Lee2021

From emcawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Lee2021
BibType ARTICLE
Key Lee2021
Author(s) Jieun Lee, Seoyeon Hong
Title Help me to help you to help me: a conversation analytic study of other-initiated repairs in a case of Korean–Russian interpreter-mediated investigative interviews in South Korea
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Miscommunication, Korea, Interviews, Interpreters, Other-initiated repair, Repair, Self-initiated repair, Interpreter-mediated investigative interview, Investigative interview, Suspect
Publisher
Year 2021
Language English
City
Month
Journal Studies in Translation Theory and Practice
Volume 29
Number 4
Pages 522–538
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/0907676X.2020.1841811
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

This paper uses a conversation analytic approach to examine the phenomenon of repair and its critical role in interpreter-mediated investigative interviews. The approximately 160–minute long video-recorded data demonstrate that the Russian-speaking suspect–who was suspected of killing her own child–frequently initiated repairs not only to understand the questions she was asked but also enable herself to be understood clearly. This was mainly due to the interpreter’s lack of proficiency interpreting between Korean and Russian. In her repair attempts, the suspect tried to avoid misunderstandings in this critical stage of the criminal procedure and oppose the murder charge she was facing. Although her repair attempts were crucial in facilitating the interview to some extent, they often fell short of resolving serious miscommunication issues, which were mainly caused by the interpreter’s incompetence. Although this paper focuses solely on a case study that was based on a relatively small data set, the findings indicate that repair was an important part of collaborative and co-constructive sense-making activities in the interpreter-mediated interview. Overall, the results demonstrate that it is crucial to engage competent interpreters who can not only make the repair process transparent to all parties but also resolve repairs successfully.

Notes