Translating, Interpreting and Communication Support Services Across the Public Sector in Scotland
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Cheques should be made payable to The Stationery Office Ltd and addressed to: The Stationery Office Bookshop 71 Lothian Road Edinburgh EH3 9AZ Tel: 0870 606 5566 Fax: 0870 606 5588 The views expressed in this report are those of the researchers and do not necessarily represent those of the Department or Scottish Ministers. © Crown Copyright 2002 Limited extracts from the text may be produced provided the source is acknowledged. For more extensive reproduction, please write to the Chief Research Officer at the Central Research Unit, 3rd Floor West Rear, St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG CONTENTS SUMMARY I CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 AIMS OF THE REVIEW 1 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW 1 1.3 FORM OF THE FINAL REPORT 2 CHAPTER TWO CONDUCTING THE LITERATURE REVIEW 3 2.1 BRIEFING FOR READERS AND INFORMATION OFFICER 3 2.2 SOURCING DOCUMENTS 3 2.3 REVIEWING THE LITERATURE 4 2.4 MEETING THE AIMS OF THE REVIEW 5 CHAPTER THREE DEFINITIONS OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION AND COMMUNICATION SUPPORT 8 3.1 SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE 8 3.2 LITERAL OR MEANINGFUL TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION 8 3.3 DIFFERENT ROLES OF INTERPRETERS 11 3.4 COMMUNICATION SUPPORT 12 CHAPTER FOUR EMERGING ISSUES AND THEMES 14 4.1 SOCIAL INCLUSION OR SERVICE PROVISION? 14 4.2 COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 15 4.3 EMPHASES AND GAPS IN THE LITERATURE 16 4.4 EVIDENCE OF CHANGE 19 CHAPTER FIVE POLICY AND LEGISLATION BACKGROUND 21 5.1 EUROPEAN POLICY AND LEGISLATION 21 5.2 UK-WIDE AND SCOTTISH POLICY AND LEGISLATION: THE SHIFT TO ‘MAINSTREAMING’ 22 5.3 POLICY AT LOCAL OR ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL: THE NEED TO CATCH UP 23 5.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION AND COMMUNICATION SUPPORT 24 5.5 THE CASE OF EDUCATION 24 5.6 PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES, POLICY, LEGISLATION, INTERPRETATION OF LEGISLATION, STRATEGIC PLANNING (AT NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVELS), PRACTICE GUIDELINES, STANDARDS/EVALUATION OF PRACTICE: A CRITICAL PATH 26 CHAPTER SIX SERVICE PROVISION 27 6.1 INTRODUCTION (CHAPTERS 6 TO 13) 27 6.2 WHO ARE THE SERVICE PROVIDERS? 27 6.3 KEY ISSUES CONCERNING SERVICE PROVISION 28 6.4 THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF SERVICE PROVIDERS 28 6.5 IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROVISION ACROSS DIFFERENT REGIONS OR LOCAL AGENCIES 31 6.6 CROSS-SECTORAL CO-ORDINATION 32 CHAPTER SEVEN MODELS OF SERVICE DELIVERY 33 7.1 ‘JUST LANGUAGE?’ THE ROLE OF THE INTERPRETER 33 7.2 DELIVERY PROCESSES 36 7.3 FUNDING MODELS 37 CHAPTER EIGHT SERVICE AWARENESS 39 CHAPTER NINE SERVICE USER NEEDS 41 9.1 RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF THE USER PERSPECTIVE 41 9.2 NEED TO RECOGNISE HETEROGENEITY OF TARGET GROUPS 42 9.3 VALUE OF FOCUS ON ACCESS FOR ALL 43 CHAPTER TEN TRAINING 44 10.1 PROVISION FOR TRAINING 44 10.2 TRAINING NEEDS OF INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS AND BILINGUAL SUPPORT WORKERS 44 10.3 TRAINING NEEDS OF OTHER STAFF 46 10.4 EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE WIDER PUBLIC 46 CHAPTER ELEVEN GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS 47 11.1 ENSURING QUALITY OF INTERPRETATION AND OF SUPPORT FOR INTERPRETATION 47 11.2 EXISTING GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS 47 CHAPTER TWELVE MONITORING AND EVALUATION 52 CHAPTER THIRTEEN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 54 13.1 SOCIAL INCLUSION PERSPECTIVE 54 13.2 COMMUNICATIONS CONTINUUM 55 13.3 EDUCATION AND TRAINING 57 13.4 STATISTICAL DATA 58 13.5 THE KNOWLEDGE BASE 59 13.6 SETTING STANDARDS AND IMPLEMENTING THEM 60 REFERENCES 61 APPENDIX A LITERATURE IDENTIFICATION MATRIX 69 APPENDIX B FORMAT FOR READERS’ REPORTS ON DOCUMENTATION REVIEWED 70 APPENDIX C AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION 71 APPENDIX D AUSTRALIAN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION SERVICES 78 APPENDIX E INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION AND COMMUNICATION SUPPORT SERVICES 85 SUMMARY 1. THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW