Conference Interpreting Research Articles

Reconstructing solidarity discourse through conference interpreting at the general debates of the United Nations (2008–2021)

ABSTRACT While reconstructing political discourses in interpreter-mediated international conferences has attracted research attention, reconstructing solidarity discourse as a major theme for UN discourse in conference interpreting has not been studied. This study investigates the reconstruction of the solidarity discourse produced by Chinese heads of state and high-level government officials in Chinese-English conference interpreting at the UN’s General Debates (2008–2021). The corpus-based critical discourse analysis reveals three patterns in the discursive reconstruction done by interpreters: (1) the (re)grouping discourse for the common-collective-Self and common-threat-Others is emphasised; (2) the commissive (promising) discourse for China’s delivery of common goals is accentuated; and (3) the discourse of an inclusive ‘global-we’ with ‘our obligations’ is strengthened. The overall amplification of the solidarity discourse reproduces global consolidation as an upgraded form of international cohesion. Focusing on the prominent theme of solidarity discourse in the UN, this study highlights conference interpreters’ ‘editing’ of linguistic realisations that de facto constitute ideological intervention at interpreter-mediated discursive events.

Interpreter's Contribution in Conference Interpreting and Indonesia Education

The aim of this study is to report the interpreter’s contribution in conference interpreting and explore their contributions to the Indonesia's education. The grand theory used in this research is theory of interpreter's contribution proposed by Souza (2017). Qualitative research was utilized to collect and analyze data, employing open-ended interviews with professional interpreter as participant. The study found that interpreters play an important contribution in bridging communication gaps and ensuring effective communication in diverse educational settings such as importance of experience, technique, and overall skills in determining an interpreter's contribution. Additionally, the overall skills of an interpreter, including their cultural competence, adaptability, and ability to handle stress, are crucial to ensuring successful communication in educational contexts. By leveraging it, interpreters significantly contribute to the educational environment, promoting inclusivity and mutual understanding.

Introducing Conference Interpreting Students to Research: A Pilot Study Using Interpreting Exercises

This paper reports on a research-training module in a conference interpreter training environment where students strive to acquire high-level interpreting skills through intensive practice over two years. Both theory and research are remote from their concerns. The module described was designed specifically for this environment. The aim was to raise the students’ awareness of the nature of research, of the gains it could offer to interpreters-in-training and to the interpreting profession, and of practical challenges it faces. Care was taken not to add a significant workload which they might view as irrelevant to their endeavours. This translated as an introductory two-lecture part followed by micro-experiments in which the students’ own interpreting exercises were used as material. The students were asked to record and transcribe their interpretations of experimental source speeches, to analyse and reflect on the data. In one exercise, they were asked to perform an experiment as researchers with other students as participants. Throughout the process, the instructors provided detailed guidance and explained how the experiments were designed, taking on board challenges and uncertainties, and what inferences could or could not be drawn from the data and why. A questionnaire at the end of the module suggests that the students found the module interesting, not excessively taxing, that it taught them something about research and also about interpreting. Since this module entails virtually no overheads as regards the students’ daily practice and gives them a good sense of the practical issues associated with research, it is suggested that it could be integrated into curricula with more traditional research training as well.

International Sign conference interpreters as a Community of Practice

Conference signed language interpreters traditionally work between their national sign language and the national spoken or written language. During their careers, interpreters may add other spoken or signed languages to their repertoire. Some also acquire International Sign (IS) as a working language and interpret between IS and other signed and spoken languages. Being highly context dependent, IS has limited conventions and there is no established educational path toward learning to interpret IS. Generally, the acquisition of IS by any signer happens through interaction with signers of other signed languages. In this article, we explore the concept of IS conference interpreters as a Community of Practice (CoP), where novices acquire and experienced IS interpreters further their IS interpreting competences through situated learning. Such learning in practice may ultimately lead to the development of interpreting expertise and expert performance in IS conference interpreting. We present new data from a 2019 global survey of IS conference interpreters and follow-up interviews with eleven selected survey respondents. The results of our study suggest that there is indeed a CoP of IS conference interpreters and that it is essential for individual interpreters to participate in that community to develop the required competences and professional practices.

