Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Involvement, Trust and Topic Control in Interpreter-mediated Healthcare Encounters

Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication - Srikant Sarangi

Cecilia Wadensjö [+-]
Stockholm University
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Cecilia Wadensjö is Professor of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. She has published extensively on interpreter-mediated social interaction, drawing on recordings of naturally occurring discourse data and exploring interpreting in medical, legal, broadcasted and other institutional encounters. Her publications include the widely cited monograph Interpreting as Interaction (1998, Addison Wesley Longman).

Description

By examining audio-recorded and transcribed, naturally occurring discourse data, this article shows how participants communicate involvement in two interpreter-mediated healthcare encounters. The article demonstrates how the relational exchange in these encounters, each involving a Swedish-speaking care provider, a young mother (one Spanish speaking and one Russian speaking) and a professionally trained interpreter, is affected by the way each participant orients to one another as a conversational partner. The analysis also shows how primary participants’ orientation towards the interpreter as a conversational partner may have unexpected consequences for the interpreter’s degree of involvement and the participants’ control of conversational topics. Adding to previous studies of interpreter-mediated medical encounters explored as interaction, this article demonstrates the significance of shared and mutual focus between physicians and patients when it comes to building rapport and mutual trust across language barriers.

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Citation

Wadensjö , Cecilia. Involvement, Trust and Topic Control in Interpreter-mediated Healthcare Encounters. Interpreter-Mediated Healthcare Communication. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 96-117 Apr 2024. ISBN 9781845539030. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44098. Date accessed: 19 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44098. Apr 2024

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