Abstract
Abstract This article reports on the findings of a questionnaire survey of 465 telephone interpreters in Australia, focusing on what they liked and disliked about telephone interpreting, their perceptions of challenges in telephone interpreting, and their coping strategies. Just over half of the respondents liked working as telephone interpreters. Results also show that interpreters identified many favourable and unfavourable aspects of telephone interpreting. A key finding is that interpreters perceived many comprehension-related challenges (e.g., poor sound quality, a lack of non-verbal information), communication-related challenges (e.g., overlapping speech), and other challenges in telephone interpreting (e.g., low remuneration, casual employment, work-related stress). Importantly, interpreters adopted various coping strategies, including using high-quality headphones and requesting briefing or clarification to deal with comprehension-related challenges, explaining the interpreter’s role and intervening with clients as necessary to address communication-related challenges, and reducing working hours and exercising self-care to manage work-related stress.
Highlights
Telephone interpreting refers to the practice of supplying or receiving language interpretation services over the telephone
Telephone interpreting can be used with success in some legal settings, but interpreters and end-users alike should be trained in the appropriate way to utilize such services
Telephone interpreting was first introduced as a fee-free service by the Australian government in the 1970s
Summary
Telephone interpreting refers to the practice of supplying or receiving language interpretation services over the telephone. In 2007, the federal courts’ telephone interpreting program was used by 48 district courts to provide services for more than 3,600 events in 38 languages.[3] By the end of fiscal year 2008, the program had reportedly saved $6.8 million in travel and contract costs.[4] State and county courts continue to use in-house or commercial telephone interpreting services. Legal professionals or other justice partners are being provided with interpreters who have appropriate certification, training and qualification, the entity requiring services should ask voir dire questions of the telephone interpreter just as they would for an in-person interpreter.[5] Telephone interpreters are often used for less commonly requested languages, and during shifts when in-person interpreters may be less accessible. If an existing pool of professionals is not utilized, these individuals will naturally seek other employment or move to other states, creating a greater deficit of qualified interpreters when the need increases
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