Hostname: page-component-686fd747b7-hzbls Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T11:39:55.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managing multiple actions through multimodality: Doctors' involvement in interpreter-mediated interactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2011

Sergio Pasquandrea
Sergio Pasquandrea
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio, Università per Stranieri di Perugia (Italy), Piazza Fortebraccio, 4, 06123 Perugia, Italysergio.pasquandrea@yahoo.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many studies (Heath 1984b, 1986; Robinson 1998; Robinson & Stivers 2001; Greatbach 2006; Frers 2009) have shown that, while interacting with their patients, doctors fulfill several tasks (speaking, reading, writing prescriptions, reporting data on the computer, etc.) through an interplay of diverse multimodal resources (speech, gesture, body posture, gaze, object manipulation, etc.). In comparison, multimodality in interpreter-mediated medical encounters has received scant attention. This contribution examines a corpus of interactions involving Italian doctors, Chinese patients, and an interpreter. Having to manage multiparty and multitask conversations with patients with whom no direct communication is possible, doctors are forced to rely heavily on multimodality. The analysis here shows how the simultaneous actions performed by the doctors are coordinated through the use of multiple modalities. The outcomes on the global organization of interpreter-mediated interaction are also discussed. (Conversation analysis, doctor-patient interaction, interpreting, multitasking, multimodality)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , September 2011 , pp. 455 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amato, Amalia (2006). Il ruolo dell'interprete negli incontri medici. In Banfi, Emanuele, Gavioli, Laura, Guardiano, Cristina, & Vedovelli, Massimo (eds.), Atti del 5° congresso internazionale dell'Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata. Problemi e fenomeni di mediazione linguistica e culturale. Bari, 17–18 febbraio 2005, 261–81. Perugia: Guerra.Google Scholar
Amato, Amalia, & Gavioli, Laura (2008). Il ruolo dell'interprete-mediatore nella comunicazione istituzionale medico-paziente: Un'analisi dei contributi non traduttivi. In Bosisio, Cristina, Cambiaghi, Bona, Piemontese, Maria Emanuela, & Santulli, Francesca (eds.), Atti del 7° Congresso dell'Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata, Aspetti della comunicazione pubblica e istituzionale. Milano 22–23 febbraio 2007, 293–319. Perugia: Guerra.Google Scholar
Angelelli, Claudia V. (2004a). Medical interpreting and cross-cultural communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelelli, Claudia V (2004b). Revisiting the interpreter's role: A study of conference court and medical interpreters in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apfelbaum, Birgit (1998). Instruktionsdiskurse mit Dolmetscher-beteiligung. Aspekte der Turnkonstruktion und Turnzuweisung. In Brock, Alexander & Hartung, Martin (eds.), Neuere Entwicklungen in der Gesprächsforschung, 11–36. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Banfi, Emanuele; Gavioli, Laura; Guardiano, Cristina; & Vedovelli, Massimo (eds.) (2006). Atti del 5° congresso internazionale dell'Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata. Problemi e fenomeni di mediazione linguistica e culturale. Bari, 17–18 febbraio 2005. Perugia: Guerra.Google Scholar
Bolden, Galina (2000). Toward understanding practices of medical interpreting: Interpreters' involvement in history taking. Discourse Studies 2(4):387–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, Silvana E. ; Roberts, Roda P.; Doufour, Aideen; & Steyn, Dini (eds.) (1997). The critical link: Interpreters in the community. Papers from the first international conference on interpreting in legal, health, and social settings, Geneva Park (Ont.), June 1–4, 1995. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Contento, Silvana (1999). Attività bimodale: Aspetti verbali e gestuali della comunicazione. In Galatolo, Renata & Pallotti, Gabriele (eds.), La conversazione: Un'introduzione allo studio dell'interazione verbale, 267–86. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.Google Scholar
Davidson, Brad (2000). The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The sociolinguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4(3):379–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Brad (2001). Questions in cross-linguistic medical encounters: The role of the hospital interpreter. Anthropological Quarterly 74(4):170–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Brad (2002). A model for the construction of conversational common ground in interpreted discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 34:1273–1300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankel, Richard M. (1993). The laying on the hands: Aspects of the organization of gaze, touch and talk in a medical encounter. In Fisher, Sue & Todd, Alexandra (eds.), The social organization of doctor-patient communication. 2nd edn.71–106. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Frers, Lars (2009). Space, materiality and the contingency of action: A sequential analysis of the patient's file in doctor-patient interactions. Discourse Studies 11(3):285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavioli, Laura (ed.) (2009). La mediazione linguistico-culturale: Una prospettiva interazionista. Perugia: Guerra.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles (1980). Restarts, pauses, and the achievement of mutual gaze at turn-beginning. Sociological Inquiry 50(3–4):272–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Charles (1981). Conversational organization: Interaction between speakers and hearers. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32:489–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greatbach, David (2006). Prescription and prescribing: Coordinating talk- and text-based activities. In Heritage, John & Maynard, Douglas W. (eds.), Communication in medical care: Interaction between primary care physicians and patients, 313–39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Edward T. (1959a). The silent language. