Telephone Interpreting - Challenges and Solutions: Some Paradigmatic Examples

The Handbook containing the chapter aims at providing a theoretical framework as well as practical advice to professional interpreters or interpreting students who are willing to start working remotely. It presents the theoretical background needed to understand the mechanisms and specific features of remote interpreting (both telephone and videoconference), with a focus on the basic features of remotely interpreted communication, on the importance of linguistic, paralinguistic and kinetic elements, on social, pragmatic and ethical implications, on the settings and subject areas in which remote interpreting is mostly used and on the parties, factors and instrumentalities involved. The author’s chapter “Telephone Interpreting - Challenges and Solutions: Some Paradigmatic Examples” attempts to provide an overview of the most frequently encountered challenges when interpreting on the phone in three different settings: healthcare, police and tourism. A number of examples are discussed using transcriptions of interpreter‐mediated telephone interactions on the basis of findings provided by Interpreting Studies and Conversation Analysis. The main issues related to telephone interpreting which are discussed in the chapter include: different opening sequences; management of turns by the interpreter; possible problems deriving from references to primary participants; potential triggers of comprehension and interpreting problems; noticing and responding to primary participants’ relevant behaviour. Regarding opening sequences, data analysis shows that they may vary a lot. Different openings present different challenges to the interpreter who must be aware of them and have resources and skills to cope. For instance, an “emotionally charged” opening, in an emergency call, with fragmented narrative by the caller who repeatedly asks for help, but does not give a consistent version of events (what, when, where and who) nor precise indications requires the ability to reassure the caller while obtaining the necessary information for the emergency service to act. Another problem on the phone is turn-taking. As reported in literature, it is difficult for speakers who do not see each other to organise turn‐taking and this generates an additional need for the telephone interpreter to coordinate turns of talk. The interpreter’s role becomes evident from the data: s/he “regulates” the communication flow, preventing overlapping talk as far as possible and therefore contributing to the construction of the conversational order. Another issue which is explored on the basis of data analysis is the use of the first person or the third person and reported speech, a widely debated topic in Interpreting Studies. While the “norm” in other interpreting settings is to use the first person and avoid reported speech, our data shows that the use of reported speech (both direct and indirect) seems to be effective on the phone, especially as it prevents misunderstandings and confusion about who is saying what. The chapter also discusses some of the problems that can arise when there is specific information to convey, for instance names of persons, places and drugs, which can be mispronounced by the caller, but must be accurately transferred by the interpreter to the service provider in order to achieve the goal of the call. Both the collection of information and its transfer to the operator/service dispatcher require great attention and accuracy on the part of the interpreter. Misunderstandings can arise merely by neglecting apparently minor details. Having access to the primary speakers, however, is an invaluable resource to solve potential interpreting problems since it allows double checking of information. On the other hand, the fact that the participants in the interaction are on the phone and are often located in different places may be a source of confusion. The lack of “physical presence” may generate cognitive overload for interpreters, especially when the use of pronouns by the caller and operator is not consistent. And last but not least the interpreter may have to handle disagreement or tension between the caller and the operator resorting to appropriate discursive moves and focusing on what is relevant to achieve the ultimate goal of the call: to provide an appropriate reply to the caller’s request.