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

Authors

  • Claudia V. Angelelli Heriot-Watt University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.38679

Keywords:

agency, coordination of talk, ethics, healthcare encounter, interpreter, responsibility, role

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 Biography

  • 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 (2004, John Benjamins), Medical Interpreting and Cross-cultural Communication (2004, Cambridge University Press) and Medical Interpreting Explained (2018, Routledge). She is guest editor of The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS), Translators and Interpreters: Geographic Displacement and Linguistic Consequences (IJSL) and Minding the Gaps: Translation and Interpreting Studies in Academia (Cuadernos de ALDEEU) and the co-editor of Testing and Assessment in Translation and Interpreting Studies (2009, John Benjamins) and Researching Translation and Interpreting Studies (2015, Routledge).

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Published

2020-03-14

How to Cite

Angelelli, C. V. (2020). Who is talking now? Role expectations and role materializations in interpreter-mediated healthcare encounters. Communication and Medicine, 15(2), 123-134. https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.38679

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