'Finding a balance between required skills and available resources in non-professional interpreting and translation'

In linguistically diverse communities both locally and globally, cultural and linguistic mediation practices are more prevalent than first impressions lead us to believe. The maintenance of linguistic rights in multilingual and multicultural societies would require, among other things, regular availability of the services of translators and interpreters. However, this is often not the case, so that non-professional or poorly trained language mediators often come to the rescue and play an indispensable role in facilitating communication across linguistic or cultural divides in many different contexts, including education, social services, health care, business management and legal settings. These ad hoc language mediators often are the metaphorical bridge builders who facilitate constructive co-existence.

The need for these ad hoc language practitioners has recently been acknowledged where large numbers of migrants are moving from war, prosecution, poverty and other kinds of destitution into safer spaces. Within the African context, the divide between the first and second economy is also relevant, where in the second, i.e. informal economy, non-professional interpreters and translators are the norm in public spaces. It has become increasingly clear that such circumstances are likely to prevail for some time yet.

The critical role of non-professional interpreters and translators needs proper recognition, also within the domain of interpreting and translation studies. This is a dynamic research field currently being explored and pushing the boundaries of what we know about informal multilingual communicative practices. The designation “non-professional” in itself is rather blurred in that it is often used as equivalent to “ad hoc”, “unpaid”, “volunteer”, “informal”, “limitedly trained” in translation or interpreting.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Defining and mapping the field of non-professional interpreting and translation

Ad hoc interpreting and translation in everyday life

Language brokering by family members (oral, written or sign language)

Non-professional sign language interpreting

Recruiting and/or training non-professional interpreters and translators

Certification and para-professionalism

Interdisciplinary approaches to research non-professional interpreting and translation

Community translation and interpreting

Non-professional translation and interpreting in crisis situations

Temporary interpreters and translators in conflict situations

Interpreting in prisons and between prisoners

Religious interpreters and translators

Deadline for submissions: May 28 2017

For full details on the event, please visit http://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/NPIT4/npit4/index