Interpretation, translation and intercultural communication in refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France

This article explores the interplay between language and intercultural communication within refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France, using material taken from ethnographic research that involved a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis in both countries over a two-year period (2007–2009). It is concerned, in particular, to examine the role played by interpreters in facilitating intercultural communication between asylum applicants and the different administrative and legal actors responsible for assessing or defending their claims. The first section provides an overview of refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France, introducing the main administrative and legal contexts of the asylum process within which interpreters operate in the two countries. The second section compares the organisation of interpreting services, codes of conduct for interpreters and institutional expectations about the nature of interpreters’ activity on the part of the relevant UK and French authorities. The third section then explores some of the practical dilemmas for interpreters and barriers to communication that exist in refugee status determination procedures in the two countries. The article concludes by emphasising the complex and active nature of the interpreter's role in UK and French refugee status determination procedures

The social construction of 101 non-emergency video relay services for deaf signers

How the police prepare for and engage with a citizen who is deaf and uses British Sign Language (BSL) is a national problem. From the perspective of deaf sign language users, the police remain largely inaccessible and unprepared in how to accommodate their linguistic needs. Four regional forces have responded to this issue by introducing a local solution, a bespoke 101 non-emergency video relay service (101VRS). Independent VRS companies function as the auxiliary service, mediating video calls to a 101 helpline. This service was identified as a simple solution that relied on minimal resourcing and input from the police. In using Pinch and Bijker’s social construction of technology (SCOT) framework, we look at competing interpretations of the 101VRS concept and how this has led to a range of intended and unintended solutions and problems (Pinch TJ and Bijker WE (1984) The social construction of facts and artefacts: or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other. Social Studies of Science 14(3): 399–441). To maintain the investment in improving access to the police, we recommend harmonization of 101VRS nationally, and ongoing consultation with how front-line services can become better prepared at assisting deaf citizens

Intercultural moments in translating and humanising the socio-legal system

This paper seeks to address the question how people go about intercultural differences in an institutional setting which aims to mediate between the socio-legal system and the ‘outsiders’ of the system, i.e. ordinary citizens, through an investigation of professional interactions between a legal advisor and her clients of Eastern European backgrounds in London. Drawing data from a linguistic ethnography, the analysis foregrounds the practice of resemiotisation and calibration. The second aim is to extend the notion of ‘intercultural moments’ and to explore its analytical benefits in understanding fleeting and seemingly mundane moments in encounters

Introduction

The paper provides an introduction to the Routledge Handbook od Public Service Interpreting and describes the key relevant issues in the debate about publc service interpreting: the conduit metaphor, mediation, empirical studies; public service interpreting impacting public service

The Routledge Handbook of Public Service Interpreting

The volume provides a comprehensive overview of research in public service or community interpreting. It offers reflections and suggestions for improving public service communication in plurilingual settings and provides tools for dealing with public service communication in a global societ

Reflections on Doctor Question – Patient Answer Sequences and on Lay Perceptions of Close Translation

ABSTRACT The lay perception of those who work with interpreters in their professional conversations (and sometimes of interpreters themselves) is that translation of what they and their patients/clients say should be as close as possible. The very idea of close translation may seem simple, but the practice of rendering spontaneous talk-ininteraction as close as possible is quite complex, and requires much more from the mediator than textually close renditions. In this paper, we discuss what is involved in the accomplishment of close rendering in talk. We focus on question-answer sequences with clinicians and patients, when details about the patients’ history and their symptoms are collected. We show that meaning is achieved and rendered through processes thatmay go rather beyond the single words and utterances and that involve the contribution of all the interlocutors. We show three types of sequences taken from a collection of authentic data audio-recorded in health care services in Italy and transcribed to allow for analysis. The sequences show three different forms of talk, found in the data, where participants pursue close, precise rendition of medical details. The analysis highlights that the Italian intercultural mediators (just like those trained and assigned as public service interpreters in other countries), even in these cases which are peculiarly focused on precise details, do need to take responsibility not only for translating the textual items but also for coordinating turns at talk. It is responsible turncoordination which leads to rendering meaning closely