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T (1959b). The hidden dimension. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Heath, Christian (1984a). Talk and recipiency: Sequential organization in speech and body movement. In Atkinson, John Maxwell & Heritage, John (eds.), Structures of social action, 247–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heath, Christian (1984b). Participation in the medical consultation: The coordination of verbal and nonverbal behaviour between the doctor and the patient. Sociology of Health and Illness 6(3):311–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, Christian (1986). Body movement and speech in medical interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, Christian (2006). Body work: The collaborative production of the clinical object. In Heritage, John & Maynard, Douglas W. (eds.), Communication in medical care: Interaction between primary care physicians and patients, 185–213. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, Christian, & Hindmarsh, Jonathan (2002). Analysing interaction: Video, ethnography and situated conduct. In May, Tim (ed.), Qualitative research in action, 99–121. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In Lerner, Gene (ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation, 13–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendon, Adam (1967). Some functions of gaze direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica 26:22–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendon, Adam (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knapp-Potthoff, Annelie, & Karlfried, Knapp (1987). The man (or woman) in the middle: Discoursal aspects of non-professional interpreting. In Knapp-Potthoff, Annelie & Potthoff, Karlfried (eds.), Analyzing intercultural communication, 181–211. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene (2003). Selecting next speaker: The context-sensitive operation of a context-free organization. Language in Society 32:177–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, Ian (ed.) (1999). Dialogue interpreting. Special issue of The Translator 5(2).Google Scholar
Mason, Ian(ed.) (2001). Triadic exchanges: Studies in dialogue interpreting. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Metzger, Melanie (1999). Sign language interpreting: Deconstructing the myth of neutrality. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, Bernd (2001). How untrained interpreters handle medical terms. In Mason, Ian (ed.), Triadic exchanges: Studies in dialogue interpreting, 87–106. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Modaff, Daniel P. (2003). Body movement in the transition from opening to task in doctor-patient interviews. In Glenn, Phillip, LeBaron, Curtis D., & Mandelbaum, Jenny (eds.), Studies in language and social interaction: In honor of Robert Hopper, 411–22. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Norris, Sigrid (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pöchhacker, Franz, & Schlesinger, Miriam (eds.) (2007). Healthcare interpreting. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psathas, George (1990). The organization of talk, gaze and activity in a medical interview. In Psathas, George (ed.), Interaction competence, 205–30. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey David (1998). Getting down to business: Talk, gaze and body orientation during openings of doctor-patient consultations. Human Communication Research 25(1):98–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey David, & Stivers, Tanya (2001). Achieving activity transitions in physician-patient encounters: From history taking to physical examination. Human Communication Research 27(2):253–98.Google Scholar
Rossano, Federico (2005). When it's over is it really over? On the effects of sustained gaze vs. gaze withdrawal at sequence possible completion. Paper presented at the 9th International Pragmatics Conference. Riva del Garda, Italy.Google Scholar
Rossano, Federico (2006). When the eyes meet: Using gaze to mobilize response. Paper presented at the International Conference on Conversation Analysis. Helsinki, Finland.Google Scholar
Rossano, Federico; Brown, Penelope; & Stephen, Levinson (2009). Gaze, questioning and culture. In Sidnell, Jack (ed.), Conversation analysis: Comparative perspectives, 187–249. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, Cynthia B. (2000). Interpreting as a discourse process. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. (1984). On some gestures' relation to talk. In Atkinson, John Maxwell & Heritage, John (eds.), Structures of social action, 266–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A (1998). Body torque. Social Research 65:535–96.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A (2005). On integrity in inquiry… of the investigated, not the investigator. Discourse Studies 7(4):455–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scollon, Ron (2001). Mediated discourse: The nexus of practice. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scollon, Ron, & Scollon, Suzie Wong (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ticca, Anna Claudia (2008). L'interprete ad hoc nel dialogo mediato medico-paziente: Processi interazionali in una clinica dello Yucatàn indigeno. Pisa: University of Pisa dissertation.Google Scholar
Ticca, Anna Claudia (2010). Configurazioni diadiche nel dialogo mediato medico-paziente. In Goicoechea, Maria Carreras i & Vázquez, María Enriqueta Pérez (eds.), La mediación lingüística y cultural y su didáctica: Un nuevo reto para la Universidad, 102–19. Bologna: Bononia.Google Scholar
Traverso, Veronique (2003). Rencontres interculturelles à l'hôpital: La consultation médicale avec interprète. TRANEL 36:81–100.Google Scholar
Wadensjö, Cecilia (1998). Interpreting as interaction. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Wadensjö, Cecilia (2001). Interpreting in crisis: The interpreter's position in therapeutic encounters. In Mason, Ian (ed.), Triadic exchanges: Studies in dialogue interpreting, 71–85. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar