Quality Assessment in Community Interpreting: A Case-study of Talk-shows Renditions from English into Arabic

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the quality of community interpreting in social settings through studying the interpretation of talk-shows encounters from English into Arabic and to present some quality assessment criteria to this end. It hypothesizes that if a model for quality assessment is applied to this community interpreting, using a multi-disciplinary approach, we can systematically account for 'ideal', 'close' and 'divergent' renditions and hence improve the practice. The objectives are to show the gap in the knowledge of quality interpreting in the real practices of interpreters at social settings and the limitations of research in this regard, to analyse and discuss the collected data using a pragmatic and cultural approach, and to elicit some criteria for quality assessment. It attempts to answer three questions. How and to what extent can a multi-disciplinary approach together with a quality assessment model help decide the quality of community interpreting in social contexts like talk-shows? What is an ideal or a close rendition? What is a divergent one? It examines three encounters in a talk-show interpreted simultaneously (SI) and consecutively (CI) from English into Arabic. The participants are not native speakers of English. A qualitative research method of content analysis is utilized to compare Arabic renditions to their original English utterances. The study concludes that there is a gap in the knowledge of quality interpreting among practitioners of the profession. The appropriateness of the interpreter's role and performance is decided according to the suggested criteria for quality assessment. Also, the multi- disciplinary approach used helps tackle different perspectives and uncover aspects in 'close' and 'divergent' renditions that would not have been possible otherwise. It recommends that this model is adopted by interpreters and in training courses.