Police Interpreting by Semiprofessional Master of Translation and Interpreting Students in China—A Sociocultural Perspective

Yıl 2025, Sayı: 22, 175 - 193, 04.07.2025

Mianjun Xu , Tianyuan Zhao , Juntao Deng

https://doi.org/10.26650/iujts.2025.1625470

Öz

This study aims to understand the characteristics, challenges, and problems of police interpreting by Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) students in China and the motivations and perceptions of the student inter preters involved. The research questions include: How do MTI students perceive police interpreting? Why do they participate in it? What are the challenges they face? And how can this practice be improved? The study employs a mixedmethods approach, combining a selfadministered questionnaire survey with semi structured interviews involving MTI students and police officers. The research is grounded in the sociocultural perspective on interpreting, emphasizing the influence of macro, meso, and microlevel factors in the interpreting process. The findings reveal that police interpreting in China is characterized by its urgent nature, long working hours, and reliance on English as a lingua franca. Student interpreters are motivated by financial gain, academic requirements, and personal interest, but face significant challenges, including legal knowledge requirements, language proficiency issues, and psychological pressure. The study concludes that while MTI students are crucial for police interpreting, there is a need for professionalization, improved training, and better working conditions. Limitations of the study include a lack of foreign nationals' perspectives and the limited number of interviewees.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) , police interpreting in China , semiprofessional , student interpreter , sociocultural perspective

Police Interpreting by Semiprofessional Master of Translation and Interpreting Students in China—A Sociocultural Perspective

Öz

Bu çalışma, Çin'deki Mütercim Tercümanlık Yüksek Lisansı (Master of Translation and Interpreting – MTI) öğrenci lerinin polis çevirmenliği özellikleri, zorlukları ve sorunları ile bu süreçte yer alan öğrenci çevirmenlerin motivasy onlarını ve algılarını anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma soruları şunları içerir: MTI öğrencileri polis çevirmenliğini nasıl algılıyor? Neden buna katılım sağlıyorlar? Karşılaştıkları zorluklar nelerdir? Ve bu uygulama nasıl iyileştir ilebilir? Çalışma, MTI öğrencileri ve polis memurlarını kapsayan öz değerlendirmeli anketleri, yarı yapılandırılmış mülakatlarla birleştiren karma yöntem yaklaşımını benimsemektedir. Araştırma, çeviri sürecine makro, mezo ve mikro düzey faktörlerin etkisini vurgulayan sosyokültürel çeviri perspektifine dayanmaktadır. Bulgular, Çin'deki polis çevirmenliğinin acil niteliği, uzun çalışma saatleri ve İngilizcenin geçer dil (lingua franca) olarak kullanımına dayalı olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Öğrenci çevirmenler motivasyonlarını maddi kazanç, akademik gereksinimler ve kişisel ilgiden alsalar da, hukuki bilgi gereksinimleri, dil yeterliliği sorunları ve psikolojik baskı gibi önemli zorluk larla karşı karşıya gelmektedirler. Çalışma, MTI öğrencilerinin polis çevirmenliği için çok önemli olmalarına rağmen, profesyonelleşme, iyileştirilmiş eğitim ve daha iyi çalışma koşullarına ihtiyaç duyulduğu sonucuna varmaktadır. Çalışmanın kısıtlamaları arasında yabancı uyruklu kişilerin bakış açısının eksikliği ve görüşme yapılan kişi sayısının sınırlı olması bulunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Mütercim Tercümanlık Yüksek Lisansı (MTI) , Çin , yarıprofesyonel; öğrenci çevirmenler , sosyokültürel bakış açısı

