Gender, identity, and power in the interpreting classroom

Interpreting pedagogy has traditionally focused on the training of skills to fulfill market needs. Cultural Studies elements—in particular discourse on gender, identity, and power relations—have rarely been foregrounded in the teaching of interpreting, and even less so in conference interpreting programs. It is an industry-oriented pedagogical practice which has, on the more extreme end, fed into the glamorization of a profession which arguably should be more introspective on its complicity in upholding relations of power. With the aim of providing students with a more rounded education in interpreting, this article documents and discusses a preliminary attempt to introduce cultural studies discourse in a consecutive interpreting course conventionally positioned as a technical one, and one where students are commonly evaluated according to the criteria of accuracy, language, and delivery. By analyzing a real-world interpreting event—the US-China Anchorage talks—using the concepts of gender, power, and identity, the instructor attempts to counter institutional marketing claims of the profession being necessarily conducive to “intercultural communication.” Instead the analysis demonstrates that the claim masks what is in effect displays of power driven by domestic interests rather than target audience needs. It is an analytical account based on a cultural studies theoretical framework not meant to prescribe fixed methods or materials for the classroom. Instead it is offered as an example where alternative methods or materials can be introduced to initiate a line of inquiry for culturally-minded instructors who find the instrumentalist framework of accuracy, language, and delivery restrictive in explaining the dynamics between language and power. The role of the interpreter in the process of communication is thus problematized; the supposed agency the interpreter enjoys is also questioned. In fact, the analysis suggests that the higher the level of interpreting (i.e. high- level interpreting) the more the interpreter functions in service of power rather than an idealized notion of the common good, a reality that students deserve to understand.

口譯教學歷來注重培訓技能以滿足市場需要。文化研究元素，特別是關於性 別、身份和權力關係的論述，很少在口譯教學中得到重視，而在會議口譯教學中 更是往往被忽略。若說身為會議口譯，因身處利害關係複雜的語境，更應檢討反 省自己在權力關係上所扮演的角色，那麼以業界爲導向的教學，反之有可能助長 口譯專業過度明星化、行銷化。因此在傳統以技能為重點教學內容的口譯課中， 作者引入文化研究話語，以性別、身份和權力關係三種概念，分析一真實的口譯 案例 (中美阿拉斯加會談)，盼以此提供學生更為全面的口譯養成教育，讓學生了解 權力動態關係中，口譯並非像官方一味宣傳的是 “促進跨文化交流” 不可或缺的 角色，反而可能與此主張背道而馳，滿足的其實是國內彰顯權力的目的而非受眾 的需求。此一教學案例是引入文化研究話語的初步嘗試，試圖跳脫以往以 “準確 性”、 “語言表述” 和 “表達技巧” 為評鑑標準的傳統教學。因案例分析是基於 文化研究理論框架的論述分析，作者並不提昌固定的教學方法或教學材料，而是 拋磚引玉，以此案例展現文化研究元素在口譯教學中的可能性，在 “準確性” 、 “語言表述” 和 “表達技巧” 等工具性框架無法滿足口譯教師文化意識層面上的 教學需求時，提供可以解讀語言和權力關係的另一選擇，揭示口譯行業並非單純 的一面。此案例分析顯示，口譯員的角色反之沒有行使主體性的空間，且愈是牽 涉政治高層的翻譯愈是為權力服務而非以達成共同理想為目標。這是口譯實務的 現實面，也是身為教育者理應向學生闡述的現實。