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The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process (With a New Chapter)

The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process (With a New Chapter)
By Susan Berk-Seligson

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Product Description

Drawing on more than one hundred hours of taped recordings of Spanish/English court proceedings in federal, state, and municipal courts—along with extensive psycholinguistic research using translated testimony and mock jurors—Susan Berk-Seligson's seminal book presents a systematic study of court interpreters, and raises some alarming, vitally important concerns: contrary to the assumption that interpreters do not affect the contents of court proceedings, they could potentially make the difference between a defendant being found guilty or innocent of a crime.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #60721 in Books
  • Published on: 2002-09-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 322 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Winner of the British Association for Applied Linguistics' annual award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Applied Linguistics

Drawing on more than one hundred hours of taped recordings of Spanish and English court proceedings-along with extensive psycholinguistic research using translated testimony and mock jurors-Susan Berk-Seligson's seminal book presents a systematic study of court interpreting issues. Now with a new chapter, it continues to raise some alarming concerns around a crucial point: contrary to the assumption that interpreters do not affect the outcomes of court proceedings, they potentially can make the difference between a defendant being found guilty or innocent of a crime.

About the Author

Susan Berk-Seligson is an associate professor of Hispanic linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Customer Reviews

My Review4
This is an excellent book, has solid research and is very professional. Several times Susan Berk-Seligson (the author) is quoted in other authoritative works on the subject. However, my only critique with this work is how many mistakes there were in the Spanish grammar and renderings in English. For such a professional and high level work, the author, now in at least her second if not third edition still has glaring errors of the simplist type, somewhat embarassing to those of us who truly are bilingual. It's just kind of ironic how the whole point of the book is how important it is to pay attention to minor and many times disregarded elements of speech like register, hedges, false starts, tone and additions in order to faithfully interpret into the Target Language. Yet Susan Berk-Seligson or her editing team has not taken into consideration, in at least two editions, how weak her argument becomes and how much credibility she loses when one considers how blatent and glaring her own mistakes are in several translations in her book. Overall, however, it is a must read for anyone thinking of going into court interpretation.

Excellent Resource!5
Perfect for those who plan to work in a bilingual courtroom. Thanks for the speedy delivery!