- Title
- Interactional Management in a Simulated Police Interview: Interpreter's Strategies
- Creator
- Hale, Sandra; Goodman-Delahunty, Jane; Martschuk, Natalie
- Relation
- The Discourse of Police Interviews p. 220-226
- Relation
- https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo41210416.html
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Past empirical studies comparing the performance of trained interpreters and untrained bilinguals in police interviews have focused on the accuracy of the propositional content. Little is known about the relative skill of these two groups regarding other key tasks performed by interpreters such as the management and coordination of turn-taking and compliance with ethical protocols. These skills were empirically tested in a realistic simulated police interview. A total of 100 English-Spanish bilinguals and trained interpreters in the greater Sydney area interpreted for 20-30 minutes while professionally-trained actors role-played the detective and suspect for each participant. Raters who were blind to the interpreters’ background evaluated each interpretation in terms of the effectiveness of management of the interaction, use of correct interpreting protocols and professional credibility. Convergent results from quantitative analyses and discourse analysis of 17 illustrative excerpts confirmed that interpreters with specialised training outperformed the untrained bilinguals. Ad hoc interpreters were less confident, used inappropriate colloquial and powerless speech styles, failed to explain their role or establish ground rules that all statements would be interpreted, use of first and second person, breached ethical guidelines on impartiality, and did not interpret all utterances. The trained interpreters were rated as more trustworthy, confident, likeable and knowledgeable than their untrained counterparts. Although skills in managing turn taking and ethical dilemmas fall outside the scope of propositional accuracy, they are integral to professional interpreting and distinguished the performance of the two participant groups. Implications of the findings for interpreter training and police policy and practice in investigative interviews are discussed.
- Subject
- interpreter interaction management; interpreter contract; interpreter role; interpreter professional ethics; trained and untrained interpreters
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1442287
- Identifier
- uon:41643
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780226647821
- Language
- eng
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