ITIA CPD Talk and Workshop – Community and Court Interpreting

ITIA CPD Talk and Workshop – Community and Court Interpreting

Saturday 12 February 2011

11 am to 12.30 pm: Community interpreting research & scholarship: A nexus for change
with Jemina Napier

12.30 to 1.30 pm Lunchbreak

1.30 to 3.30 pm: Interpreting into the Ether: working through video link for aspiring court interpreters with Yvonne Fowler


Venue:
Irish Writers’ Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

Cost:
ITIA members (and FIT association members): € 40
Non-members: €50
Students (with valid ID card) and concession: €20

For further details and to book a place, please contact Annette at: cpd.itia@gmail.com


1. Community interpreting research & scholarship: A nexus for change

with Jemina Napier (11 am – 12.30 pm)

Within the broader discipline of translation and interpreting studies, community interpreting research and scholarship provides opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, which can have a profound impact on pedagogy and practice in interpreting, but also on other related professions. Interpreting practice does not function in a vacuum, it is intrinsically tied to language, culture and context. Likewise interpreting pedagogy and scholarship cannot function in a vacuum – it needs to be informed by practice and research from a variety of disciplines. Research too depends on integration with pedagogy and practice in order to translate into implementation and inform a research agenda. This presentation will give an overview of how community interpreting research and scholarship (for spoken and signed languages) can provide a nexus for change, by providing examples of existing interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects that have pushed the boundaries linguistically and ethically. Who conducts research? How do they conduct research? Why do they conduct research? Where do they conduct research; and what are the implications for future research agendas? This presentation will appeal to a broad audience of spoken and signed language interpreters.
There will be an opportunity for questions and answers at the end of the session.



2. Interpreting into the Ether: working through video link for aspiring court interpreters

with Yvonne Fowler (1.30 -3.30 pm)

Using video conferencing technology to process bail applications directly from prison is now an everyday occurrence: and for defendants in the UK it is mandatory. Another initiative, the Virtual Court Pilot Project, will almost certainly mean that, in the very near future, most defendants will be “offered the opportunity” to “attend” a court hearing immediately after charge and be sentenced whilst still at the Police Station. References to interpreters are completely absent from the promotional literature. One government document states that “a Virtual Court Hearing is just like any other first hearing that takes place at a magistrates’ court” and “the timeliness of the process and the resource savings offered by the technology improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system in working together to put on effective first hearings – without any loss of quality”. So is it really true to say that video conferenced court hearings are just like any other or that there is no loss of quality? Those promoting the use of video conferencing technology in court have failed to take account of the fact that a large number of defendants coming before the courts have ways of communicating which differ from the norm, for example, sign language users and non-English speakers. Few, if any, researchers have looked at the differences between face-to-face interpreted court hearings and video conferenced ones. I use a combination of audio recordings, ethnographic observation and interviews to show that this technology alters interpreted communication in ways which are not immediately apparent, even to the interpreter. There are also differences in procedure and other factors requiring adjustment by the interpreter and the court if non-English speaking defendants are not to be disadvantaged. In the very near future, more and more court hearings (perhaps including trials) will be heard through video link. Interpreters must be equipped to cope with the demand that the technology places upon them. What is at stake is nothing less than justice for limited-English speaking defendants.
This workshop is designed for aspiring and practising court interpreters. It will use anonymised transcripts of real court cases to demonstrate the differences between interpreted face-to-face and remote hearings and will attempt to raise the awareness of participants of such issues as the role of the interpreter in the video link court, the need for assertiveness in setting out the parameters of the interpreter’s professional duty, the power relationships in the courtroom and how these affect the interpreter, and, last but not least, the interpreting techniques that are appropriate for dealing with the new technology.


Speakers:
JEMINA NAPIER is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney, where she is Head of Translation & Interpreting. Jemina has over 20 years experience of signed language interpreting in British Sign Language, Australian Sign Language and International Sign, working in community and conference settings; and 15 years experience as an interpreter educator. Her major research interest is in the field of signed language interpreting, but her wider interests include effective translation and interpreting pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis. She has published books, book chapters and articles discussing aspects of signed language interpreting and interpreting pedagogy.


YVONNE FOWLER has trained over 250 court interpreters for the Diploma In Public Service Interpreting Law Option over a period of fifteen years. She has also trained Police Officers, social workers, medical students, Magistrates and Probation Officers to work through interpreters. The subject of her PhD research is the impact of Prison Video Link upon interpreter-mediated communication in court. The results will be used to devise new training programmes and protocols for court staff and interpreters.