25.658, Review: Discourse Analysis; Forensic Ling; Translation: de Jongh (2012)

[linguist at linguistlist.org]

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-658. Fri Feb 07 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.658, Review: Discourse Analysis; Forensic Ling; Translation: de Jongh (2012)

Moderator: Damir Cavar, Eastern Michigan U <damir at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: 
Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin Madison
Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
       <reviews at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Monica Macaulay <monica at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  


Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 23:30:52
From: Yuri Yerastov [yerastov at ucalgary.ca]
Subject: From the Classroom to the Courtroom

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=25-658.html&submissionid=21689008&topicid=9&msgnumber=1
 
Discuss this message: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=21689008


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-1726.html

AUTHOR: Elena M. de  Jongh
TITLE: From the Classroom to the Courtroom
SUBTITLE: A guide to interpreting in the U.S. justice system
SERIES TITLE: American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series XVII
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Yuri Yerastov, Kutztown University

INTRODUCTION

“From the Classroom to the Courtroom: A guide to interpreting in the US
justice system,” by Elena M. de Jongh, is an easy-to-read comprehensive
introductory level text with a focus on the English-Spanish language
combination. The book is a reasonable investment for both novice autodidacts
and seasoned professionals in the field of court interpretation.

SUMMARY

This book is divided into three parts: “In the Classroom: Background and
context”; “In the Courtroom: Interpreting practice”; and “Appendices.” The
references section at the end is augmented with a list of legal case citations
and an index of terms, organizations, and individuals.

In the Introduction to Part I, de Jongh situates the profession of the court
interpreter in the context of general interpreting. She overviews legal
activities that an interpreter may be involved in, while focusing on court
interpretation and the English-Spanish language combination. Readers learn
that a court interpreter is expected to work in three modes -- consecutive and
simultaneous interpretation, and sight translation -- as well as have
knowledge of court proceedings, professional ethics, and legal terminology and
concepts. Right from the very beginning de Jongh presupposes some degree of
ability in interpretation, and minimal or no prior knowledge of the US legal
system.

In Chapter 1, the author reviews precedents and legislative provisions
pertinent to the functions of an interpreter in the court system, particularly
stressing the necessity of interpreters in guaranteeing due process to
minorities.  Statistical evidence is amply used to demonstrate the need for
court interpreters in general, and interpreters of Spanish in particular. The
author briefly discusses cases that establish the right to an interpreter
(“Negron v. State of New York”; “US ex rel. Navarrow v. Johnson”) and the
legal concept of linguistic presence (“State v. Natividad”).

De Jongh presents the Court Interpreters Act (1978) as a logical and necessary
consequence flowing from prior case law, and focuses on the provisions of the
Act that require use of certified court interpreters and national
certification of court interpreters at the federal level.  A number of cases
following the Act are discussed to pinpoint persistent miscarriages of justice
(“State of Oregon v. Ventura Morales”; “State v. Santiago Calderon”), the
mandatory nature of the Act (''US vs. Gonzales”), and the lack of equivalence
between bilingual fluency and interpreting ability (“US v. Bailon-Santana”).
However, interpreter certification in the US is not universal; rather it is a
patchwork of various proficiency tests. As an example of the latter, we learn
that at the federal level the Administrative Office of the US Courts offers
certification exams in Haitian Creole, Navajo, and Spanish, as well as
maintains a database of otherwise qualified interpreters.
 
The author situates the three modes of interpretation (simultaneous and
consecutive interpreting, and sight translation) in the context of the US
legal system.  Emphasis is put on the demanding nature of the legal
profession, and statistics and findings from empirical research are given to
illustrate the challenges that a court interpreter faces. Chapter 1 ends by
discussing the skillset necessary for competent interpretation; in this
context, de Jongh’s reference to Berk-Seligson’s (2002) finding is insightful:
an interpreter’s hedging may negatively reflect on original testimony.

In Chapter 2, “Overview of the courts: The US judicial system”, de Jongh
provides an appropriately succinct summary of the US court system, while
highlighting points relevant for prospective interpreters. The overview
introduces readers to judicial structures both at the state and federal
levels, summarizing jurisdictional division and overlap. Particularly
noteworthy is an explanation that immigration falls under federal
jurisdiction.

