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Translation can be an overt feature of public policy, typically in situations where there are status planning regulations that prescribe the use of two or more languages that then enable the development of translation infrastructure. In New World countries, one language, usually that of a former colonial power, is thede jureorde factoofficial language and seldom does translation feature as a national policy in its own right. Accounts for the provision of translation in a country such as Australia are to be found elsewhere. This article adopts a “looking sideways” approach to account for the provision of translation in a range of settings – healthcare, welfare, court/police, etc. In these areas, and since the introduction ofmulticulturalismin the mid-1970s, linguistic diversity of the Australian populace has been a component of policy formulation and the provision of translation has become a means for policy to be implemented. A national policy on languages that expressly includes translation does exist in Australia. However, it is the cross-portfolio convention of addressing language barriers in the provision of government services and beyond that accounts for translation. It is here conceptualized not so much as a cultural-linguistic value, but as a means for service delivery.

Building on the concept of 'multicultural middle class', this paper explores social inclusion of professionally educated and employed non-Anglophone immigrants in Australia. We focus specifically on the perceptions and implications of 'foreign accent' in the interaction between two groups of middle-class Australians: non-Anglophone immigrants and Anglo-Australians. 'Non-Anglophone immigrants' are defined as those who arrived in Australia as adults, grew up speaking a language other than English, and therefore usually speak English with a 'foreign accent'. 'Anglo-Australians' are defined as people born in Australia who grew up in families/households where only English was spoken, therefore speaking with a 'native Australian' accent. Through a survey of a targeted sample of respondents, the two groups were asked about their intergroup communication, wider interaction (e.g., intermarriage, friendships and working together) and mutual perceptions. Our findings indicate high levels of agreement between the two groups that Anglophone/non-Anglophone communication is minimally hindered by comprehension problems due to foreign-accented speech and cultural differences. Although the positive picture that emerges may reflect specific experiences and attitudes of middle-class professionals and may not be generalisable, increased contact of the 'multicultural middle class' with its Anglo-Australian counterpart is likely to be a factor in dissociating foreign accent and negative stereotyping.

Interpreters may see affinities between their own or working language(s) and others in the same family as an opening to a broader range of professional opportunities. This paper presents data from an online survey, completed by 23 mainly Australian-based interpreters for the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages. Main points include: number of accreditations (one, two or three languages); willingness to work in languages other than one’s ‘own’; and views on adapting language to the variety spoken by interlocutors (in both everyday usage and interpreted speech). Other questions examine negotiation of mismatches between ethnicity and the language variety expected by the client, as well as personal views regarding the distinctness of the three languages. Informants form three main groups: some work in one language only, with no accommodation to others; some consider the languages as separate but might accommodate to other varieties, extemporaneously or by prior arrangement; others consider that their native-speaker status in two or three languages makes accommodation superfluous. Two smaller groups (totalling four interpreters) consider substantial accommodation unnecessary: in one case they see the languages as separate but mutually understandable, in the other they see them as one single language. Quantitative data are complemented by informants’ comments.

MonTI (Monographs in Translation and Interpreting) is an academic, peer-reviewed and international journal series (1) that is published by three Spanish universities with TI demonstrated knowledge of domestic legal terminology and legal procedures; ability to interpret consecutively. Commonly, candidates wishing to become court interpreters must apply to the relevant country's Ministry of Justice and sit for its interpreting test. However, while the code law tradition requires formal credentialing of protagonists in courtroom, it does not contemplate those working outside it. As a result, in many European countries, historically there have been few or no proficiency standards for non-court interpreting, and seldom if ever any formal requirement to provide an interpreter for certain key interactions such as lawyer-client, and even police-suspect or police-witness. National credentialing systems privileged one kind of situation as deserving of certain standards, and had little to say about other ones. Due to mass migration to most parts of Western Europe in the post-WWII period, coupled with increasing levels of European internal migration, the demand for interpreting services Europe-wide has increased greatly. A system which officially sanctioned interpreting in one setting, but not in others, has become untenable. Moving outside Europe to predominantly Anglophone countries, we find the following situation in the United States. In that country, the certification of court interpreters is loosely co-ordinated by the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), which is the professional body for American court interpreters and translators. Various American states have different requirements and different testing authorities that administer the test. Pre-test training is typically offered by private providers and the certification exam is offered individually by a nominated authority in each state sometimes a university institution, sometimes a court authority, sometimes a private enterprise or agency. The contact details of each state's authority are provided by a US federal government authority: the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts (formerly the 'Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification'). …

