6. Ad hoc-interpreting in multilingual work meetings

In multilingual work meetings, where the participants do not share the same languages, local translation appears as a means used to achieve participants’ task. English is supposed to be the lingua franca and consequently no one attends the meetings as a translator. Translation is nevertheless resorted to, and emerges as an activity related either to one participant having difficulties in understanding English or to one speaker finding difficulties in talking in English. This chapter focuses on the latter case. There, the speaker alternates languages, sometimes briefly, as for a word search, sometimes for a long spate of talk, which can trigger out a translation. The aim of the chapter is to analyse these local translational events in relation to the organization of sequentiality and participation.