Sandra Beatriz Hale

The Treatment of Register Variation in Court Interpreting

AbstractIn the adversarial legal system, the speech behaviour of witnesses can determine the outcome of the case. Studies on the language of testimony have shown that linguistic features such as pronunciation, choice of vocabulary and grammar all contribute to forming an impression of the witness or defendant on the basis of his or her perceived level of education and social class. This paper presents the findings of a study based on analyzing eleven hours of interpreted testimony from four Local Court cases involving Spanish and English in Australia. The evidence suggests that interpreters tend to raise the level of formality when interpreting into English and lower it when interpreting into Spanish. Some suggestions are made concerning the possible motivations and implications of such practice.

Monolingual short courses for language-specific accreditation: can they work? A Sydney experience

The continuing flows of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers throughout the world place significant pressures on translating and interpreting services, particularly in finding competent practitioners in many small minority languages. Training is seen as a necessity for many such practitioners who are without qualifications and often without a professional understanding of the field. However, the small size of many of these language communities entails that established interpreting courses can often not find the number of students, or the teachers, to cater for these languages. Many attempts have been made internationally to provide short courses – often generic, sometimes language-specific – for these languages. After surveying such training internationally, this paper describes one such short course in minority languages run for women in Sydney, Australia in 2011, with an emphasis on domestic violence, health and law. The course prepared participants for work in these fields and to sit for Australia’s accreditation exams. The outcomes of the course, while positive in many ways, show the difficulties of short courses in helping a very diverse participant population achieve acceptable standards of interpreting.

Interpreting culture. Dealing with cross-cultural issues in court interpreting

Interpreters who work in community settings with participants from disparate cultural backgrounds may confront difficulties conveying the source message into the target message accurately due to cross-cultural differences. Such cross-cultural differences can range from pragmalinguistic differences at the discourse level of speech to sociopragmatic differences, which go beyond the utterances. When confronted with such instances, interpreters are almost always unsure of how to react and of what is expected of them. The few studies that have looked at cross-cultural differences in community interpreting clearly show that there is no consistency in the way interpreters approach potential cross-cultural misunderstandings. This paper will present the results of a section of a questionnaire of a larger study, which asked practising legal interpreters whether they alert judicial officers and tribunal members of potential cross-cultural differences, and which also asked judicial officers and tribunal members about their expectations of interpreters in such situations. The results point to a need for greater guidance and clearer protocols for interpreters working in the legal system.

Are audio recordings the answer? - a pilot study of a communication intervention for non-English speaking patients with cancer

Ruby Lipson-Smith, Amelia Hyatt, Phyllis Butow, Thomas F. Hack, Michael Jefford, Sandra Hale, Alison Hocking, Michela Sirianni, Uldis Ozolins, Dorothy Yiu and Penelope Schofield* Cancer Experiences Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Centre of Medical Psychology and Evidence-Based Decision-Making, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia College of Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Prairies/NWT, Canada Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Social Work, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia Chinese Cancer Society of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Psychology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

The challenges of court interpreting : intricacies, responsibilities and ramifications

The above is one version of the interpreter’s oath used in New South Wales courts. Court interpreters are required to enter into an oath to interpret faithfully, and great weight is given to such oath swearing by the system. However, ‘no amount of oath swearing can guarantee high quality interpreting from an interpreter who does not have the necessary competency’1 , and the judiciary would be very naïve to think that oath swearing is all that is required to achieve a reliable service. Court interpreters face many challenges in attempting to interpret truly and faithfully. This article will discuss some of those challenges by analysing the intricacies of the task, contemplating the responsibilities of the interpreter, the other participants in the communicative event and the legal system, and exploring the ramifi cations of inaccurate interpretation.

The biasing influence of linguistic variations in DNA profiling evidence

Extensive psychological research has confirmed that probabilistic statistical information that is mathematically equivalent, if presented in different linguistic forms, is not psychologically equivalent. Commentators have argued that certain forms of evidence are more prejudicial than probative and should be excluded from trial. In a recent homicide case based on circumstantial evidence, the sole evidence linking a suspect to crime scene was mitochondrial DNA profiling evidence derived from a single loose hair found at the crime scene. Variations in the form of the linguistic evidence presented by DNA forensic scientists and research about its differential impact were cited as the basis for appeal of the conviction to the Australian High Court. A review of the research revealed that presentation of statistical information using natural frequencies is a recommended best practice. Random match probabilities expressed as frequencies are less susceptible of misinterpretation by legal professionals and lay jurors, and lead to fewer false convictions.

Culturally and linguistically diverse oncology patients' perspectives of consultation audio-recordings and question prompt lists

Ethnicity and migrant status result in disparities with cancer burden and survival, with communication difficulties cited as the main barrier to access. Our research team tested a communication intervention package comprising consultation audio‐recordings (ARs) and question prompt lists (QPLs) for low English‐speaking (LES) patients with cancer. This study explored LES patient experiences, preferences, and recommendations regarding the communication package.

Measuring recall of medical information in non-English-speaking people with cancer: A methodology

Many patients who require an interpreter have difficulty remembering information from their medical consultations. Memory aids such as consultation audio‐recordings may be of benefit to these patients. However, there is no established means of measuring patients’ memory of medical information.

Analysing the Interpreter’s Code of Ethics

These three quotations reflect the main attitudes expressed by practising interpreters in response to a survey about the code of ethics conducted by the author. These are, respectively, the very positive attitude from those who pledged a blind adherence to it; the measured attitude, mostly from interpreters with training who view the code as a guide requiring professional common sense; and the very negative, stating that the code is of no use at all (the minority of responses). What can cause such disparate reactions? Why is it that some interpreters find the code so useful, others are indifferent to it and yet others find it useless? In this chapter these questions will be explored by analysing a number of codes of ethics from around the world, reflecting on the intention of each of the common points and drawing on the voices of practitioners.

Facework strategies in interpreter-mediated cross-examinations: a corpus-assisted approach

In cross-examination, witnesses’ face is frequently threatened by legal professionals. Face-threatening acts (Brown/Levinson 1987) are considered powerful institutional tools for lawyers; however, in a bilingual courtroom where all the interactions are mediated by a third party, the interpreter, this is often complicated. Drawing on a small-scale corpus, five bilingual moot court cross-examinations interpreted by Interpreting and Translation (I&T) Master’s students at UNSW Sydney, this paper investigates facework strategies embedded in cross-examining questions and in their Mandarin interpretation based on Penman’s (1990) facework schema. More specifically, it examines the way facework strategies are used in cross-examination questions, the extent to which they are maintained or modified in the interpretation, and how that may affect the pragmatics of the courtroom questions. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the pragmatics of interpreted courtroom questions and to legal interpreter training.