De Jongh creates an awareness of the multiple tiers of the judicial system
both at the federal and state levels. She introduces basic concepts such as
the trial court / court of original jurisdiction, the appeals court, and the
court of last resort; stress is appropriately laid on the fact that an appeals
court hears matters of procedure only. De Jongh situates the courts in the
system of government, while explaining the doctrine of the separation of
powers and emphasizing the role of judicial review.

The chapter contains valuable introductory material that a non-specialist
audience would find useful. De Jongh distinguishes criminal from civil law,
disambiguates the two main uses of the collocation “civil law”, and explains
the relationship between investigation and prosecution at the federal level.

Particularly valuable is de Jongh’s short discussion of civil vs. common law,
which is adequately supplemented by exercise material at the end of the
chapter. This discussion is particularly valuable for prospective interpreters
who may have immigrated to the US from a civil law country and have thus been
exposed to other principles of justice organization.

In Chapter 3, “Pretrial proceedings”, de Jongh defines criminal and civil
actions and briefly discusses the possibility of their overlap. She clarifies
terminological confusion when she reviews synonyms related to civil
litigation: “acts”, “suit”, and “litigation”; “defendant” and “respondent”;
“plaintiff” and “petitioner”; “complaint” and “petition”; “answer” and
“counterclaim”. Of further help to prospective interpreters is clarification
of terms such as “jurisdiction”, “venue”, “statute”, and “motion”. The author
emphasizes the adversarial nature of the US justice system. She explains that
in the civil justice system the adversaries are typically private individuals
whereas in the criminal justice system one of the adversaries is always the
government that initiates prosecution. The author provides helpful charts of
the civil and criminal process, particularly valuable for a non-specialist.

The bulk of the chapter is devoted to criminal procedure. In presenting the
material de Jongh follows the chronology of the judicial process: discovery,
preliminary hearing, grand jury proceedings and arraignment. In accordance
with chronological organization, de Jongh further partitions the discovery
stage of the judicial process into: deposition, interrogatories, pretrial
conferences, mediation. Such chronological arrangement is iconic and serves to
reinforce the cohesiveness of the text.

>From the pretrial stage on, the chapter focuses on criminal procedure. De
Jongh explains the role of arrest in pre-trial procedures and reviews the
grounds for making an arrest. She clarifies the function and content of
charging documents such as information filed by the prosecutor, a complaint to
the judge, a warrant issued by the judge or magistrate, and an indictment by
the grand jury.

A series of interpreting exercises offer convenient opportunities to apply
theoretical knowledge about charging and supporting documents. Prospective
interpreters are encouraged to record their interpreting of an arrest warrant
in a trafficking / kidnapping case; of criminal complaints involving entry on
a forged passport, credit card fraud, and employment of illegal aliens; and of
an indictment in a passport fraud case. Recorded exercises are to be evaluated
based on accuracy, comprehensibility, completeness, delivery, adequacy, and
cohesiveness; an evaluation instrument is conveniently provided on ready-made
forms.

As de Jongh describes initial appearance, the next stage of the criminal
process, she introduces a sample interpreter’s oath and gives a set of
valuable tips; for example, readers are to expect the judge to read the
defendant’s constitutional rights first. Such tips allow prospective
interpreters to prime themselves for appropriate lexis.

The subsequent stages of the criminal process presented by de Jongh are
preliminary hearing, grand jury proceedings, arraignment, and change of plea
hearings. Documents that arise from these stages (indictment, plea, pretrial
motion) are paid equal attention in the author’s exposition. Legal process and
documentation are balanced in the interpreting exercises; we find both process
exercises (arraignment, change of plea hearing) and documentation exercises
(written plea agreement, factual proffers). Also balanced are opportunities to
practice the three modes: consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, and sight
translation.

