Professionalization Of Telephone Interpreting

This article mainly focuses on the professionalization of telephone interpreting. With thedevelopment and prosperity of telephone interpreting, the study of telephone interpretinghas grasped the heart of many scholars of relevant fields. However, it is a pity that fewhave devoted their attention solely to the professionalization of telephone interpreting.As a bridge that connects the people speaking different languages, interpreting is one of thetime-honored skills that are indispensable in cross-cultural communication. Interpretingenjoys not only a long history but also an irreplaceable position in internationalcommunication. With rapid technological and economic development, interpreting hasdeveloped into many sub-categories according to different requirements from varioussectors. Therefore, with the rapid development of information technology and the demandfor interpreting over-the-phone, telephone interpreting has been developed into anindependent industry which has its own unique features and requirements.With the fast development of economy, people have raised their requirements of theinterpreting services they receive. Therefore, to be qualified interpreters, the interpretingpractitioners should undergo a large amount of standard and strict training. Focusing on theprofessionalization of telephone interpreting, this article will illustrate the history,standards and professional requirements of telephone interpreting. In this article, thegeneral business mode and interpreters training programs of the most mature telephoneinterpreting company in the world—the Language Line Services have been described.Hopefully, this could serve as a reference for the emerging telephone interpretingcompanies in Chinese interpreting market.The abstract of this article would briefly introduce the arrangement of this article and themain body would be divided into four parts.The first part gives a general account of the definition and the history of telephoneinterpreting profession. In this part, the initial development of telephone interpreting isbriefly described.The second part mainly describes telephone interpreting as a profession. In this part, theprofessional ethics, training, accreditation and assessment are analyzed. The abovementioned aspects of telephone interpreting industry are inter-locked and indispensablefrom each other.The third part discusses and compares the management mode of the successful telephoneinterpreting companies in the US and the emerging telephone interpreting companies inChinese market.The fourth part concludes this article by summing up the features and illustrating the development prospect of telephone interpreting in professionalization.