This volume explores court interpreting from legal, linguistic, and pragmatic vantages. Because of the growing use of interpreters, there is an increasing demand for guidelines on how to utilize them appropriately in court proceedings, and this book provides guidance for the judiciary, attorneys, and other court personnel while standardizing practice among court interpreters themselves. The new edition of the book, which has become the standard reference book worldwide, features separate guidance chapters for judges and lawyers, detailed information on title VI regulations and standards for courts and prosecutorial agencies, a comprehensive review of U.S. language policy, and the latest findings of research on interpreting.

In Courtroom Interpreting, Marianne Mason offers a new perspective in the study of courtroom interpreting through the exploration of cognitive and linguistic barriers that court interpreters face everyday and ultimately result in an interpreter's deviation from original linguistic content. The quality of an interpreter's rendition plays a key role in how well a non-English speaking defendant's legal rights are served. Interpreters are expected to provide a faithful rendition of all semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic content regardless of how difficult the task may be at a cognitive level. From a legal perspective this expectation may be sound as it disregards the cost associated with the interpreter having to account for a great deal of linguistic content. Mason proposes that if the quality of interpreters' renditions is to improve and the rights of non-English speaking minorities is to be better served the issue of cognitive overload needs to be addressed more effectively by the court interpreting community.

From the Classroom to the Courtroom: A guide to interpreting in the U.S. justice system offers a wealth of information that will assist aspiring court interpreters in providing linguistic minorities with access to fair and expeditious judicial proceedings. The guide will familiarize prospective court interpreters and students interested in court interpreting with the nature, purpose and language of pretrial, trial and post-trial proceedings. Documents, dialogues and monologues illustrate judicial procedures; the description of court hearings with transcripts creates a realistic model of the stages involved in live court proceedings. The innovative organization of this guide mirrors the progression of criminal cases through the courts and provides readers with an accessible, easy-to-follow format. It explains and illustrates court procedure as well as provides interpreting exercises based on authentic materials from each successive stage. This novel organization of materials around the stages of the judicial process also facilitates quick reference without the need to review the entire volume — an additional advantage that makes this guide the ideal interpreters' reference manual. Supplementary instructional aids include recordings in English and Spanish and a glossary of selected legal terms in context.

An Introduction to Court Interpreting has been carefully designed to be comprehensive, accessible and globally applicable. Starting with the history of the profession and covering the key topics from the role of the interpreter in the judiciary setting to ethical principles and techniques of interpreting, this text has been thoroughly revised. The new material covers: remote interpreting and police interpreting; role-playing scenarios including the Postville case of 2008; updated and expanded resources. In addition, the extensive practical exercises and suggestions for further reading help to ensure this remains the essential introductory textbook for all courses on court interpreting

The Practice of Court Interpreting describes how the interpreter works in the court room and other legal settings. The book discusses what is involved in court interpreting: case preparation, ethics and procedure, the creation and avoidance of error, translation and legal documents, tape transcription and translation, testifying as an expert witness, and continuing education outside the classroom. The purpose of the book is to provide the interpreter with a map of the terrain and to suggest methods that will help insure an accurate result. The author, herself a practicing court interpreter, says: “The structure of the book follows the structure of the work as we do it.” The book is intended as a basic course book, as background reading for practicing court interpreters and for court officials who deal with interpreters.

An Introduction to Court Interpreting: Theory and Practice by Professor Elena M. de Jongh presents a comprehensive treatment of the principal issues pertaining to court interpreting in the United States. Its principal objective is the dissemination of information that will contribute to the preparation of court interpreters. The book is divided into two principal sections: theory and practice, structured as two independent units that complement one another and allow for maximum flexibility in the use of the text. Part I provides a synthesis of information regarding court interpreting. The approach is interdisciplinary, dealing with languages in contact, the interpreting process, bilingualism, dialectal varieties of language, and legal issues. Part II contains authentic materials taken from legal cases and adapted for the practice of the various modes of interpretation used in court: sight translation, consecutive, and simultaneous interpretation. Although Spanish/English interpretation is emphasized, the general concepts presented are applicable to other languages. Specifically designed for use in courses on court interpreting, the book is easily adapted to other interpretation courses, and is a valuable reference for professional interpreters. The author, an expert in the field of court interpreting, combines scholarly material with authentic texts derived from her own research and classroom experience teaching Spanish and court interpreting and from her work in the courts as a federally certified court interpreter since 1985. An Introduction to Court Interpreting: Theory and Practice is an excellent resource for all persons interested in court interpreting and in issues regarding language and the law.

This book explores the intricacies of court interpreting through a thorough analysis of the authentic discourse of the English-speaking participants, the Spanish-speaking witnesses and the interpreters. Written by a practitioner, educator and researcher, the book presents the reader with real issues that most court interpreters face during their work and shows through the results of careful research studies that interpreter’s choices can have varying degrees of influence on the triadic exchange. It aims to raise the practitioners’ awareness of the significance of their choices and attempts to provide a theoretical basis for interpreters to make informed decisions rather than intuitive ones. It also suggests solutions for common problems. The book highlights the complexities of court interpreting and argues for thorough training for practicing interpreters to improve their performance as well as for better understanding of their task from the legal profession. Although the data is drawn from Spanish-English cases, the main results can be extended to any language combination. The book is written in a clear, accessible language and is aimed at practicing interpreters, students and educators of interpreting, linguists and legal professionals.