Kaynakça

• Angelelli, Claudia. 2001a. Deconstructing the invisible interpreter: A critical study of the interpersonal role of the interpreter in a cross-cultural/linguistic communicative event. Ph.D. Dissertation. Stanford University. google scholar
• Angelelli, Claudia. 2001b. Revisiting the Interpreter’s Role. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Angelelli, Claudia. 2004. Medical Interpreting and Cross-Cultural Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. google scholar
• Bancroft, Marjory, et al. 2013. The Community Interpreter: An International Textbook. Culture & Language Press. google scholar
• Bao, Chuanyun. 2007. Professionalization of interpreting. The Chinese Translators Journal 28(1). 50-51. (鲍川运. 2007. 口译的职业化. 中国 翻译, 28(1).50-51.) google scholar
• Benmaman, Virginia. 1998. Legal interpreting by any other name is still legal interpreting. In Silvana E. Carr, Roda Roberts, Aideen Dufour and Dini Steyn (eds.) The Critical Link: Interpreters in the Community Papers from The First International Conference on Interpreting in Legal, Health, and Social Service Settings, Geneva Park, Canada, June 1-4, 1995. 179-190. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Berk-Seligson, Susan. 1990. The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. google scholar
• Berk-Seligson, Susan. 2000. Interpreting for the police: Issues in pre-trial phases of the judicial process. Forensic Linguistics 7(2). 212-237. google scholar
• Berk-Seligson, Susan. 2009. Coerced Professions: The Discourse of Bilingual Police Interrogations. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. google scholar
• Bontempo, K., and K. Malcolm. 2012. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: Educating Interpreters about the risk of vicarious trauma. Journal of Interpretation 22(1). 105-131. google scholar
• Bot, Hanneke. 2005. Dialogue interpreting as a specific case of reported speech. Interpreting 7(2). 237-261. google scholar
• Chai, Mingjiong, and Jiliang Zhang, eds. 2006. Professionalization in Interpreting: International Experience and Developments in China. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. (柴明颎, 张吉良(编). 口译的职业化道路:国际经验与中国实践.上海:上海外语 教育出版社). google scholar
• Dhami, Mandeep K., Jane Goodman-Delahunty, and Saoirse Desai. 2017. Development of an information sheet providing rapport advice for interpreters in police interviews. Police Practice and Research 18(3). 291-305. google scholar
• Doherty, Sharon, Anna Macintyre, and Timothy Wyne. 2010. How does it feel for you? The emotional impact and specific challenges of mental health interpreting. Mental Health Review Journal 15. 31-44. google scholar
• Fowler, Yvonne, Martin Vaughan, and Jacqueline Wheatcroft. 2015. The interpreter-mediated police interview. In Gavin Oxburgh, Trond Myklebust, Tim Grant & Rebecca Milne (eds.), Communication in Investigative and Legal Contexts: Integrated Approaches from Forensic Psychology, Linguistics and Law Enforcement. 315-333. Wiley Blackwell. google scholar
• Gamal, Muhammad Y. 2012. Interpreting for the Australian police. The Refereed Conference Proceedings of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia. http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/EDU/education/pdf/alaa/M-Gamal.pdf, accessed June 1st, 2021. google scholar
• Gamal, Muhammad Y. 2014a. Police interpreting: A view from the Australian context. International Journal of Science, Culture & Language 2(2). 77-88. google scholar
• Gamal, Muhammad Y. 2014b. The world of police interpreting. In A. Arnall & A. Gentile (eds.), AUSIT 2012: Proceedings of “JubliatTIon 25”. Biennial Conference of the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators. 93-102. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. google scholar
• Gamal, Muhammad Y. 2017. Police interpreting: The facts sheet. Semiotica, aop. 1-20. google scholar
• Gallai, Fabrizio. 2013. I’ll just intervene whenever he finds it a bit difficult to answer. Exploding the myth of literalism in interpretermediated police interviews. Investigative Interviewing: Research and Practice 5 (1). 57–78. google scholar
• Gallai, Fabrizio. 2017. Pragmatic competence and interpreter-mediated police investigative interviews. The Translator 23(2). 177-196. DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2017.1327317 google scholar
• Goodman-Delahunty, Jane, and Natalie Martschuk. 2016. Risks and benefits of interpreter-mediated police interviews. Varstvoslovje: Journal of Criminal Justice and Security (4). 451-471. google scholar
• Hale, Sandra. 2007. Community Interpreting. London: Palgrave Macmillan. google scholar
