Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Who is Talking Now? Role Expectations and Role Materializations in Interpreter-mediated Healthcare Encounters

Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Claudia V. Angelelli [+-]
Heriot-Watt University
Claudia V. Angelelli is Professor and Chair in Multilingualism and Communication at Heriot-Watt University, Professor Emerita at San Diego State University and Visiting Professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her work appears in journals such as AAAL, EUJAL, Interpreting, IJSL, JALPP, Meta, MonTI, The Translator and TIS. She is the author of Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role (John Benjamins, 2004), Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Medical Interpreting Explained (Routledge, 2018). She is also guest editor of The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies (a special issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies [7:2], 2012) , Translators and Interpreters: Geographic Displacement and Linguistic Consequences (a special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language [207], 2011) and Minding the Gaps: Translation and Interpreting Studies in Academia (a special issue of Cuadernos de ALDEEU [25], 2013) and the co-editor of Testing and Assessment in Translation and Interpreting Studies (John Benjamins, 2009) and Researching Translation and Interpreting Studies (Routledge, 2015).

Description

Complex layers of meaning accompany conversations about illness and medicine in medical encounters. The complexity multiplies in multilingual healthcare interactions 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 subset 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 that of interpreting. However, 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.

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Citation

Angelelli, Claudia. Who is Talking Now? Role Expectations and Role Materializations in Interpreter-mediated Healthcare Encounters. Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 22-43 Apr 2024. ISBN 9781845539030. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44095. Date accessed: 19 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44095. Apr 2024

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