In Chapter 4, “Trials”, de Jongh describes criminal trials in rich procedural
detail. The exposition is accompanied by a reader-friendly diagram, which
dovetails with the pretrial diagram in the previous chapter. The author
explains the possibility of fact-finding by a judge in petty offences, an
explanation that is useful for readers with no technical background in law.
Most of the chapter, though, is devoted to the jury trial. De Jongh alerts
prospective court interpreters to expect simultaneous interpretation during
jury selection, case summary by the judge, and jury instructions. As before,
enlightening authentic materials (case summary, questions asked of prospective
jurors) are provided as illustrations. The author offers another helpful
distinction for a non-technical audience -- the distinction between two
putative standards of proof: preponderance of evidence and reasonable doubt.
An accompanying sample document clarifies the concept of the burden of proof.

Then de Jongh turns her attention to opening and closing statements, and
witness testimony. Readers are reminded that the Fifth Amendment’s right
against self-incrimination applies at trials and that evidence may be either
physical or testimonial. We are introduced to accompanying legal jargon such
as “exhibits”, “moving something into evidence”, “overruling and sustaining
objections”, “direct and cross-examination”, “redirect”, and “re-cross”.
Prospective interpreters are made aware that they will be expected to
interpret simultaneously during opening statements and witness testimony. They
further learn about an important procedural convention: interpreters will
interpret an attorney’s objection only in the courtroom, but not in the
judge’s chambers. Finally prospective interpreters learn that expert
witnesses, unlike regular ones, are allowed to offer opinions and conclusions.
De Jongh’s selection of conventions of criminal procedure is appropriate;
knowledge of these facts creates structural expectations and allows for
lexical priming. Also appropriate is De Jongh’s selection of sample training
documents such as opening and closing statements, examinations of
English-speaking, non-English speaking, and expert witnesses, and a motion for
acquittal.

In chapter 5, “Sentences and post-trial proceedings”, the reader learns that
the judge decides on a sentence in conformance with sentencing guidelines,
such as the Sentencing Commission guidelines. We further learn that the
decision of the judge is informed by the presentence report prepared by the
probation officer. Prospective interpreters are alerted to the possibility
that their services might be needed to translate this confidential report and
cautioned against expressing opinions other than linguistic ones.

A step-by-step sentencing procedure is reviewed and an array of useful
accompanying terms is introduced, such as “defendant’s right to allocution”,
“term of imprisonment”, “supervised release”, and “restitution”. Prospective
interpreters are advised that they will be expected to interpret defendant's
allocution and his family members’ / friends’ statements, as well as dialog
between defendant and court in consecutive mode, while everything else will be
in simultaneous mode. Sample allocutions and a sample judgment read by the
judge illustrate legal usage.

Finally, de Jongh explains to prospective interpreters the appeals stage of
post-trial proceedings. She emphasizes that appeals by the prosecution are not
allowed due to the doctrine of double jeopardy. It is helpful that the author
disambiguates issues of fact and those of law, and stresses that appeals
normally deal with interpretation of law rather than fact-finding, which is
why interpreters are not needed at this stage of the criminal process. The
author briefly discusses the possibility of a lower court’s decision reversal
and the case being remanded for another trial or resentencing.

In the conclusion de Jongh impresses on prospective interpreters the
importance of professional development and suggests a number of strategies to
stay current in the field of legal interpreting.

The materials listed in the Appendix show the author’s balanced judgment; they
include an impressive catalog of lexicographic resources, a list of
professional organizations, interpreters’ codes of ethics, as well as legal
sources of fundamental importance to a court interpreter: “The Court
Interpreters’ Act and Executive Order 13166”.

The sources that de Jongh draws on in her book are appropriately distributed
among: 1) linguistic literature on translation, 2) literature on the legal
aspects of court interpreting, 3) and primary legal sources regulating court
interpreting.

EVALUATION

With a PhD in Spanish Language and Literature from Tulane University and 25
years of experience as a federal court interpreter, Elena M. De Jongh has
excellent credentials to author a guide to legal interpreting in the US. The
present guide builds on an earlier introduction (de Jongh 1992) and is
different from its predecessor not only because it has been updated, but also
because it has a practical focus and chronological organization of material
consistent with the different stages of civil and criminal process.

