Interpreting on the phone: interpreter's participation in healthcare and medical emergency service calls

The rise of remote interpreting (RI) - by telephone, videoconference or through internet platforms - is a natural consequence of both technological advances and various socio-economic trends characterising the second half of the 20th century: migration flows and freedom of movement have made societies increasingly multilingual, multicultural and multi-ethnic; businesses have become global; public institutions are increasingly under pressure to contain the costs of providing services. This paper deals with the participation of the interpreter in healthcare and medical emergency service call. Drawing on a set of recordings of interpreter-mediated telephone healthcare interactions, changes in the structure of participation in the different phases of the calls compared to monolingual ones are discussed on the basis of examples.