The Voice of Community Interpreters
In interpreting settings, the style of delivery is significant in structuring the communicative interaction between the speaker and listener of interpretation. Numerous
standards for community interpreting require interpreters to maintain their impartiality. Studies on prosodic features demonstrate that there is a thin line between being impartial or biased in terms of voice. The in-betweenness of interpreters has been discussed in field literature and professional standards and the necessity of reflecting the speakers’ feelings has been underlined. Moreover, an interpreter’s affective prosody can divert the communication in other directions or result in misunderstandings. This paper will discuss how knowledge of vocal features and prosody could provide smooth communication and enable interpreters to neutralize or awaken their emotions through their voices. For this purpose, a survey will be conducted to investigate community interpreters’ self-perceptions and experiences regarding emotional neutrality, and their self-awareness concerning the use of voice and style of delivery during interpreting assignments. The insights gathered from the survey will be shared at the conference in the hope of sharing an alternative perspective regarding the use of voice in community interpreting settings for the future of the profession.
Zeynep Melisa Seyfioğlu is half English, half Turkish. She works as a Research Assistant at the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Mugla Sitki Kocman University in Mugla, Türkiye. She graduated from the Department of English Translation and Interpretation at Ege University in 2020 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Türkiye. Since 2019, she has been working as a conference and community interpreter as well as a translator. She speaks English, Turkish and Italian.