A genre-based approach to teaching dialogue interpreting: the medical consultation

• Published in: The interpreter and translator trainer 2014-09, Vol.8 (3), p.418-436
• Main Author: Tebble, Helen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: applied linguistics; community interpreting; dialogue interpreting; genre analysis; interpreter education; medical interpreting
• ISSN: 1750-399X; 1757-0417
• DOI: 10.1080/1750399X.2014.972651

Genre is the core concept for teaching medical interpreting, as a way of teaching dialogue interpreting. By understanding the social purpose and discourse structure of specific professional speech events, students can learn to interpret the communicative intentions, content and ways of speaking of both the professional and client. The genre-based approach enables students to understand the structure of discourse and how communication works in an interpreted dialogue. Influenced by systemic functional linguistics, it uses the theoretical findings and authentic data from a detailed linguistics study of the genre of the interpreted medical consultation. A prototypical model of the generic stages from this study forms the core of the syllabus. By analysing transcripts and videos of authentic interpreted medical consultations, students can then analyse transcripts of their interpreted role plays. The goal is to help students develop a mental schema for interpreting medical consultations and a detailed framework for self-reflection on their performance, building up an ethic of professional accountability. The pedagogy continually integrates theory with practice, analysis and self-reflection, building on contextual knowledge of health systems, medical illnesses and treatment.