Item Details

Who is talking now? Role expectations and role materializations in interpreter-mediated healthcare encounters

Issue: Vol 15 No. 2 (2018) Special Issue: Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Encounters

Journal: Communication & Medicine

Subject Areas: Healthcare Communication Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/cam.38679

Abstract:

Complex layers of meaning accompany conversations about illness and medicine in medical encounters. The complexity multiplies in multilingual healthcare encounters when interpreters are asked to bridge the cultural communities of the provider (and medicine) and the patient, not only by interpreting the languages used, but also by taking on different roles, coordinating talk and facilitating answers to questions that providers and patients raise as they communicate with one another. A sub-set of three segments of interpreter-mediated authentic interactions (n=392) are presented to explore the provider and healthcare interpreter’s responsibilities and challenges in constructing and co-constructing meaning in conversations about healthcare information. Findings suggest that interpreters do not volunteer to take on roles above and beyond the one of interpreting. Instead they are instructed to take on other roles which may not necessarily be aligned with their background or professional practice (e.g. explore medical history, explain the value of ratings on a pain scale). This study has implications for providers and interpreters in regards to responsibility and ethics when communicating with patients who do not use societal languages. 

Author: Claudia V. Angelelli

View Full Text

References :

Angelelli, C. (2001) Deconstructing the Invisible Interpreter: A Critical Study of the Interpersonal Role of the Interpreter in a Cross-Cultural/Linguistic Communicative Event. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

 

Angelelli, C. (2004a) Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Angelelli, C. (2004b) Re-Visiting the Interpreter’s Role. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

 

Angelelli, C. (2011). Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that? In C. Alvstad, A. Hild and E. Tiselius (eds) Methods and Strategies of Process Research Integrative Approaches in Translation Studies, 231-246. John Benjamins: Amsterdam.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.94.17ang

 

Angelelli, C. (2014) ‘Uh… I am not understanding you at all’: Constructing (mis)understanding in provider/patient-interpreted medical encounters. In M. Metzger (ed.) Investigations in Healthcare Interpreting, 1-31. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

 

Angelelli, C. and Geist-Martin, P. (2005) Enhancing culturally competent health communication: Constructing understanding between providers and culturally diverse patients. In E. B. Ray (ed.) Health Communication in Practice: A Case Study Approach, 271-284. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410612779-22

 

Arias-Murcia, S. E. and Lopez-Diaz, L. (2013) Cultural brokerage as a form of caring. Investigación, Educación y Enfermería 31 (3): 414-420.

 

Baraldi, C. and Gavioli, L. (eds) (2012) Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.102

 

Berk-Seligson, S. (2002) The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226923277.001.0001

 

Berk-Seligson, S. (2009) Coerced Confessions: The Discourse of Bilingual Police Interrogations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter / Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110213492

 

Bolden, G. (2000) Toward understanding practices of medical interpreting: Interpreters’ involvement in history taking. Discourse Studies 2 (4): 387-419.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445600002004001

 

Clyne, M. (1996) Intercultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620799

 

Davidson, B. (1998) Interpreting Medical Discourse: A Study of Cross-Linguistic Communication in the Hospital Clinic. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

 

Davidson, B. (2000) The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social‐linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish‐English medical discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4 (3): 379-405.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00121

 

Davidson, B. (2001) Questions in cross-linguistic medical encounters: The role of the hospital interpreter. Anthropological Quarterly 74 (4): 170-178.
https://doi.org/10.1353/anq.2001.0035

 

De Bot, K. (2000) Simultaneous interpreting as language production. In B. E. Dimitrova and K. Hyltenstam (eds) Language Processing and Simultaneous Interpreting, 65-89. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.40.06bot

 

Dysart-Gale, D. (2005). Communication models, professionalization, and the work of medical interpreters. Health Communication 17 (1): 91-103.
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327027hc1701_6

 

Fairclough, N. (2013) Language and Power. London: Routledge.

 

Fetterman, D. (1998) Ethnography: Step-by-Step (2nd edition). Applied Social Research Methods Series 17. Los Angeles: Sage.

 

Fetterman, D. (2013) Ethnography: Step-by-Step (3rd edition). Applied Social Research Methods Series 17. Los Angeles: Sage.

 

Gavioli, L. (2012) Minimal responses in interpreter-mediated medical talk. In C. Baraldi and L. Gavioli (eds) Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting, 201-228. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.102.09gav

 

Hale, S. (2004) The Discourse of Court Interpreting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.52

 

Heritage, J. and Drew, P. (1992) Analyzing talk at work: An introduction. In P. Drew and J. Heritage (eds) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, 3-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Hsieh, E. and Hong, S. J. (2010) Not all are desired: providers’ views on interpreters’ emotional support for patients. Patient Education and Counselling 81 (2): 192-197.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2010.04.004

 

Hill, J. H. and Irvine, J. T. (eds) (1993) Responsibility and Evidence in Oral discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Metzger, M. (1999) Sign Language Interpreting: Deconstructing the Myth of Neutrality, 1-9. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

 

Meyer, B. (2012) Ad hoc interpreting for partially language-proficient patients: Participation in multilingual constellations. In C. Baraldi and L. Gavioli (eds) Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting, 99-114. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.102.05mey

 

Paradis, M. (2000) Prerequisites for a study of neurolinguistic processes involved in simultaneous interpreting: A synopsis. In B. E. Dimitrova and K. Hyltenstam (eds) Language Processing and Simultaneous Interpreting: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 17-24. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.40.03par

 

Pollabauer, S. (2017) The interpreter’s role. In UNHCR Austria (ed.) Handbook for Interpreters in Asylum Procedures, 50-69. Vienna: UNHCR Austria.

 

Roy, C. (2000) Interpreting as a Discourse Process. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Russo, M. (2011) Aptitude testing over the years. Interpreting 13 (1): 5-30.
https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.13.1.02rus

 

Sawyer, D. (2004) Fundamental Aspects of Interpreter Education: Curriculum and Assessment. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.47

 

Sarangi, S. (2012) Owning responsible actions/selves: Role-relational trajectories in counselling for childhood genetic testing. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 9 (3): 295-318.
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v9i3.25743

 

Solin, A. and Östman, J-O. (2012) Introduction: Discourse and responsibility. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 9 (3): 287-294.
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v9i3.20841

 

Teas Gill, V. and Maynard, D. (2006) Explaining illness: Patients’ proposals and physicians’ responses. In P. Heritage and D. Maynard (eds) Communication in Medical Care: Interactions between Primary-Care Physicians and Patients. Studies in International Sociolinguistics 20: 115-150. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511607172.007

 

Valdés, G., Chávez, C., Angelelli, C. V., Enright, K. Garcia, D. and Gonzalez, M. (2003) The Study of Young Interpreters: Methods, Materials and Analytical Challenges. In G. Valdes (ed.) Expanding Definitions of Giftedness: The Case of Young Interpreters from Immigrant Communities, 99-118. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410607249-4

 

Wadensjö, C. (1995) Dialogue interpreting and the distribution of responsibility. Hermes Journal of Linguistics 14: 111-129.
https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v8i14.25098

 

Wadensjö, C. (1998) Interpreting as Interaction. Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman.