Court Interpreting In China: The Perspective Of Standardization

The importance of court interpreting quality is indisputable. Nevertheless, the present situation of court interpreting quality in China is far from satisfactory, because the quality of court interpreters' performance varies considerably, ranging from comparatively satisfying to astonishingly misleading. Therefore, urgent need comes as to how to identify the present situation of court interpreting in China, how to improve the current practice, and how to standardize this occupation in today's China. This study tries to inquire into and answer the above questions in a tentative manner.A framework for quality assessment of court interpreting practice is constructed by specifying the different aspects of quality assessment that can be utilized to measure against the performance of court interpreters. Among the most important aspects or factors for the quality assessment of this particular profession are the roles that court interpreters are generally expected to assume and the qualifications that they are generally expected to acquire.After the quality assessment aspects are identified, some court interpreting data are sampled from a bilingual criminal legal proceeding held in a courtroom in China. These court interpreting examples are analyzed on the basis of the established quality assessment model. By analyzing the field interpreting during the court session, some problems are found and the reasons behind are inquired into. As the analysis reveals, the ultimate reason for the court interpreters' unsatisfactory performance rests with the lack of standardization of the whole profession of court interpreting.On the basis of the above findings, a systemic proposal is offered by taking into consideration the various phases of court interpreting as a profession: examinations and accreditation, association, code of ethics and standards of practice, language access laws, education and training, performance supervision etc. It is believed that only when all those aspects are developed fully can court interpreting be really professionalized and justice prevailed.