Conflicting views on court interpreting examined through surveys of legal professionals and court interpreters

Abstract

This survey-based study examined the views of 226 legal professionals and 36 interpreting practitioners in Australia with respect to the role of the court interpreter and the quality of interpreting and revealed a statistically significant gap between the perceptions of the two professional groups. Both groups, however, were ambivalent in relation to some practical aspects of court interpreting, such as cultural intervention and the reproduction of speech style. The findings indicate that legal professionals generally held a favourable view of the overall quality of court interpreting. Both groups supported specialist certification for court interpreters.