La Théorie Interprétative de la Traduction – son influence dans le monde

INTERPRETIVE THEORY OF TRANSLATION – ITS INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD 
 The history of the Interpretive Theory of Translation (ITT), which began in 1968, is closely linked to Danica Seleskovitch. Under her guidance, ITT developed in two directions: research and teaching. The researchers’ interest focused on the process, studied first on conference interpretation and later on translation. Their research, later validated by psycholinguistics and cognitive science, subdivided the translation process into three stages: comprehension – deverbalization – reexpression, with deverbalization representing a departure from the linguistic theories of the time. Deverbalization is, however, an essential cognitive mechanism of any intralingual communication. The doctorate in translation studies (1974) broadened and enriche research on numerous language pairs and various text genres. The pedagogy applied at the École Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT) based on the principles of ITT was recognized by the European Commission and used as the basis for the European Masters in Conference Interpreting. ESIT’s many foreign students and doctors spread the theory worldwide for teaching and research. ITT’s major works have been translated into several languages.

The pandemic booth: How spatial reconfigurations during the pandemic influence cooperation and communication among conference interpreters

This article sheds light on how conference interpreting practice has changed since the beginning of the pandemic in Austria by drawing on the sociological concepts “body” and “space” as analytical and conceptual categories, among others shaped by Lindemann and Lindemann and Schünemann. The results of this study yield insights into the different modes of spatial organisation for conference interpreting during the pandemic; the ways these different organisational settings impacted cooperation among interpreters; and the interpreters’ perceptions of these reconfigurations in space and bodily presence. The data, obtained through an online survey and interviews with in total nine conference interpreters in Austria, show that a range of organisational settings is possible when working (completely or partly) remote, all entailing their individual particularities. Among the observed settings were conferences held on-site with strict anti-COVID measures; “hybrid” settings where interpreters worked on-site with speakers joining online or vice versa; and remote interpreting assignments. In remote assignments, more communication was necessary before the conference, for example, to discuss handovers. Additional communication tools were resorted to, and interpreters preferred working together in one physical place, for example, to facilitate cooperation. However, they also saw advantages in remote assignments.

Note-taking with convertible laptops in teaching-learning consecutive interpreting. Results from an MA Degree programme pilot study

Different areas within interpreting are now beginning to make specific use of generic information and communication technologies (ICT) to provide help and support for interpreters. Consecutive interpreting is one of the modalities in which ICT can have a major impact, and so this article deals with introducing digital devices as a note-taking tool. In more specific terms, it presents a pedagogical pilot study with students and teachers in the Conference Interpreting MA Degree programme at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (MUIC). After this trial, the views of students and lecturers alike were collected via a questionnaire. It concludes with a proposal related to the teaching and pedagogical aspects which should be taken into account before introducing the use of these devices in consecutive interpreting training.

Quality assurance in international sign conference interpreting at international organisations

Quality assurance (QA) in conference interpreting is considered essential among international organisations1 and interpreting practitioners (Pöchhacker, 1994). The need for QA resulted in the establishment of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and the development of university degree programmes in conference interpreting in spoken languages worldwide (Seeber, 2021). International organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union (EU) work closely with universities worldwide to ensure that interpreters are trained and assessed in line with their requirements. Sign language conference interpreters working with International Sign (IS) do not have equivalent opportunities to be trained and assessed as their spoken language colleagues, with whom they work for international organisations. Therefore, to assure that those who deliver IS conference interpretation services are up to quality standards, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) established an accreditation system for IS interpreters in 2015. As of June 2021, thirty IS interpreters had obtained the corresponding accreditation. In this article we examine the 2021 QA system for IS conference interpreters and present findings from our 2019 global survey of the perspectives of IS conference interpreters (de Wit et al., 2021) in combination with a follow-up study on practitioners’ training and accreditation needs. The results indicate that there is a demand for formal professional training programmes that focus on interpreting IS in conference settings and a need to enhance the current accreditation system.