De Jongh is a valuable addition to the under-published field of court
interpretation. While there are bodies of literature digesting jurisprudence
on court interpretation, describing general parameters of legal language, and
treating general principles and techniques of interpretation, very few works
have attempted to integrate these strands into a systematic, introductory
level text. While the book does not present any original research findings,
its value consists in presenting a systematic, accessible digest of
introductory level information on the US legal system, and legal court
interpreting. In that light, particularly useful are numerous professional
practice pointers, skillfully dispersed throughout the book.

De Jongh’s work is distinct from similar introductory texts. It is based on
recent, up-to-date material, and focuses on the US legal system and the
English-Spanish language combination. It is thus substantially different from,
e.g., Colim and Morris’ (1996) text that is written for the UK legal system.
It is different from empirical studies such as Mason (2008) and Angela (2004)
that provide in-depth theoretical analyses perhaps at the expense of broad
practical coverage. It is more systematic than Gonzalez et al. (1991), a
standard terminological reference, and its samples are better contextualized
than those in Edwards (1995). Unlike Mikkelson (2000), who offers a general
text, not specific to a country or language combination, de Jong’s text is
similar to Hale (2004) in that both works select the English-Spanish language
pair for practice and analysis.

An appropriate audience for this book is language professionals wishing to
enter the field of court interpretation. While all authentic materials are
drawn from Spanish, much of the theoretical content is generalizable to other
languages. It would serve as a helpful resource for prospective interpreters
working toward certification as court interpreters in a formal course of
study, as well as practicing interpreters wishing to acquire court
certification independently.

Some minor imperfections may be noted.  First, because the linguistic focus of
the book is almost entirely on Spanish, that slant could have been reflected
in the title.

Second, some generalizations are regrettably left without illustrations; for
example, de Jongh recommends that interpretation must reflect tone,
intonation, and register (p. 18), but does not develop this recommendation.

Third, it is not clear why in chapter 3 the author delays until p. 42 an
explanation that complaint, indictment, and information are all different ways
to bring charges; the “in summary” paragraph on that page should open the
chapter rather than conclude it.

Finally, in Chapter 1 de Jongh could have done a clearer job of explaining the
difference between the common and civil law systems. While she correctly
starts by pointing out that common law is based on judicial precedent, the
point remains undeveloped because no contrast is made with legislation as the
main source of law; a reference to Corpus Juris Civilis as the main source of
law in Continental systems is not particularly enlightening for
non-specialists. Further confusing is the author's characterization of the
adversary process as a hallmark of the US legal system. This is not
technically accurate; many legal systems, including those based on civil law,
use the adversary process in litigation. Perhaps the intended message is that
in common law systems, a judge is much more procedurally withdrawn than in
Continental systems where s/he may perform active investigative functions.

These minor flaws do not, however, diminish the overall value of this guide.

REFERENCES

Angela, Claudia. 2004. Revisiting the Interpreter's Role.  A study of
conference, court, and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico, and the US.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Berk-Seligson, Susan. 2002. The Bilingual Courtroom. Court Interpreters in the
Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Colin, Joan and Ruth Morris. 1996. Interpreters and the legal process.
Winchester: Waterside Press.

de Jongh, Elena M. 1992. An Introduction to Court Interpreting. Theory and
Practice. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Edwards, Alicia Betsy. 1995. The practice of Court Interpreting.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Gonzalez, Roseann Duenas, Victorial F. Vasquez, Holly Mikkelson. 1991.
Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy and Practice.  Durham:
Carolina Academic Press.

Hale, Sandra Beatriz. 2004. The Discourse of Court Interpreting: Discourse
Practices of the Law, the Witness and the Interpreter. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
Benjamins.

Mason, Marianne. 2008. Courtroom Interpreting. Lanham: University Press of
America.

Mikkelson, Holly. 2000. Introduction to Court Interpreting. Manchester: St.
Jerome.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Yerastov is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Fort Hays State
University. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Calgary. His
research interests include grammaticalization, construction grammar, dialects
of English and Scots, and legal language.








----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-25-658	
----------------------------------------------------------