Remote Interpreting

The development of communication technologies such as telephony, videoconferencing and web-conferencing in interpreter-mediated communication has led to alternative ways of delivering interpreting services. Several uses of these technologies can be distinguished in connection with interpreting. ‘Remote interpreting’ in the narrow sense often refers to their use to gain access to an interpreter in another location, but similar methods of interpreting are required for interpreting in virtual meetings in which the primary participants themselves are distributed across different sites. In spite of their different underlying motivations, these methods of interpreting all share elements of remote working from the interpreter’s point of view and will therefore be subsumed here under one heading. Although the practice of remote interpreting (in all its forms) is controversial among interpreters, the last two decades have seen an increase in this practice in all fields of interpreting. As such, it has also caught the attention of scholars, who have begun to investigate remote interpreting, for example, with a view to the quality of the interpreter’s performance and a range of psychological and physiological factors. This chapter will begin by explaining the key terms and concepts associated with remote interpreting and then give an overview of the historical development and current trends of remote interpreting in supra-national institutions, legal, healthcare and other settings, referring to current and emerging practice and to insights from research. This will be followed by the presentations of recommendations for practice and an outlook at future directions of this practice and for research.