On Obstacles and Strategies of International Medical Conference Interpreting - Take the 2nd China SMA Conference as an Example

There is a growing need of quality medical conference interpreters worldwide, yet conference interpreting in medical setting is bristled with difficulties for even experienced interpreters. To address these issues, this study cites the video of the 2nd China SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) Conference as a corpus and makes an in-depth analysis of it under the guidance of the Interpretive Theory. Through a series of data mining on issues related to speech such as pre-post conferences situation, interpretation procedures and skills employed, the study summarizes the triple difficulties during interpretation and conveys solutions by adopting a qualitative approach. It further highlights some new strategies to train more professional interpreters based on the discussions above. The result of this study contributes to the improvement in the quality of medical interpreting, the increasing research to medical conference interpretation and eventually help meet the surging need of medical interpreters in the health care industry.

ETİK SORUMLULUĞU VE HAKKANİYETİ DENGELEMEK: KONFERANS ÇEVİRMENLİĞİNDE DİKKATE ALINMASI GEREKEN UNSURLAR

Conference interpreting plays a pivotal role as a vital component of multilingual communication within the realms of international events, diplomatic exchanges, and the business sphere. Beyond its fundamental function of bridging linguistic gaps, interpreting also raises ethical considerations that extend into the realm of cultural sensitivity and ethical responsibility. This article intricately explores the multifaceted landscape of ethical decision-making inherent to conference interpreting, with a specific focus on the delicate equilibrium that must be struck between upholding impartiality and embracing a heightened sense of ethical responsibility. Amid the diverse interactions that interpreters mediate, the concept of neutrality emerges as a foundational principle. The interpreter is tasked with conveying messages with precision, refraining from infusing personal biases or subjective interpretations into the communication process. However, the interpreter's role isn't confined solely to linguistic accuracy; it encompasses a broader spectrum of ethical responsibilities. These encompass navigating the intricate contours of cultural awareness, understanding context, and promoting social justice. This article delves into the inherent tensions that emerge between the imperative of neutrality and the ethical responsibility that accompanies the role. To illuminate these intricate dynamics, theoretical examples culled from real-world scenarios are employed. These examples underscore the challenges interpreters encounter when confronted with ethical dilemmas. In addition to these theoretical examples, Nuremberg Trials- one of the most striking examples of ethical dilemma in the history of interpreting and one of the major milestones of the profession of interpreting will be elaborated as a case study. By delving into these theoretical illustrations, this article seeks to unravel the multifaceted considerations that guide interpreters in their ethical decision-making journey. In essence, the article serves as a comprehensive exploration of the delicate equilibrium between remaining an impartial conduit of communication and embracing the broader ethical obligations inherent to the role of conference interpreters.

A Study of C-E Conference Interpreting Strategies Based on the Effort Models

As one of the symbolic occupation of the era of economic globalization, the appearance of conference interpretation was much earlier than others in history, which is enough to illustrate the significance of its existence. Interpretation has a profound artistic background, and all interpreters regards their translation as a work of art. The Effort Models (EMs) was proposed by Daniel Gile, an excellent professor regarding interpretation. The model is able to reasonably allocate the energy consumed in each part of the interpretation, and can also help interpreters find their own shortcomings and adjust and then correct them. The EMs and the principle of syntactic linearity help the interpreter avoid errors that occurred in interpreting.

The Conference Interpreter Trainee: A Successful Start-up?

In 2010, Chris Durban and Eugene Seidel published the volume The Prosperous Translator: Advice from Fire Ant and Worker Bee. Doubtless, since translation is at least partly akin to conference interpreting, one might think that the interpreter should also be able to lead a prosperous life. But the reality around us shows that not everyone succeeds in their professional life. Starting from the idea that a company’s recipe for success could be applied to the training process of a successful interpreter, in this article we aim to examine to what extent the skills of the conference interpreting master could be strengthened, sharpened and expanded if the personal as well as the teaching approach followed the entrepreneurial model of success and how much effectiveness and efficiency matters in the training process. To this effect, we consider here in parallel conference interpreting pedagogy and proven marketing techniques.

