<DOCINFO AUTHOR ""TITLE "Revisiting the Interpreters Role: A study of conference, court, and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico and the United States"SUBJECT "Benjamins Translation Library, Volume 55"KEYWORDS ""SIZE HEIGHT "220"WIDTH "150"VOFFSET "4"> Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role Benjamins Translation Library The Benjamins Translation Library aims to stimulate research and training in translation and interpreting studies. The Library provides a forum for a variety of approaches (which may sometimes be conflicting) in a socio-cultural, historical, theoretical, applied and pedagogical context. The Library includes scholarly works, reference works, post-graduate text books and readers in the English language. General editor Associate editor Gideon Toury Miriam Shlesinger Tel Aviv University Bar Ilan University Advisory board Marilyn Gaddis Rose Zuzana Jettmarová Juan C. Sager Binghamton University Charles University of Prague UMIST Manchester Yves Gambier Werner Koller Mary Snell-Hornby Turku University Bergen University University of Vienna Daniel Gile Alet Kruger Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit Université Lumière Lyon 2 and UNISA University of Joensuu ISIT Paris José Lambert Lawrence Venuti Ulrich Heid Catholic University of Leuven Temple University University of Stuttgart Franz Pöchhacker Wolfram Wilss Eva Hung University of Vienna University of Saarbrücken Chinese University of Hong Kong Rosa Rabadán Judith Woodsworth W. John Hutchins University of León Mt. Saint Vincent University Halifax University of East Anglia Roda Roberts Sue Ellen Wright University of Ottawa Kent State University Volume 55 Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role: A study of conference, court, and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by Claudia V. Angelelli Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role A study of conference, court, and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico, and the United States Claudia V. Angelelli San Diego State University John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements 8 of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Angelelli, Claudia V. Revisiting the interpreter’s role : a study of conference, court, and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico, and the United States / Claudia V. Angelelli. p. cm. (Benjamins Translation Library, issn 0929–7316 ; v. 55) Based on the author’s Ph D. dissertation, Stanford University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Translating and interpreting. I. Title. II. Series. P306.A524 2004 418’.02-dc22 2004055093 isbn 90 272 1671 1 (Eur.) / 1 58811 565 8 (US) (Hb; alk. paper) © 2004 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa To my husband, Christian Degueldre, for his longtime work in this field and incredible support. Table of Contents Acknowledgments xi List of tables xiii List of figures xiv List of abbreviations xv Prologue Chapter Overview of the field 7 . Brief historical overview of interpreting 8 .. Early forms of interpreting 8 ..2 Interpreting during World War II 0 ..2 Interpreting as a profession 2 ..3 Interpreting as a field of study 3 .2 A closed circle 22 Chapter 2 Opening up the circle 27 2. Breaking into the closed circle 29 2.. Sociological theories 3 2..2 Social theory 36 2..3 Linguistic anthropology 4 2.2 An opened circle 44 Chapter 3 The construction of the Interpreter’s Interpersonal Role Inventory (IPRI) 47 3. Initial validity considerations 50 3.2 Instrument Design (note 1) 5 3.2. Description of Construct 5 3.2.2 Target population 5 3.2.3 Test blueprint, initial item pool, content validity, and dry run 53 viii Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role 3.2.4 The dry run 56 3.2.5 Small-scale try-out 57 3.3 The pilot 58 3.3. Reliability analysis 60 Chapter 4 Interpreter Interpersonal Role Inventory 63 Administration and results 63 4. Sampling of conference interpreters 63 4.2 Sampling of court interpreter 64 4.3 Sampling of medical/community interpreters 65 4.4 Administration/materials 66 4.5 Participants: Descriptive statistics of the overall sample 67 4.6 Results and Analysis 67 4.7 Question 1: Is there a relationship between interpreters’ social backgrounds and their perception of visibility? 