This paper focuses on public service interpreting in Australia, gives a brief overview of socio-historical features, which, like many predominantly Anglophone countries, had policies and practices that openly discouraged bi- and multi-lingualism and that marginalised translation and interpreting. A change to this occurred in the mid-1970s when social policy caught up with post-WWII reality and multiculturalism became a cornerstone of public policy at all levels. Virtually overnight, national policy required the establishment of a national body that registered suitably attributed interpreters and translators to service the needs of non-English-speaking residents. This has led to the development of T&I infrastructure that is responsive to larger and smaller, older and newer linguistic groups, but which encounters attendant difficulties in the harmonisation of standards of practice amongst interpreters across different languages. The relationship of testing to training is examined and this paper concludes with data on those currently entering the sector: statistics are provided from a sample of 50 trainees, attending an introductory, 40-hour course entitled ‘Entry-level Interpreting’ on their motivational and career-aspirational features, and on their views and experiences of interpreting practice., Este artículo se enfoca en los servicios públicos de interpretación en Australia, y provee información general sobre elementos sociales e históricos de Australia. Australia, como muchos otros países angloparlantes, tenía políticas y procedimientos diseñados para desalentar el bilingüismo y poliglotismo, lo cual consecuentemente marginalizó la traducción e interpretación. Esto comenzó a cambiar a mediados de los años setenta, cuando la política social se puso al corriente de las realidades de la posguerra y el multiculturalismo se volvió una pieza clave de la política pública a todos niveles. Prácticamente de un día a otro, la política nacional requirió el establecimiento de una entidad que registrara intérpretes y traductores adecuadamente acreditados para satisfacer los servicios requeridos por aquellos residentes que no hablaban inglés. Esto llevo al desarrollo de una infraestructura de intérpretes y traductores capaz de responder a las necesidades de grupos lingüísticos grandes y pequeños, nuevos y viejos, pero que a la vez se encuentra con la constante dificultad de asegurar que sus intérpretes en diferentes idiomas mantengan los mismos estándares profesionales. Este artículo examina la relación entre capacitación y examinación, y concluye con información sobre estudiantes que se encuentran a punto de unirse a la industria. Las estadísticas provistas son de una muestra de cincuenta estudiantes, los cuales estudiaron un curso de introducción de cuarenta horas llamado “Curso de interpretación de nivel básico”. Así mismo, este artículo provee información sobre la motivación de los estudiantes, sus ambiciones profesionales, y sus opiniones y experiencias sobre la práctica de interpretación.

Despite reading being recognized as a core academic skill, surprisingly little research has been undertaken into university lecture reading requirements. This article reports on the trial and evaluation of a minimalist reading model developed for students in arts and education subjects. Comprising annotated extracts from full texts ‘linked’ wherever possible via hypertext mark-up language to glossaries, e-dictionaries and online translation services, the minimalist model was intended to rethink pre-lecture reading requirements and conventional approaches to designing reading lists at the tertiary level. Findings indicate that while students are generally receptive to the redesign of conventional approaches to pre-lecture reading in the disciplines sampled, several participants expressed reservations about the model. The research provides insights into the study mores of the contemporary university student and re-emphasizes the need to ensure the diversity and complexity of the student cohort is catered for by educators and university managers as far as practicable.

Hesitation and monitoring phenomena (hereafter HMP) are forms that occur in speech such as filled or unfilled pauses, paralinguistic markers such as (nervous) laughter or coughing, or signals which pre-empt or justify other forms in utterances. The functions of these forms have commonly been associated with planning or accessing difficulties. However, HMP can also have a function of signalling clause boundaries, changes of mood or topic, aiding intelligibility for listeners. This paper draws on a large sample of bilingual speech and examines the overall incidence of HMP from two contributing languages, Croatian and English, and their incidence in speech containing code-switching. Analysis of results seeks to establish whether there is disproportionately high frequency of HMP surrounding code-switches, and whether such HMP are indicative of accessing/production difficulties concomitant to the appearance of code-switches, or appear to perform a function that facilitates the intelligibility of code-switches. HMP co-occur disproportionately with code-switches. However, analysis of code-switching examples shows that different types of code-switches attract higher or lower frequencies of HMP, depending on their phonological and/or morphological form. Although not identical to discourse markers, HMP perform a congruent function, that of integrating or facilitating the incorporation of ‘other language’ text.