Corpus-Assisted Exercises in Conference Interpreter Training

The article discusses the role of exercises for beginners in conference interpreting classes, introduces possible ways to create such exercises by means of speech corpora available online, and advocates for a combination of research-informed and technology-assisted approach to interpreter training. First, the state of research in interpreting pedagogy, and in particular the concept of part-task training are briefly described. The goal of decreasing cognitive effort during interpreting, and during the learning process, underlines the usefulness of part-task exercises for automatization of interpreting sub-skills. Based on this theoretic rationale, available handbooks for interpreter trainers are critically assessed. It is argued that interpreting programs could benefit from collections of exercises, or from methods to create them. In interpreter training, especially corpora of political speeches allow the creation of multiple exercises for automatization of certain sub- skills, which is illustrated by several examples.

A corpus-based study of modal verbs in Chinese-English governmental press conference interpreting.

This study investigates the use of modal verbs in Chinese-English government press conference (GPC) interpretation. Modal verbs mark the speaker's opinion of or attitude toward the event described in a sentence. Interpreters also use modal verbs to indicate the stances of the source language speakers. The use of modal verbs has been examined in such contexts as research papers, textbooks, and second language learners' output; however, studies that compare differences in modal verbs between source and target languages in the context of interpreting are sparse. The investigation being reported is based on a comparable corpus-an original Chinese GPC and its English-translated version-and a parallel corpus-a translated English GPC and the original English version from the US. The results of the comparable corpus analysis indicate that the frequency of modal verbs in translated English is significantly higher than in original Chinese, in which only 40% of the modal verbs in translated English are consistent with their Chinese counterparts, while others are employed through amplification and value variation. The results of the parallel corpus analysis suggest that the increase of modal verbs in the target texts may help to achieve certain types of pragmatic functions in English.

A Book Review of Hedges in Chinese-English Conference Interpreting: A Corpus-based Discourse Analysis of Interpreters’ Role Deviations

A Book Review of Hedges in Chinese-English Conference Interpreting: A Corpus-based Discourse Analysis of Interpreters’ Role Deviations

Subjectivity and Ethos in Simultaneous Conference Interpreting – Interpreting Women’s Risks for the International Community at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

ABSTRACT War, violence, sexual and sexist abuse are just some of the risks that women face daily worldwide. In this frame, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) rises as a large international forum for discussing women’s risks and advancing policies for the promotion of gender equality. Here interpreting plays a key role. Therefore, it is paramount to examine the discursive, institutional and geopolitical aspects involved in interpreting women’s risks for the international community. This paper proposes an indepth study of interpreted discourse from the perspective of the construction of subjectivity and its related ethos, on matters concerning risk-exposed women. The study aims to identify what risks are communicated and how by analysing the discursive and enunciative practices that materialise subjectivity in English<>Spanish interpreting. The paper uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies to study a corpus of simultaneously interpreted speeches delivered at the opening statements and general debate of the CSW between 2015 (59th session) and 2016 (60th session). The results underscore that, when communicating risks, interpretation relies on enunciative operations that are linked to an institutionalised ethos likely to impact on risk reception.

Remote Aptitude Testing for Conference Interpreting in Europe During and After the Pandemic

There is general agreement that adequate entrance selection to conference interpreting courses is key to ensuring successful outcomes, as well as to guaranteeing a wise use of limited resources and satisfactory class dynamics. Indeed, entrance selection is one of the key quality assessment criteria for membership to the European Masters in Conference Interpreting (EMCI). Conference interpreter training programmes (CITPs) in Europe use a range of written and oral exercises to identify suitable candidates at entrance. The core test procedure is usually a series of “gist” or recall exercises, in which candidates are required to re-express in another language the ideas conveyed in a short presentation. Prior to 2020 these exercises were for the most part held with a panel of assessors and the candidates in an interview room at the host university. The COVID-19-related restrictions introduced in Europe since March 2020 in effect led to an enforced experiment with a new mode of test delivery, as stringent travel and meeting restrictions forced many programmes to switch to remote selection. This was initially seen as an unfortunate temporary expedient, but we would suggest that it might be an opportunity to take a fresh look at aptitude testing procedures. Despite the lifting of restrictions, a number of programmes continue to conduct their entrance tests in remote mode. It would be premature at this stage to draw conclusions about student outcomes, but it is worth considering trainer, student, and course coordinators’ perceptions of and experience with the new procedures. The article focuses on the CITPs in the EMCI, a consortium of 15 members at time of the outbreak of the pandemic. The data examined have been collected through a series of questionnaires and interviews. Student questionnaires have been collected mainly from the two Paris-based programmes, ISIT and ESIT; panellist questionnaires and interviews from ISIT, ESIT and Herzen in St Petersburg. 15 course coordinators in the EMCI have been consulted and 11 interviewed. The viewpoints of each of these three groups differ. The likely reasons for these differences are presented and discussed. The views and experience compiled and analysed are intended to feed into a broader discussion about aptitude testing.

