Report On Professionalization Of Healthcare Interpreting

This paper aims to give a comparative study of professionalization of healthcareinterpreting at home and abroad, therefore put forward some strategies to acceleratethe professionalization of healthcare interpreting in China.In recent years, interpreting, as a profession, becomes popular worldwide. InChina,159universities have been qualified to establish MTI which aims at traininghigh-level talents on translation and interpreting. Interpreting, as a discipline, alsoattracts more and more scholars to do studies. However, a majority of researchesfocus on conference interpreting, and research on community interpreting arerelatively deficient. Among the existing literature on healthcare interpreting, mostattention is paid to the role, qualification and service quality of healthcare interpreters.There is not systematic study on professionalization of healthcare interpreting inChina.In1992, Joseph Tseng developed a socio-professional model which focused oninterpreting as a recognized occupation in society, with reference to conferenceinterpreting in Taiwan. The model describes four phases in the process ofprofessionalization:“market disorder”-“consensus&commitment”-“professionassociation”-“professional autonomy”.This survey is a case study of the professionalization of healthcare interpretingin Guangzhou. The author collected latest data of healthcare interpreting inGuangzhou and made a tentative analysis of its professionalization, with Tseng’smodel as reference. At last, some suggestions are proposed aiming at promote theprofessionalization of healthcare.