• Hale, Sandra, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, and Natalie Martschuk. 2018. Interpreter performance in police interviews. Differences between trained interpreters and untrained bilinguals. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2018.1541649 google scholar
• Hale, Sandra, Natalie Martschuk, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, Mustapha Taibi, and Han Xu. 2020. Interpreting profanity in police interviews. Multilingua. aop. google scholar
• Herráez, Juan M. Ortega, and Ana I. Fouliquié Rubio. 2008. Interpreting in police settings in Spain. In Carmen Valero-Garcés & Anne Martin (eds.), Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting: definitions and dilemmas. 123-146. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Heydon, Georgina, and Miranda Lai. 2013. Police interviews mediated by interpreters: An exercise in diminishment? Investigative Interviewing: Research and Practice 5(2). 82–98. google scholar
• Howes, Loene M. 2018. Community interpreters’ experiences of police investigative interviews: How might interpreters’ insights contribute to enhanced procedural justice? Policing and Society 29(8). 887-905. doi:10.1080/10439463.2018.1447572. google scholar
• Howes, Loene M. 2019. Interpreted investigative interviews under the PEACE interview model: Police interviewers’ perceptions of challenges and suggested solutions. Police Practice and Research 21(4). 333-350. DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2019.1617145 google scholar
• Komter, Martha. 2005. Understanding problems in an interpreter-mediated police interrogation. In Stacy Lee Burns (ed.) Ethnographies of Law and Social Control 203-224. Elsevier. google scholar
• Krouglov, Alexander. 1999. Police interpreting: Politeness and sociocultural context. [Special issue]. The Translator 5(2). 285–302. google scholar
• Lai, Miranda, and Sedat Mulayim. 2014. Interpreter linguistic interventions in the strategies employed by police in investigative interviews. Police Practice and Research 15(4). 307-321. google scholar
• Lai, Miranda, and Georgina Heydon. 2015. Vicarious trauma among interpreters. International Journal of Interpreter Education 7(1). Article 3. google scholar
• Laster, Kathy, and Veronica Taylor. 1994. Interpreters and the Legal System. Sydney: The Federation Press. google scholar
• Lee, Jieun. 2017. A case study of interpreter-mediated witness statement: police interpreting in South Korea. Police Practice and Research 18(2). 194-205. google scholar
• Lee, Jieun, and Jiun Huh. 2021. A need for building an ethical and trusting partnership between police officers and interpreters: Finding from South Korea. Translation and Interpreting 13(2). 29-44. google scholar
• Liu, Heping, and Zhonghua Lei. 2017. Reflections on Professionalization of Interpreting and the Professionalized Trends: Challenges and Countermeasure. Chinese Translators Journal (4). 77-83. (刘和平, 雷中华. 2017. 对口译职业化+专业化趋势的思考：挑战与对策. 中国 翻译 (4). 77-83.) google scholar
• Liu, Shenshen. 2021. A case study of the crimes of foreigners in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Journal of Hefei University (Comprehensive ed.) 38(1).110-116. (刘深深. 粤港澳大湾区外国人犯罪问题研究—以深圳2014年 统计数据为样本. 合肥学院 学报(综合版) 38(1). 110-116.) google scholar
• Ministry of Public Security. 2020. Procedural Provisions for Public Security Organs’ Handling of Administrative Cases. 3rd Revision. (公安部. 2020. 公安机关办理行政案件程序规定) 639https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2021-12/25/content_5712865.htm?eqid=832636220002017e 000000066458f639, accessed March 21, 2024. google scholar
• Monteoliva-García, Eloísa. 2020. The collaborative and selective nature of interpreting in police interviews with stand-by interpreting. Interpreting 22(2). 262–287. google scholar
• Morris, Ruth. 1995. The moral dilemmas of court interpreting. The Translator 1(1). 25-46. google scholar
• Mulayim, Sedat, Miranda Lai, and Carolina Norma. 2014. Police Investigative Interviews and Interpreting: Contexts, Challenges and Strategies. London: CRC Press. google scholar
• Mulayim, Sedat, and Miranda Lai. 2017. Ethics for Police Translators and Interpreters. Boca/ Raton/ London/ New York: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. google scholar
• Nakane, Ikuko. 2007. Problems in communicating the suspect’s rights in interpreted police interviews. Applied Linguistics 28(1). 87-112. google scholar
• Nakane, Ikuko. 2008. Gender and politeness in interpreted police interviews. Monash University Linguistics Papers 6(1). 29–40. google scholar
• Nakane, Ikuko. 2009. The myth of an “invisible mediator”: An Australian case study of English-Japanese police interpreting (online). Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 6(1). 1-16. https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=074729 605752103;res=IELHSS> google scholar
