Interpreting and Access: Spoken Language Interpreters in U.S. K–12 Schools

• In Event: Language Identity, Interpretation, and Postcolonial Approaches to Language Teaching

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the enrollment of linguistically and culturally diverse students in U.S. schools. In West Pond, a school district in Massachusetts, spoken language interpreters are hired to provide interpreting services to entering and emerging ELLs. This study explores how bilingual interpreting is perceived and practiced by the interpreters, particularly considering their involvement in the multi-party interactions in school settings. Using the mixed-methods design, based on the notion of interpreting as social practices, the study discusses the essential skills and strategies applied by the interpreters, interpreters’ blurry professional boundaries and role overload, their struggles to gain recognition across the school system, and the ongoing effort to promote interpreters’ training and professionalization.

Author

• Xinyue Zuo, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  Presenting Author