Article published In: Interpreting
Vol. 18:1 (2016) ► pp.57–88
Towards a broader approach to the community interpreter’s role
On correspondence between role perceptions and interactional goals
Published online: 14 April 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.18.1.03kac
https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.18.1.03kac
The community interpreter’s role has been described in various ways, associating it with labels (Roberts 1997), tasks (Pöchhacker 2000), dynamic positioning (Mason 2009), and the interpreter’s relative (in)visibility (Angelelli 2004). Increasingly, conceptions of role are seen not as static and absolute, but as related to the differing (and subjective) viewpoints of the various participants involved. This study uses semi-structured interviews, conducted immediately after five interpreter-mediated encounters (four medical, one legal), to examine: (1) how participants in each encounter differ in their comments on the interpreter, and (2) whether the resulting perspective on the interpreter’s role is related to each respondent’s specific conversational goal on the occasion in question. Twenty-six excerpts from the interviews are discussed: all three participants (service provider, service user, interpreter) were interviewed in three cases, while the interpreter was unavailable for interview in one case and the service recipient in another. The interpreted meetings and subsequent interviews took place in London and Manchester, the languages involved being English (service providers) and Polish (service recipients). The various respondents seemed to differ in their perceptions of the interpreter’s role, ostensibly reflecting their own conversational goals, but not necessarily in line with their status as service provider, service recipient or interpreter.
Keywords: role, community interpreter, conversational goal, expectations, impressions, triangulation
References (20)
Angelelli, C. (2004). Medical interpreting and cross-cultural communication. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brewer, M. (1988). A dual process model of impression formation. In Thomas R. Srull & Robert S. Wyer Jr. (Eds.), Advances in social cognition (Vol. I1). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1‒36.
Brisset, C., Leanza, Y. & Laforest, K. (2013). Working with interpreters in health care: A systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative studies. Patient Education and Counseling 91 (2), 131‒140.
Cegala, D.J., Gade, C., Broz, S.L. & McClure, L. (2004). Physicians’ and patients’ perceptions of patients’ communication competence in a primary care medical interview. Health Communication 16 (3), 289–304.
Cegala, D.J., McNeils, K.S., McGee, D.S. & Jonas, A.P. (1995). A study of doctors’ and patients’ perceptions of information processing and communication competence during the medical interview. Health Communication 7 (3), 179–203.
Davies, B. & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: the discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20 (1), 43–63.
Giovannini, M. (1992).
On both sides of the fence: Proceedings of the Evaluation of the Professional Development Seminar for Trainers of Cultural Interpreters held in Toronto
(August 26‒28, 1992). Report Prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship.
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jefferson, G. (2002). Is ‘no’ an acknowledgement token? Comparing American and British uses of (+)/(−) tokens. Journal of Pragmatics 341, 1345‒1383.
Kaczmarek, L. (2010). Modelling competence in community interpreting: Expectancies, impressions and implications for accreditation. PhD thesis, University of Manchester.
Leanza, Y. (2005). Roles of community interpreters in paediatrics as seen by interpreters, physicians and researchers. Interpreting 7 (2), 167‒192.
Mason, I. (2005). Projected and perceived identities in dialogue interpreting. In J. Munday (Ed.), IATIS yearbook 2005. Seoul: IATIS, 30‒52.
. (2009). Role, positioning and discourse in face-to-face interpreting. In R. de Pedro Ricoy, I. Perez & C. Wilson (Eds.), Interpreting and translating in public service settings: Policy, practice, pedagogy. Manchester: St Jerome, 52‒73.
Merlini, R. (2009). Seeking asylum and seeking identity in a mediated encounter: The projection of selves through discursive practices. Interpreting 11 (1), 57‒92.
Pöchhacker, F. (2000). The community interpreter’s task: Self-perception and provider views. In R. Roberts, S. Carr, D. Abraham & A. Dufour (Eds.), The critical link 2: Interpreters in the community. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 49‒65.
Roberts, R. (1997). Community interpreting today and tomorrow. In S. Carr, R. Roberts, A. Dufour & D. Steyn (Eds.), The critical link: Interpreters in the community. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 7‒25.
Roy, C. (1990). Interpreters, their role and metaphorical language use. In A.L. Willson (Ed.), Looking ahead: Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the American Translators Association, Medford, NJ: Learned Information, 77‒86.
Cited by (7)
Cited by seven other publications
Yang, Yuhong
2023. “Feel sorry for Miss translator!!!”. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 25:1 ► pp. 61 ff.
Xu, Han
Xu, Han
2024. “Please make sure we don’t get this interpreter again”. Translation and Interpreting Studies 19:2 ► pp. 257 ff.
Jiménez Ivars, Amparo
2020. Impartiality and accuracy as a case in point while interpreting in a refugee context. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation 18:2 ► pp. 150 ff.
POLAT ULAŞ, Aslı
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 march 2026. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.