The purpose of this review of research, policy and practice relating to translating, interpreting and communication support services across the public sector in Scotland is to inform the Translation, Interpreting and Communications Support Services Framework Group in its work to develop a national cross-sectoral framework of standards for these services. Guiding principles for the work of this group include the goal of ‘meeting the communications support and language needs of the community’ and avoiding discrimination through ‘failure to deal with these issues and other barriers to equal access’ (Scottish Forum for Public Service Interpreting and Translating, 2000: Good Practice Guidelines). 2. THE REVIEW PROCESS The review was conducted by a team of researchers and reviewers based at the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research at the University of Stirling, over a period of ten weeks in the summer of 2001. In that period, approximately 100 relevant books, papers and other documentation were identified and reviewed by the team. 3. DEFINITIONS USED IN THE REVIEW The following definitions of ‘translation’, ‘interpretation’ and ‘communication support’ apply to this review: translation: the conversion of written texts from one language to another interpretation: the conversion of speech from one language (including British Sign Language and other sign languages) to another communication support: a variety of ways of supporting communication with those who do not use the conventional forms of spoken or written English, including Braille and other tactile forms of writing, lip-reading and lip-speaking, and various communication technologies. Discussion of definitions also raises the following issues: • the inappropriateness of expecting translation or interpretation to provide an exact word-for-word transposition of one language into another; the expectation of ‘verbatim’ translation or interpretation ignores the fact that different languages encode social and cultural experience in very different ways; • the importance of sensitivity to social and cultural differences between speakers of the two languages between which translation or interpretation occurs, both at macro level (i.e. the entire community of speakers of the language in question) i and at micro level (i.e. the particular community, and in some cases, the individuals within that community); • the relationship of the interpreter to those for whom interpretation is provided, ranging from impartial professional to informed advocate. 4. KEY THEMES OF THIS REPORT 4.1 Social inclusion or service provision? The service provision model focuses on communication barriers experienced by those who do not use conventional forms of spoken or written English in encounters with public sector agencies. This model entails supplementing established approaches to communication between providers and clients with specialist provision (e.g. the use of interpreters in interviews, the translation of leaflets and information sheets into other languages, the use of special telephone and computer technologies) and is problematic in that these supplementary services are regarded as expensive and difficult to obtain. The social inclusion model starts from the perspective that everyone has a right to the information and support which will enable them to participate in the social and cultural life of their community, and that therefore alternative approaches to communication in every area of public life need to be built in to provision at the outset. There is a shift in perspective in recent documentation, particularly at national level, from a service provision model to one of social inclusion. The social inclusion model has extensive implications for the provision of translation, interpretation and communication support, but these are only beginning to be explored by public sector agencies. 4.2 Communication and language In the context of the shift from service provision to social inclusion, there is also a need for a shift in thinking about languages to thinking about communication. Monolingual English- speakers traditionally have a poor understanding of what multilingualism means, feeling both that language learning is an extremely difficult task, but also that interpretation and translation is easy for those who know two or more languages.