Introducing Interpreting

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Pöchhaker, Franz (2004) Introducing Interpreting Studies, London: Routledge. Pochhaker’s book Introducing Interpreting Studies will give me a broad overview of Interpreting Studies. This is a good place to begin my research, providing an outline and a structure for my analysis. Indeed, the book is divided into 3 sections “foundations” which is an overview of the discipline, “selected topics and research” that gives an analytical presentation of important studies in the field and ”directions” which provides advice for beginner reserachers. Pochhaker intended his book to be "a map of the interpreting studies", providing orientation for newcomers to academic research related to interpreting. This book is going to be a solid basis for my research, …show more content…

The AIIC code of professional ethics states the importance of “integrity”, “professionalism” and “confidentiality” without giving a clear definition of ethics. There are lots of useful resources on the AIIC website, that will provide me with a more in depth analysis of issues relates to ethics, such as “Advice to students wishing to become conference interpreters”. This research has demonstratated the heart of problem of ethics in conference interpreting, as the association does not explicitly identify the issues of role and performance …show more content…

She observes a shift of focus in conference interpreting, from the cognitive aspects to the ethics and the role of the interpreter, which were both studied extensively in community and court interpreting in the past. There is a link in her article between impartiality and professional practice. Indeed, she discusses the survey on AIIC interpreters, carried out by Pochhaker in 2010, that revealed that experienced interprters have admitted to altering content on certain occasions, to render the speech culturally acceptable in the target language, thus even though they consider their role as an interpreter as impartial. The other interesting point Donovan makes is the importance of ethics in teaching programs, she believes that teaching is an excellent way of “establishing professional identities and values” This article and the example of the AIIC survey will strongly support my argument on neutrality and impartiality.