Minimizing Role Conflict Among Court Interpreters

Court interpreting plays a critical role in providing language quarantine to the Belt and Road Initiative, which underlines China's push to take a larger role in global affairs. The role definition of court interpreters, in general, remains a controversial issue across the world. Court interpreters are constantly exposed to a variety of expectations from legal practitioners and the minority language speaking witnesses or defendants. Some expect the interpreter to be just a language conduit; some expect the interpreter to act as a cultural broker between legal practitioners and their clients; others expect the interpreter to be fully responsible for the effectiveness of the communication. These incompatible expectations often lead to role conflict among court interpreters, posing problems of adjustment and lower levels of job satisfaction. This study explores the role conflict caused by ambiguous role definitions and incompatible role expectations for court interpreters from a sociological perspective, and suggests minimizing role conflict through internal solutions, external solutions and a revision of the code of ethics.