The Visibility Consciousness Of Medical Interpreters

In the twenty first century, due to the frequency of international exchange, interpreters play a more essential role in cross-cultural communication. Nevertheless, these individuals have been considered as invisible language conduits in the interpreted communicative events (ICEs). Not only have they been required to remain professionally detached from relevant parties in interpreting assignments in all situations (AUSIT 9) by professional associations of translation and interpreting, but also they have been expected as transparent or invisible individuals by laypersons.However, with the involvement of social theory and cross-cultural communication in interpreting studies, more researches shed light on the visibility consciousness of interpreters. Claudia Angelelli explores the role of visible interpreters by analyzing the data collected at a local hospital, and by gathering interpreters’own perceptions of their role in ICEs. In her view, visibility of interpreters means that interpreters’role goes beyond the role of language switching, and its intensity is determined by text ownership (Angelelli, Medical Interpreting 67,77). Ren Wen presents the visibility of interpreters in her doctoral dissertation, which has made her the first domestic scholar in this specific area.Based on the interpreting project at Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, the author intends to make researches into varied manifestations of medical interpreters’visibility consciousness, and to make some suggestions on how to play a better role in ICEs at medical settings. The report is divided into four sections. Chapter one is the general introduction of the project, including some background information and preparations for the interpreting task. Chapter two introduces the overview of interpreters’visibility consciousness, and opens up the closed circle of visibility and text ownership. In chapter three, the author analyzes firsthand cases in the perspectives of three manifestations of interpreters’visibility, namely, gatekeeper, co-interlocutor and coordinator/mediator (Ren, "Liaison Interpreters" 125). This chapter also focuses on the strategies of medical interpreting based on visibility consciousness, and raises question marks over the misuse of interpreters’visibility. Chapter four shows the feedback from the clients and the self-evaluation of the author, hoping to help the medical interpreters better facilitate communication as visible co-participants. In the Conclusion, the author intends to make a summary of the application of visibility consciousness and text-ownership of medical interpreters based on the discussion of the previous chapters.