German-speaking DACH countries : the SAVD initiative

Thanks to the availability of appropriate technical solutions as well as growing experience with remote interpreting in various countries, video interpreting has made its way into community interpreting, predominantly in the healthcare sector. It is thought to combine advantages of face-to-face interpreting (e.g. visibility, eye contact, non-verbal communication, visual information and certain trust-building features) with advantages of distance interpreting (e.g. saving travel time and expenses) in facilitating correct diagnosis and obtaining informed consent, compliance, treatment success and patient safety. This article describes a video-interpreting initiative undertaken in the German-speaking DACH area (Germany, Austria, German-speaking part of Switzerland) following the 2015 refugee crisis. It highlights the training measures introduced to address the needs of patients speaking languages for which interpreters are not usually available in Germany and Austria, and the subsequent expansion of the initiative into Switzerland. It also reports on the views of the course participants on the basis of a questionnaire survey conducted after training

(Non-)Sense in note-taking for consecutive interpreting

The paper applies cognitive theories of text and language processing, and in particular relevance theory, to the analysis of notes in consecutive interpreting. In contrast to the pre-cognitive view, in which note-taking is seen mainly as a memory-supporting technique, the process of note-taking is described as the reception and production of a notation text. Adding the relevance-theoretical constructs of explicature and implicature to the general account of cognitive text processing as coherence building and the construction of a mental representation at local and global levels, this approach allows for the comparison of source, notation and target texts with respect to the underlying propositional representation, and shows how the sense of highly fragmentary notation texts is recovered in consecutive interpreting. The paper is based on an empirical study involving consecutive interpretations (English-German) by five trainee interpreters. The analysis shows that the interpreters operate relatively closely along micropropositional lines when processing the source, notation and target texts, with the explicature regularly having the same propositional form as the corresponding proposition in the source text.

Global English and English as a lingua franca (ELF) : implications for the interpreting profession

The unprecedented global spread of English as a lingua franca is a recent phenomenon that poses a challenge to the age-old craft of interpreting. What little research has so far been undertaken has concentrated on the effects of non-native source text production, especially nonnative accents, on the interpreter’s comprehension process. Based on a cognitive-constructivist and functional view of language, this paper analyses the results of a questionnaire-based survey of 32 experienced conference interpreters. Examining the changes inevitably brought about by ELF, the survey looks at the impact on interpreters and their profession. The findings identified capacity-related problems not only in the comprehension process, but also, in the form of accommodation, in the (target text) production process. On a more general level, working conditions are reported to be adversely affected, with consequences for performance quality and job satisfaction

Formación de intérpretes por videoconferencia para las lenguas de los refugiados en los países de habla alemana dela Dach: la inciativa SAVD

Thanks to the availability of appropriate technical solutions as well as growing experience with remote interpreting in various countries, video interpreting has made its way into community interpreting, predominantly in the healthcare sector. It is thought to combine advantages of face-to-face interpreting (e.g. visibility, eye contact, non-verbal communication, visual information and certain trust-building features) with advantages of distance interpreting (e.g. saving travel time and expenses) in facilitating correct diagnosis and obtaining informed consent, compliance, treatment success and patient safety. This article describes a videointerpreting initiative undertaken in the German-speaking DACH area (Germany, Austria, German-speaking part of Switzerland) following the 2015 refugee crisis. It highlights the training measures introduced to address the needs of patients speaking languages for which interpreters are not usually available in Germany and Austria, and the subsequent expansion of the initiative into Switzerland. It also reports on the views of the course participants on the basis of a questionnaire survey conducted after training.La interpretación a distancia por videoconferencia se ha abierto camino en la interpretación comunitaria, predominantemente en el ámbito sanitario, gracias a la disponibilidad de soluciones técnicas apropiadas así como a la creciente experiencia en la interpretación a distancia en diferentes países. La idea es combinar las ventajas de la interpretación en persona (por ejemplo, la perceptibilidad, el contacto visual, la comunicación no verbal, la información visual y aspectos de creación de confianza) con las ventajas de la interpretación a distancia (como, por ejemplo, el ahorro de costos y gastos de trayectos) y, de esta manera, facilitar un diagnóstico correcto y obtener el consentimiento informado, la conformidad, los tratamientos exitosos y la seguridad del paciente. El presente artículo describe las propuestas llevadas a cabo para la interpretación por videoconferencia en los países de habla alemana (Alemania, Austria y la parte germanohablante de Suiza) a raíz de la crisis de refugiados. Se pone especial énfasis en las actividades de formación introducidas con el fin de satisfacer las necesidades de los pacientes que hablan lenguas para cuya interpretación no suele haber intérpretes en Alemania y Austria, así como su introducción subsiguiente en Suiza. Además, se presenta la opinión de los participantes de los cursos en base a una encuesta llevada a cabo después de las actividades de formación

Teaching Globish? : the need for an ELF-pedagogy in interpreter training

Research on the global spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has made headway since the 1990s. In this effort, language teaching and pedagogy have been one of the major areas of research, concentrating on how to make nonnative English learners more effective participants in ELF interactions without taking the native speaker as a benchmark. However, this research has not considered settings of mediated communication. Even in the field of interpreting studies, it is only recently that the implications of ELF on the interpreters’ activity and profession have become an object of research. Findings that the “ELF condition” adversely affects the interpreters’ task call for an ELF pedagogy in interpreter training, which helps students prepare for changing working conditions. On the basis of a 90,000-word corpus of in-depth interviews with 10 professional conference interpreters, this article details preliminary suggestions for an ELF orientation in interpreter training and aims to spark a debate on such an orientation

English as a lingua franca in international conferences : current and future developments in interpreting studies

The global spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has major implications for the interpreting profession. Not only is English the main conference language, but source speeches are increasingly produced by non-native English speakers. Research into ELF has concentrated on the description of ELF as a legitimate use of English in its own right and as an asset to achieve communicative goals in international contexts. lnterpreting studies, by contrast, address the critical stance of professional conference interpreters towards ELF developments and seek to explore the challenges ELF presents to their profession and to successful communication. Empirical evidence regarding ELF and interpreting is still scarce and not very robust. The paper brings together the results produced so far. Major problems identified on the part of ELF speaker source text production  are lack of express-ability, varying  proficiency levels, register shifts, and massive L 1 transfer on the part of ELF speakers, but also difficulties arising from the specific nature of interpreter-mediated working conditions. The paper concludes by outlining the new research questions these challenges put to the study of interpreting