• Nakane, Ikuko. 2011. The role of silence in interpreted police interviews. Journal of Pragmatics (43). 2317-2330. google scholar
• Nakane, Ikuko. 2014. Interpreter-Mediated Police Interviews: A Discourse-Pragmatic Approach. New York: Palgrave. google scholar
• Norton, Irina. 2020. Joint training for police and interpreters in specific scenarios. Babel 66(2). 188-192. google scholar
• Pan, Yanyan,et al (eds). 2023. Policing English Interpretation Course. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press. (潘艳艳, 张辉, 丁景辉, 郭瑞珽, 俞 艳凤,朱安春. 2023. 警务英语口译教程. 北京：清华大学出版社.) google scholar
• Perez, Isabelle A., and Christine W. L. Wilson. 2004. Interpreter mediated police interviews: Working as a professional team. In Cecilia Wadensjö, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova & Anna-Lena Nilsson (eds.), The Critical Link 4: Professionalization of Interpreting in the Community. 79-94. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Pym, Anthony. 2006. Introduction: On the social and cultural in translation studies. In Anthony Pym, Miriam Schlesinger and Zuzana Lettmanrová (eds.) Sociocultural Aspects of Translation and Interpreting. 1-26. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Pöchhacker, Franz. 2006. Going social? On the pathways and paradigms of interpreting studies. In Anthony Pym, Miriam Schlesinger and Zuzana Lettmanrová (eds) Sociocultural Aspects of Translation and Interpreting. 215-232. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Pöchhacker, Franz. 2019. Introducing Interpreting Studies (2nd ed). Routledge. google scholar
• Pöllabauer, Sonja. 2006. “During the interview, the interpreter will provide a faithful translation.” The potentials and pitfalls of researching interpreting in immigration, asylum, and police settings: Methodology and research paradigms. Linguistica Antver-piensia, 5. 229-246. google scholar
• Roy, Cynthia. 2000. Interpreting as a Discourse Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Russell, Sonia. 2000. Let me put it simply …: The case for a standard translation of the police caution and its explanation. Forensic Linguistics 7(1). 26–48. google scholar
• Russell, Debra L. 2002. Interpreting in Legal Contexts: Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpretation. Burtonsville, MD: Sign Media. google scholar
• Salaets, Heidi, and An-Katrien De Pooter. 2015. The cooperation between the Waterway Police and the legal interpreters in the legal district of Antwerp: A qualitative study on best practices. The Interpreters’ Newsletter 195-216. google scholar
• Shackman, Jane. 1985. Right to be Understood: Handbook on Working with, Employing and Training Community Interpreters. Cambridge: National Extension College. google scholar
• Tipton, Rebecca, and Olgierda Furmanek. 2016. Dialogue Interpreting: A Guide to Interpreting in Public Services and the Community. London & New York: Routledge. google scholar
• Tipton, Rebecca. 2019. ‘Yes I understand’: Language choice, question formation and code-switching in interpreter-mediated police interviews with victim-survivors of domestic abuse. Police Practice and Research 22(1). 1058-1076. DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2019.1663733 google scholar
• Valero-Garcés, Carmen. 2016. Health, Communication and Multicultural Communities: Topics on Intercultural Communication for Healthcare Professionals. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
• Wadensjö, Cecilia. 1998a. Interpreting as Interaction. London: Routledge. google scholar
• Wadensjö, Cecilia. 1998b. Recycled information as a questioning strategy: Pitfalls in interpreter-mediated talk. In Silvana E. Carr, Roda Roberts, Aideen Dufour and Dini Steyn (eds.) The Critical Link: Interpreters in the Community Papers from the First International Conference on Interpreting in Legal, Health, and Social Service Settings, Geneva Park, Canada, June 1-4, 1995. 35-52. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. google scholar
• Wilson, Lauren, and Dave Walsh. 2019. Striving for impartiality: Conflicts of role, trust and emotion in interpreter-assisted police interviews. Pragmatics and Society 10(1). 122–151. google scholar
• Xie, Tianzhen. 2013. From translation services to language services—Concept and behavior of the professionalized era of translation. East Journal of Translation (3), 4-8. (谢天振. 2013. 从翻译服务到语言服务—翻译的职业化时代的理念与行为. 东方翻译 (3). 4-8.) google scholar
• Xie, Tianzhen. 2014. On the professionalized era of translation. East Journal of Translation (2), 4-9. (谢天振. 2013. 论翻译的职业化时代. 东方翻译 (2). 4-9.) (word count: 9990) google scholar