Community Interpreting in Australia: Policies, Structures, Training, Certification, Industry and Client Needs, and the Profiles of Contemporary Community Interpreters

Date: 20/02/2024

Time: 05:00-07:00PM

Location: Online via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Jim Hlavac (Monash University)

Translation Seminar Series

Abstract:

Although Canada may be seen as the original ‘home’ of community interpreting, Australia is now seen as a country that has extensive infrastructure for community interpreting. This presentation seeks to provide answers to two questions: “How did community interpreting become so extensive in Australia?” and “What do we know about those who provide and who use community interpreting services?”.

This presentation will chronologically track developments from the 1970s onwards and traverse areas such as activism, social policy, education and anti-discrimination measures. The role of stakeholders such as NAATI (certifying authority) and AUSIT (professional association) is examined as well as the provision of services that first focused primarily on speakers of transposed, ‘migrant’ languages that then expanded to speakers of Indigenous languages as well as Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

While policies and capacity-building have achieved much, the ability to provide community interpreting services remains variable according to language group, setting, physical accessibility and mode of interpreting. And while much has also been achieved to enable the professionalisation of community interpreting, challenges such as low remuneration, employment insecurity and substantial variation in practitioners’ profiles and practices remain.  

About the Speaker:

Dr Jim Hlavac is a senior lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies within the Monash Intercultural Lab at Monash University, Melbourne and teaches into the Master of Interpreting and Translation Studies. He is a NAATI certified and practising interpreter and translator and has published in Translation and Interpreting Studies as well as in the fields of contact linguistics, multilingualism, intercultural communication, pragmatics and language maintenance/shift.

Background Readings:

Corsellis, A. (2008). Public Service Interpreting. The First Steps. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Gavioli, L. & Wadensjö, C. (Eds.) (2023). The Routledge Handbook of Public Service Interpreting. London: Routledge.

Hale, S. (2007). Community Interpreting. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Hlavac, J. (2016). Interpreter credentialing, testing and training in Australia: past, contemporary and future directions. FITISPos-International Journal [Formación e Investigación en Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos] 3: 59-81.

Hlavac, J. (2022). The development of Community Translation and Interpreting in Australia. A Critical Overview. In: Wakabayashi, J. & O’Hagan, M. (Eds.) Translating and Interpreting in Australia and New Zealand: Distance and Diversity. London: Routledge. 65-84.

Napier, J., McKee, R. & Goswell, D. (2018). Sign Language Interpreting. Theory and Practice. [3rd Edition]. Sydney: Federation Press.

Ozolins, U. (2007). The interpreter’s ‘third client’. In: Wadensjö, C., Nilsson, A-L. & Englund Dimitrova, B. (Eds.) The Critical Link 4. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 121-131.

Phelan, M., Rudvin, M., Skaaden, H., & Kermit, P. (2019). Ethics in public service interpreting. London: Routledge.

Pöllabauer, S. & Topolovec, I. (2021). Ethics in public service interpreting. In Koskinen, K., & Pokorn, N. K. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics. 211-226.

Taibi, M., Ozolins, U., & Maximous, A. (2022). Interpreter education in Australia: Community settings, generic skills. In: Wakabayashi, J. & O’Hagan, M. (Eds.) Translating and Interpreting in Australia and New Zealand: Distance and Diversity. London: Routledge. 86-104.

Tipton, R. & Furmanek, O. (2016). Dialogue Interpreting. A Guide to Interpreting in Public Services and the Community. London: Routledge.

Dr. Jim Hlavac and the Seminar moderator Dr. Clara Chuan Yu
Community Interpreting in Australia: Policies, Structures, Training, Certification, Industry and Client Needs, and the Profiles of Contemporary Community Interpreters
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