“An essential text” that examines how interpreters can influence a courtroom, updated and expanded to cover contemporary issues in our diversifying society (Criminal Justice). Susan Berk-Seligson’s groundbreaking book presents a systematic study of court interpreters that raises some alarming and vitally important concerns. Contrary to the assumption that interpreters do not affect the dynamics of court proceedings, Berk-Seligson shows that interpreters could potentially make the difference between a defendant being found guilty or not guilty. The Bilingual Courtroom draws on more than one hundred hours of audio recordings of Spanish/English court proceedings in federal, state, and municipal courts, along with a number of psycholinguistic experiments involving mock juror reactions to interpreted testimony. This second edition includes an updated review of relevant research and provides new insights into interpreting in quasi-judicial, informal, and specialized judicial settings, such as small claims court, jails, and prisons. It also explores remote interpreting (for example, by telephone), interpreter training and certification, international trials and tribunals, and other cross-cultural issues. With a new preface by Berk-Seligson, this second edition not only highlights the impact of the previous versions of The Bilingual Courtroom, but also draws attention to the continued need for critical study of interpreting in our ever diversifying society.

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.

The Role of the Interpreter in Court Explained in Detail - A Working Manual for the Professional Court Interpreter - What all Court staff should know about Interpreters in the courtroom - The Interpreter¿s positioning, decorum and style inside the courtroom - Interpreter¿s techniques: Simultaneous Consecutive Sight translations