Investigating dialogue interpreting : current advances and research methods

Ever since Wadensjö's (1998) landmark study, there has been a growing interest in the interactive nature of dialogue interpreting as a joint activity embedded in a specific communicative situation. Detailed analyses and observations of actual interpreter-mediated exchanges have shown that interpreters in dialogic settings are faced not only with the cognitively demanding task of listening, processing and translating the ongoing talk, but also with the added negotiation of role, turn management and general monitoring of the unfolding of the exchange (Mason 1999:i). More recently, research on dialogue interpreting has witnessed a 'multimodal turn', showing that dialogue interpreting does not just consist of verbal communication, but is conducted through an interplay of diverse multimodal resources (speech, gesture, gaze, etc.) (Davitti 2018). However, multimodal approaches to dialogue interpreting have been hampered by problems in data collection, issues of obtrusiveness and problems in capturing details of the visual behavior (such as gaze direction) from all participants. In contrast to the domain of conference interpreting, which has attracted considerable interest of neighbouring disciplines, such as (psycho)linguistics, cognitive sciences and neuropsychology, research on dialogue interpreting has known less methodological innovation. However, recent studies (e.g. Englund Dimitrova & Tiselius 2016; Davitti 2018; Vranjes et al. 2018; De Boe 2020; Tiselius & Sneed 2020) illustrate the potential of experimental approaches and novel research methods (such as eye-tracking) in the investigation of dialogue interpreting. In this panel we want to gather researchers focusing on the following two aspects of dialogue interpreting research: (i) Understanding embodiment in dialogue interpreting Empirical research has shown that dialogue interpreting is a complex, multimodal activity conducted through both verbal and embodied behavior. Which visual resources do interpreters resort to in dialogue interpreting? What is the relationship between different multimodal resources? What can a multimodal approach teach us about the interactive and cognitive processes involved in dialogue interpreting? (ii) Advancing multimodal methods Collecting multimodal data, analysing and interpreting embodied behaviour is a (technological) challenge, especially in interactional settings. Can state-of-the art data capturing tools (such as unobtrusive mobile eye-tracking) and mixed-methods approaches help to make sense of the complex nature of dialogue interpreting as a socio-cognitive process? What are the possibilities, challenges and restrictions of those developments