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12 The Linguist Vol/58 No/4 2019 ciol.org.uk/tl FEATURES action. Students have the opportunity to observe and reflect on different behaviours, try different approaches, and test and develop alternative approaches until a successful interpretation is achieved that meets the standards of professional ethics. This involves three key techniques: 1 Reflecting on (one's own) body language and making the body more expressive/ changing its expressivity. 2 Looking at a situation from a language/ culture-specific angle. 3 Treating a situation as discourse. Body language includes all signals used by a speaker. These can be conscious, non-verbal messages – such as waving in greeting – but can also occur involuntarily, particularly culture-specific signals. In exercises to make the body expressive, students try to refrain from using their usual ways of communicating, exploring new forms of expression instead. The spoken word is replaced by the body as the means of communication. All forms of non-verbal, culture-specific behaviour that are important for interpreters can be included. This may mean that implicit information in the original, which is known to the speaker (and ideally to the interpreter), is processed in such a way that the information is fully understood in the target language. Exercises deal primarily with scenarios that have led to misunderstandings or misinterpretations in real life. The following situation is taken from a criminal case involving Arabic speakers: Judge to victim/witness: "Would you like to add something to your statement?" Victim/witness to interpreter: "(He) keeps sending people to my house, but I do not want that. I want you to tell the judge, to tell the accused that he cannot send anyone to my house any more." Through the interpretation, the judge understands that the defendant sends people to the victim to intimidate her or to convince her to take him back. In fact, it is customary in the cultural area concerned for the perpetrator's family to contact the victim's family after a conflict or dispute, asking for forgiveness and reconciliation in order to avoid acts of revenge and legal disputes. This scenario is first played out as it actually happened. It is then repeated with the aim of incorporating the implicit information about cultural practice to avoid misinterpretation. Each time a new student interprets, the other participants remain in their roles. A scene is typically rehearsed three or four times until a satisfactory result is achieved for all involved. Students may try various methods, including intervention, explication and modification. In this case, the best solution was to add a supplementary explication. The interpreter's intervention (on the fourth rehearsal) was both non-verbal and verbal: he interpreted what had been said, then turned to the judge to add information about the cultural context; via body language, he signalled that he was now speaking in his own name. The court had more information at its disposal, which might have been important for its assessment of the issues and the outcome of the proceedings. This training is based on the principle that language and utterances can mean anything or nothing depending on the context. Many things are communicated in a dialogue situation that are not expressly verbalised but are nevertheless part of language and culture. The technique of treating a situation or topic as discourse teaches students to recognise how certain topics or actions influence their internal processes and perception of a topic or social occurrence. This can also be done by looking at a situation from different perspectives, e.g. those of the perpetrator, victim, witness or relation. The goal is to improve their capacity of perception. Training with law students Interpreting classes are particularly attractive to students when they are interdisciplinary. For the TRANSLAW research project, 2 universities in four countries are exploring ways of integrating interpretation into law clinics, and setting up transcultural law clinics for criminal justice. The work consists of several phases, one of which includes joint courses for interpreting and law students. Students taking the joint class 'Questioning Techniques: Criminological and interpreting perspectives' at the University of Vienna practised criminological processes together, and learned about the possibilities and limitations of interpreter-mediated communication. They looked at the main strategies used in legal questioning settings from the perspectives of criminology and interpreting. Law students learned to steer interactions and to determine the facts of a case. This included preparing and planning interviews, and learning how to verify the results of an interrogation. Various factors influence the communication process: the person leading the interview, the interpreter, their environment, their assessment of the person being interviewed, the questioning technique. Observation plays a key role. It was helpful for law and interpreting students to analyse the situation, actions and strategies together. Interpreting students