68 4.7. Self-identification with dominant or subordinate group 69 4.7.2 Gender 69 4.7.3 Age 69 4.7.4 Education and income 70 4.8 Question 2: On the continuum of visibility/invisibility for inter- preter perceptions of role, where do interpreters from different settings fall? 7 4.9 Question 3: Do interpreters from different settings differ in their perception of role? 72 4.0 Further analysis: multivariate and conditional analyses of variance 74 4. Unsolicited data 77 4.. Invisibility and neutrality 78 4..2 Differences according to settings 79 4..3 Lack of power differentials between interlocutors 80 4.2 Final thoughts on the data 82 Chapter 5 Expanding perspectives 83 5. Conclusions of this study 84 5.2 Theoretical implications 86 5.3 Practical implications 9 Table of contents ix 5.3. The education and certification of interpreters 9 5.3.2 The professional organizations 95 5.4 Invisibility revisited 98 Appendix IPRI Final Version 0 Appendix 2 Organizations surveyed for different settings 06 Appendix 3 Letter from AIIC, U.S. Respondent #16 07 Notes References 5 Index 23 Acknowledgments This research would not have been possible without the help and kind- ness of the interpreters who participated in this study. To them goes my greatest acknowledgement of gratitude for having taken time out of their busy schedules to complete surveys and take part in interviews. I cannot mention them by name, but each will recognize his/her contribution to this work. This book evolves from thoughts and perspectives which I first presented in my Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford University on the analy- sis of the social role of interpreters across settings (Angelelli 2001). I am grateful to Dr. Joshua Fishman for his encouragement and for our initial discussions on the importance of measurement in interpreting studies. My dissertation committee, Dr. Guadalupe Valdés (Chair), Dr. Shirley Brice Heath, Dr. Edward Haertel, and Dr. Ray Mc Dermott, offered support and guidance throughout my exploration of the inter- preter’s role, bringing together different research paradigms. Although I am ultimately responsible for the final product, these individuals have guided me and made this work stronger. A special acknowledgment goes to Dr. Valdés for serving as an example of scholarly excellence, dedicated to the advancement of social justice in education. Dr. Ed- ward Haertel was the single most influential mentor throughout this research. An example of scientific rigor, as well as patience, he went beyond the call of duty, spending endless hours with me discussing quantitative analysis and the construction of IPRI. His gift for simplify- ing complex statistical concepts revolutionized my way of approaching statistics. For that, I am forever indebted. During professional meetings, I had the opportunity of discussing early drafts of my work with colleagues. Daniele-Claude Bélanger, Adolfo Gentile, and Roda Roberts were especially helpful in reviewing the items for IPRI. I am grateful for their insights and challenges, which served to xii Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role strengthen my arguments. The American Translators Association, the World Federation of Translators, and the Monterey Institute of Inter- national Studies allowed me to carry out pilot sessions for IPRI. Cindy Roat was instrumental in obtaining names of potential participants for the study in medical settings. Dr. Jean Turner was extremely helpful in reviewing my analyses and interpretation of the data. I appreciate both her support and friendship. I am also grateful to Janice Kezirian, MD for her meticulous reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Her ability to meet tight deadlines while maintaining a sense of humor helped create a positive work environment throughout the writing process. Her support and friendship are gifts I treasure. Special recognition goes to Christian Degueldre to whom I dedicate this book. He is an outstanding interpreter, professor of interpreting, and a loving husband. During the conceptualization and construction of the instrument, he demonstrated an unprecedented degree of tolerance for my challenges of universal beliefs in the field. He has been extremely helpful in verifying data and references, encouraging me throughout the writing of this book. Additionally I would like to thank Isja Conen and Miriam Shlesin- ger from John Benjamins for their insightful comments, guidance, and support in the preparation of this manuscript. My hope is that this work and the findings reported here will be of benefit to those concerned with issues of interpreting, and that it will provide them with a different way of looking at the interpreter’s complex role in multilingual societies. List of tables Table 3.1 Visibility Subcomponents Table 3.2 Initial Item Pool Table 3.3 Initial Component Categorization According to Wadensjö’s Taxonomy Table 3.4 Informant’s Self-Identification and Training/Experience Table 3.5 Reversed Items for IPRI Final Version