Healthcare Interpreting As Relational Practice: Understanding the Interpreter’s Role in Facilitating Rapport in Health Interactions

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aut.relation.journalInterpreting and Society
dc.contributor.authorMajor, Georgina
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-29T04:21:32Z
dc.date.available2024-07-29T04:21:32Z
dc.date.issued2024-07-26
dc.description.abstractThis article explores the extent to which healthcare interpreting can be considered “relational practice.” It describes an interactional sociolinguistic study conducted in Australia, based on video recordings of two naturally occurring interpreted general practice consultations. Participants were hearing Australian Sign Language (Auslan)/English interpreters, deaf patients, and hearing doctors. Analysis of these recordings was supplemented by reflective interviews with participants. The study examines the ways in which interpreters facilitate good working relationships between participants, and to explore the extent to which their decision-making is driven by relational considerations. The analyses presented in this article provide evidence that relational work is an important aspect of the healthcare interpreter’s role. Some of the ways in which it is achieved, however, may challenge our ideas about “appropriate” interpreter behaviour. Thus, the skilled and experienced interpreters in the study were seen to modify face threats, directly influence the flow of interaction, and actively facilitate social talk and humour, occasionally even engaging in it themselves. It is argued that interpreters’ decisions can only be understood within the discursive context in which they occur, and such behaviour can highlight interpreters’ attentiveness to the maintenance of good rapport.
dc.identifier.citationInterpreting and Society, ISSN: 2752-3810 (Print); 2752-3810 (Online), SAGE Publications. doi: 10.1177/27523810241259157
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/27523810241259157
dc.identifier.issn2752-3810
dc.identifier.issn2752-3810
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/17830
dc.languageen
dc.publisherSAGE Publications
dc.relation.urihttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/27523810241259157
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2024. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.titleHealthcare Interpreting As Relational Practice: Understanding the Interpreter’s Role in Facilitating Rapport in Health Interactions
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id563829
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