Article published In: Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 13:2 (2018) ► pp.250–268
Interpreting services in the Western Cape Legislature
An exploratory analysis
Published online: 12 October 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00014.les
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00014.les
Abstract
This article investigates the standard of interpreting services in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature/Parliament to examine the
concept of quality in interpreting. This study includes interviews and open-ended discussions with language practitioners,
interpreters, and members of parliament. By means of a questionnaire, interpreters provided feedback on their training, working
conditions, and their work experience, while the standard of the interpreting service was assessed by users of interpreting
services who rated the service on eleven different levels. These different levels were derived from previous studies to connect the
literature with the outcomes of the collected data. The article concludes that there is much room for improvement of the
interpreting service currently provided at the provincial legislature. Furthermore, the study revealed a lack of understanding and
awareness of what interpreting entails and the value of an interpreting service.
Keywords: multilingualism, parliament, quality, interpreting training, Western Cape
Article outline
- Introduction and background
- Literature review
- Parliamentary context: Western Cape provincial parliament
- Methods
- Interviews
- Interviews with interpreters
- Interviews with language practitioners
- Open-ended discussions with end-users
- Questionnaires
- Results of interpreter questionnaire
- Qualitative analysis of end-user data
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Note
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