Manner of Speech in Legal Interpreting: Implications for Pedagogy and Practice

This book presents the findings from an original research study on court interpreting in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences. It argues that the interpretations of the manner of speech in court can have implications on the accuracy of court interpreting and thus, on procedural justice. The right to a fair representation in one’s language of choice is a crucial aspect of linguistic equity and procedural justice. However, little has been researched about how lawyer questions and the defendant’s responses are interpreted in courtroom examinations. Drawing on questionnaires and interpreting performance data, this book presents the results of a mixed-methods study which adopted a practice-informed and evidence-based approach to showcase how linguistic evidence can be altered and under-represented through an interpreter in court. This book increases the awareness of interpreting accuracy through the manner of speech, linguistic equity, and procedural justice through a court interpreter, promotes effective multilingual legal communication through interprofessional understanding and researcher-practitioner collaboration, and proposes future pedagogies on the interpreting accuracy of the manner of speech in court interpreter training.