Limits and Opportunities for Training Conference Interpreters in Pandemic Times

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic not only impacted the circulation of people and goods on a global scale but also affected the events sector, the conference interpreting market, and the training of future interpreters. The present text aims to share the experience of the all in all successful transition from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching during the pandemic and thus contribute to the already existing academic accounts on the effects of the pandemic on conference interpreting teaching and learning (Ahrens et al., 2021; Krouglov, 2021). We identify three major aspects that led to a rather smooth teaching mode transition: (1) the efforts that had been undertaken in the years prior to the pandemic to incorporate autonomous learning practices into the curriculum leading to the use of online tools, shifting classroom activities to the home/virtual environment; (2) the training of some members of our staff in blended learning techniques and the active use of learning platforms in training; and (3) the software offered by the university for online sessions. This article is divided into three parts: First, we present the main features of PUC-Rio’s original training course, then we redraw the steps taken to gradually adapt the course to the challenge of remote online teaching during the pandemic, and finally we draw an initial reflection on the program’s adaptation to the online teaching and learning format. We understand that, while the pandemic has posed a major challenge to our conventional teaching and learning mode, the program was able to overcome initial difficulties. Furthermore, the transition to a fully remote teaching mode led to unforeseen opportunities as far as, for instance, the recruitment of new candidates nation-wide is concerned. We understand that PUC-Rio’s adoption of a fully remote teaching and learning mode from 2020 onwards opens up new perspectives for conference interpreting training in the post-pandemic landscape in Brazil.

Some Characteristics of the Conference Interpreting Profession in Malta and the Republic of Ireland: a Comparative Overview

With the rise of multilingual international organisations over the past eight decades, the conference interpreting profession has developed accordingly. In the case of the European Union (EU), the range of official languages now includes less widely spoken languages such as Maltese and Irish. Through examination of the domestic professional landscapes of the conference interpreting professions in two EU member states, Malta and the Republic of Ireland, this exploratory contribution offers a comparative overview of the historical and contemporary development of the domestic conference interpreting profession in both countries, together with contextual information regarding multilingualism policy and the specific cases of Maltese and Irish as official languages of the EU. As such, core details regarding education, training, and professional organisations for conference interpreters in both Malta and the Republic of Ireland are outlined and compared, thereby offering a suitable basis for subsequent empirically-based research.

A Corpus-Based Investigation of Extra-Textual, Connective, and Emphasizing Additions in English-Chinese Conference Interpreting.

Findings from conference interpreting research in the Chinese context have suggested that interpreters barely produce extra-textual additions in rigidly structured press conferences, and that adding connectives and intensifiers is only required to help the English-speaking audience capture the logic embedded in implicit Chinese interclausal relations. Previous research in the Chinese context has tended to draw data almost exclusively from the Chinese Premier's Press Conference interpreting, which features interpreting from Chinese into English. In order to enrich conference interpreting corpora in Asia and to examine additions in the opposite interpreting direction for the same language pair, this study drew on authentic materials of six interpreted press conferences held at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Contrary to previous research, our results showed that conference interpreters exhibited a certain degree of “visibility” through producing extra-textual additions, which is typical of interpreting in various community-based settings. Moreover, the addition of extra connectives and intensifiers that are common in Chinese-to-English interpreting was also identified. It is proposed that the interpreters' production of extra-textual additions is connected with the specific context of the AIT, whereas the connective and emphasizing additions are to a large extent caused by the grammaticalization process wherein particular linguistic devices change into discourse markers to fulfill the communicative needs in both English and Chinese.