Interpreting and Translation
STEPHANIE JO KENT
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
JEFFREY A. KAPPEN
Drake University, USA
Research history: Interpreting studies
he professional practice of simultaneous interpretation developed ater a high-proile
experiment during the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal in the 1940s. Training pro-
grams were then established in Europe to support the emergence of pan-European
institutions. he most elaborate system of simultaneous interpreting is currently in use
at the European Parliament: 27 spoken languages and 2 sign languages. Soon, interpret-
ing studies emerged from two disciplines: linguistics and cognition. Bodies of literature
cover speciic contexts such as interpreting in courts, health care, and international
asylum hearings (Pöchhacker & Kolb, 2009) or interpreting for speciic populations,
such as the culturally deaf. To date, nearly all research and theory about interpreting
is focused on the activities of the interpreter rather than on interpreting as a socially
constructed process of meaning making.
Training professional interpreters remains the goal of most academic programs in
interpreting. Over time, interpreting studies has maintained a focus on smooth produc-
tion of formal linguistic architecture (e.g., vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and prosody).
Cognitive neuroscientists study interpreters in search of discrete mental functions and
evidence of intellectual processes. Interpreter trainers seek such knowledge in order to
develop aptitude tests and appropriate instructional methods for the development of
necessary skills.
Research on interpreting is generally divided into two domains: conference interpret-
ing and community interpreting. Community interpreting includes contexts of daily life
and everyday living. hese settings are oten small groups where turn taking is a major
feature of the interaction: for instance, health care and medical appointments, legal sit-
uations such as encounters with the police and appearances in court, and applying for
and receiving services from government. Conference interpreting settings are broadcast
situations: one speaker projecting to many audience members. Conference interpreting
tends to be high proile and oten includes the use of technology. Examples are high-
level political institutions (such as the United Nations and the European Parliament),
academic and industry conferences, and other types of platform or stage interpreting,
including college classes and public service announcements on television.
Although oten not acknowledged, within most conference interpreting settings
there are usually also instances of community interpreting, especially during planning
he International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Craig R. Scott and Laurie Lewis (Editors-in-Chief),
James R. Barker, Joann Keyton, Timothy Kuhn, and Paaige K. Turner (Associate Editors).
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc209