Community interpreting

Community or Public Service Interpreting (PSI) describe the linguistic mediation allowing speakers of the societal language to communicate with linguistic minorities, granting the latter access to services on grounds of equal rights.

Although the role of community interpreters has been crucial throughout the evolution of human civilization, this branch has a relatively recent trajectory in the academic world. Community interpreting is defined as the result of linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity among segments of population worldwide and their need for interaction (be it through spoken or signed languages) with administrations and service providers. From this perspective, community interpreters are the guarantors of communication, implementation and protection of the rights set forth by international treaties and institutions. According to ISO 13611/2014, community interpreting is needed in 6 main settings, and interpreters must have 16 professional competencies and 7 skills, perform 12 functions and take on 6 responsibilities.

Academic research on interpreting began in the 20th century with the aim of creating teaching tools through which (self-taught) experienced interpreters could transmit their expertise to younger generations and it soon went on to reflect on interpreting as a discipline, giving rise to landmark works on the analysis of communicative needs, professional requirements, situational variables, and interpreting process and product descriptions. A sustained and systematic research in Community Interpreting is related to the beginning of the 21st century when aspects of a psychological and social nature started being addressed together with basic issues such as quality, ethics, or roles.

Any approach to the field of Community Interpreting cannot ignore definitions given by the Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies (Pöchhacker 2015) and categories selected by the ISO13611/2014 as academically and professionally fundamental for the discussed topic. The terminological prolixity denoting difficulty in delimiting the span of the branch (due to the multitude of factors intervening) as well as issues related to training and professionalization will be tackled.