BOOK REVIEW

Sandra Beatriz Hale, Community Interpreting. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2007. 301pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-4068-1 hardback ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-4069-9 paperbackISBN-10: 1-4039-4068-1 hardback ISBN-10: 1-4039-4069-X paperback
Reviewed by Jieun Lee
This volume is a valuable addition to the growing body of community interpreting studies. As aninterpreter, educator and researcher in community interpreting, the author is well qualified to write thisvolume on community interpreting and aptly presents practical and theoretical issues. This book caters forinterpreting students, interpreters, educators and researchers who would like to know about community
interpreting and approach the practice of community with enhanced awareness of relevant issues. It
furthers our understanding of issues central to the study of interpreting in community settings and also
encourages research into this area.
This book is organised into four parts: 1) Key Concepts and Research Issues, 2) Practical Applications, 3)
Research into Community Interpreting, and 4) Further Resources in Community Interpreting. A total ofnine chapters comprise this volume.
Chapter 1 overviews the field of interpreting and key theoretical concepts, including the concept offaithfulness, accuracy and equivalence in interpreting. Largely based on Pöchhacker’s (1999: 126-7)
definition of community interpreting, community interpreting is introduced in this chapter as an
overarching term for the type of interpreting that takes place within one country’s own community andbetween residents of that country in this volume. However, the discussion in this volume is limited to
medical interpreting and legal interpreting, which are the central domains in community interpreting.
Chapter 2 discusses community interpreting in the medical context and the roles of the interpreter inmedical interpreting settings. The author outlines main issues in medical interpreting and points out that it
is important for the interpreter to understand the significant role language plays in a medical consultationand other health care settings. The accuracy of interpreting and the significance of the role the health careinterpreter plays in communication such as doctor-patient consultations raise issues of the range of
behaviour required of health care interpreters, which have yet to be substantiated and studied.
Chapter 3 deals with legal interpreting, including police interpreting, lawyer-client conferences, court trials
and hearings in courtrooms and tribunals, which sets distinct contexts for interpreting professionals. Keyfactors, such as participants, participant relationship, participant roles and level of formality, privacy, andthe goal of the event, which influences the role of the legal interpreter and the process of interpreting are
succinctly outlined with salient issues in legal interpreting. Interpreters’ roles for specific legal settings are407

discussed with suggestions for further research. As in the case of medical interpreting, the author stresses
the importance of interpreters’ awareness of discursive practice of legal contexts and mutual understanding
and collaboration between interpreters and other professionals working with interpreters, which is crucial
in achieving optimum results from interpreted communication.
Part II consists of three chapters devoted to overarching issues in community interpreting. In Chapter 4, theauthor analyses the interpreter’s code of ethics by comparing a number of different codes of ethics fromnine countries, and its aims and controversies along with ethical dilemmas faced by practicing interpreters.
She presents diverse views on the code of professional ethics voiced by practitioners, and draws attention
to the current situation where there is a lack of consistency and confusion between the high standards set by
the code of ethics and a lack of training as well as institutional support, all of which pose challenges topractitioners.
Chapter 5 further explores challenges faced by community interpreters and interpreting issues bypresenting various voices of other professionals in law and medicine as well as interpreters. The disparate
expectations, perceptions and opinions held by different stakeholders are investigated through surveys oftwenty some practitioners in health care and law, and interpreting profession respectively. Broadly
speaking, practitioners’ views reveal still unresolved confusion and the lack of understanding about theprocess of interpreting and the roles of interpreters.
Chapter 6 sheds light on the importance of community interpreter training and points to the value of preservice and in-service education as well as training professionals
who work with interpreters. This chapter introduces some courses on community interpreting and approaches to interpreter training, and provides information on commonly used teaching methodologies in communi
ty interpreting education, which may be useful for educators. It also reveals practical challenges faced by educators and trainers such as simulating real-life situations in classroom setting and the lack of traini
ng resources, which needs to be addressed for quality professional training.
This book presents a clear call for readers to delve into the topics that are pressing in community
interpreting research. The author identifies key research issues in Part II and Part III. In Chapter 7, which isthe first chapter in Part III, she highlights the benefits of interface between research, training and practiceand provide very useful information for students and researchers as to the methods of studies conducted in
the settings of community interpreter. Chapter 8 further guides readers into conducting research into
community interpreting from choosing a topic and literature review to data collection and writing up.
Provision of examples of research projects and issues that deserve further research offers very practicalassistance for the reader who may be interested in conducting their own research. Major themesinterwoven into the discussion of research questions demonstrate the premise of this book that practice andtraining in community interpreting can benefit from empirical research and this is essential in further
developing the profession of community interpreting.

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Finally, Chapter 9, which forms Part IV of this volume, offers resources including bibliographies in community interpreting and teaching and learning resources in addition to several selected websites. This volumecontains a wealth of information and very useful teaching recommendations.
Readers interested in community interpreting may gain insight from this volume, and this book is certainly
to be recommended for students, educators and practitioners in familiarising themselves with theoreticaland practical issues relevant to this profession. Above all, researchers who plan to undertake research into
community interpreting studies may benefit the most from this book as it is written by an author who has
walked the path of interpreting student, practitioner and educator, and finally to researcher and scholar. In
short, this volume is a welcome contribution to the field of community interpreting.

Jieun Lee, Associate Lecturer T&I, Dept. of Linguistics
Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
e-mail: Jieun.Lee@ling.mq.edu.au409