Interpreters are expected to have an advanced command of not only the vocabulary and grammar of their working languages, but also the pragmatic norms that speakers of their working languages employ in communicative interactions. The aim of this paper is to explore the perceptions and practices of interpreters in relation to intercultural pragmatics at work in healthcare interactions. The paper employs two theoretical frameworks: the first is based on interpretations of behavior according to speakers' discourse-pragmatic features as representative of “high” or “low” context cultures (cf. Hall 1976); the second applies Celce-Murcia's (2007) more refined notion of “communicative competence.” The data sample of this paper focuses on cultural-pragmatic features of two linguistic and cultural groups – 25 Chinese speakers and 24 English speakers – and contrasts their selected responses to five features of Chinese-English interpreted healthcare interactions. Responses from 33 Chinese-English interpreters are matched against those from speakers of the two groups to examine the degree of congruence that interpreters have with the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of the two groups of speakers, for whom they interpret. This study shows that the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of both groups is determined by their adoption of a particular approach (doctor- vs. patient-centered approach) and other micro-level features (perceived time constraints, different notions of “small talk”) that limit elaborate pragmatic enactments. Over-arching cultural-pragmatic models based on “high” (or “low”) context communication, or “vertical” (vs. “horizontal”) hierarchical perceptions of role and status appear to have limited application to the data. Instead, local features specific to the healthcare situation co-determine both English and Chinese speakers' responses to questions about their use of pragmatics. Findings indicate that interpreters attend to each group's enactment of pragmatic features and, as expert language users, are able to recognize features and components of interactions and their functions to a greater degree than the Chinese and English speakers.

This article provides an overview of the process by which potential translators and interpreters demonstrate minimum standards of performance to warrant official or professional recognition of their ability to translate or interpret and to practise professionally – commonly known as ‘certification’. Certification can be awarded by governmental or professional authorities on the basis of testing, completed training, presentation of previous relevant experience and/or recommendations from practising professionals. Certification can be awarded by a single authority for all types of translation and interpreting, or by authorities that specialise in a particular mode or type of inter-lingual transfer. This article compares certification procedures in 21 countries to present a cross-national perspective of how (and if) certification is awarded and which features and requirements are contained in it. Comparison reveals that the pragmatic, needs-based and socially focussed policies of translation and interpreting services in some New World countries such as Australia, Canada, US has led to the establishment of certification programs. In other, typically European and East Asian countries, a demonstration of minimum standards is provided through lengthy training, commonly as part of a university post-graduate degree where translation and interpreting performance is principally required for high-level political, business or literary interaction. In such countries, ‘certification’ may be a term reserved for a restricted type of performance, eg. court interpreting. Parallels are drawn between the procedures and conventions employed in various countries and how common elements may form a basis for greater cross-national equivalence and comparability.

This study focuses on a situation of retentive multilingualism and transmission of more than one language in the diaspora. The population in question are bi- or multilinguals who, in an immigrant situation, added a further language, English, to their repertoire. Sixty-six Iraq-born informants who identified as Chaldeans or Assyrians now living in Melbourne, Australia were interviewed about their nominated “first” language, situation and context of acquisition, self-declared level of proficiency and notions of attachment towards and co-identification with respective languages. Proficiency and use of Chaldean and Assyrian remain high among respondents, despite these languages' level of endangerment in Iraq. Only five informants had shifted to Arabic as their “dominant” language. However, Arabic has become, and remains, an established code in in-group situations. Although contact with Arabic-speaking Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabic-speakers is significant, it is the established status of Arabic as a “complementary” code in Chaldean and Assyrian in-group interactions that accounts for why informants view Arabic as one of their languages alongside their L1, and, to a lesser extent, English. Desire for language maintenance applies chiefly to informants' L1, but also to Arabic, confirmed by data showing informants' practices in maintaining both codes and positive affective responses to them both. In contrast, informants express distance towards Kurdish. The connections between this pattern of language maintenance and attitudes and the social and political situation of the emigrants in Iraq and Australia will be discussed.

This paper presents profiles of eight multilinguals and examines the circumstances that determine their continued use, in addition to English, of at least two of their ‘home’ languages. I attempt to identify in which domains this occurs, whether there are established patterns of domain-specific language use and whether these patterns are maintained or altered to encompass informants' continued multilingualism. Further, the three vintages of informants offer cross-generational comparison. Findings reveal that informants have been able to establish social networks similar to those that they have been part of before arrival in Australia. This has been instrumental for them to remain multilingual. These social networks are primarily family- and friend-based, together with the neighbourhood and workplace domains. There are few cross-vintage differences in the importance and function of these networks to informants. Further, informants' self-descriptions of a mono-, bi- or multicultural identity may change afte...