The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/988970
10 The Linguist Vol/57 No/3 2018 ciol.org.uk/tl FEATURES Test, Learn, Adapt The TOCAT team is using an adapted form of a research approach devised by the UK Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team in 2010. This approach aims to make sure that public policy is evidence-based by testing any intervention (in our case, police guidance and training), learning from the result and adapting the intervention based on the findings. This 'Test, Learn, Adapt' approach allows researchers to ensure new policies actually have the intended outcomes, and to tweak them if they do not. It is an iterative approach, which can be used in an ongoing cycle of testing, so that interventions and policy evolve as the context evolves. For example, how do we know that training busy officers for a few hours will actually mean they remember good practice in producing witness statements with interpreters? We have put together as full a picture as possible from all those involved in interpreted police encounters: linguists, language service providers, trainers, investigative interviewers, policy makers, those who produce the guidance and training materials, and service users. To do this, we have conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and focus groups, and observed police training and some interviews conducted with interpreters. We have focused on human trafficking as the main crime type for this research, to restrict some of the research variables and because the police reported that they particularly relied on linguists for this crime type. Linguists' experiences In the first stage of the project, we gathered linguists' views and experiences, partly through prior research, but also via dozens of recorded interviews and focus groups, with some clear patterns emerging. Linguists almost unanimously report high levels of satisfaction with the work they do, and feel very valued by their police and Home Office clients. Many cite the knowledge that they are making a difference as a source of strong professional fulfilment and pride. There is, however, evident fear and disquiet around the changing context for provision under the outsourced framework contract. Key points of conflict and differing practice have emerged, particularly around what happens to interpreter notes, production of translated statements for use in court and bilingual transcripts. Interpreters experience huge variation in practice and expectations, particularly as many work regularly for different police constabularies. If you work for the Met one day and travel to rural Lincolnshire the next, you are likely to be asked to work in quite different ways, especially as officers are likely to have been trained in different police interview techniques at different times. New and emerging practices, for which linguists have not been trained, have also been reported. For example, interpreters are being 'embedded' in police investigations for a few weeks or even months at a time in order to sift, then translate, huge amounts of text that may be relevant to an investigation. This text is likely to be in challenging formats, such as instant messages, texts and emails. As Krzysztof Kredens and I explained recently, 6 this is likely to mean linguists working with content written across several languages and dialects, in a highly colloquial register, using innovative strategies to condense text, shared slang, fast-evolving terms and usage, and a high level of variability depending on the authors' age, gender and other features. In transnational organised crime contexts, the texts' authors are also likely to obscure content by using code words, for example. Throw idiosyncratic uses of emojis into the mix and you begin to grasp the demanding nature of this work. Ethical and professional challenges The work is not just (or even chiefly) linguistically demanding, as demonstrated in a scenario reported by some of the linguists we interviewed. Imagine taking a phone call offering an interpreting assignment at some point in the next few days. You're asked to make yourself available for up to 48 hours in the coming week. No further details of timing or location can be given. You'll be called on the day, then picked up at your home address in an unmarked car and should bring a change The absence of coordinated linguistic support was one of the main factors in the failure of the operation SPREADING THE WORD Joanna Drugan's Threlford Memorial Lecture © CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU