Bolden2000

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Bolden2000
BibType ARTICLE
Key Bolden2000
Author(s) Galina B. Bolden
Title Towards understanding practices of medical interpreting: interpreters' involvement in history taking
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Doctor-patient interaction, Medical history taking, Interpreting, Participation, Questioning
Publisher
Year 2000
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 2
Number 4
Pages 387–419
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445600002004001
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article examines the role of medical interpreters in structuring interaction between physicians and their patients. Through a detailed analysis of interpreters' involvement in the history-taking part of medical consultations, it is demonstrated that their participation in this activity is organized by their understanding of its goals rather than by the task of translation alone. Specifically, the different ways in which interpreters participate in history taking display their orientation to obtaining from the patient and conveying to the doctor medically relevant information about the patient's symptoms - and doing so as effectively as possible. Medical interpreters are found to share the physicians' normative orientation to obtaining objectively formulated information about relevant biomedical aspects of patients' conditions. Thus, far from being passive participants in the interaction, interpreters will often pursue issues they believe to be diagnostically relevant, just as they may choose to reject patients' information offerings if they contain subjective accounts of their socio-psychological concerns.

Notes