Challenges and Opportunities in Telephone Interpreting: A Study on The Perspectives of Interpreters

Abstract

Telephone interpreting (TI) has been a controversial topic in interpreting studies due to quality concerns that emerged due to the lack of visual information. This study focuses on the perceptions of interpreters about challenges in TI in Türkiye in which TI has been offered as a public service since 2011 and by private language service providers. With the objective of shedding light on the practices and problems experienced by telephone interpreters and their opinions on how to improve this practice, the study employed interview as the data collection method. The study recruited 12 telephone interpreters, whose opinions were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The participants highlighted that Turkish clients seem unaware of the interpreting process and aggravate TI problems. In addition, the participants proposed various measures for improving the quality of TI in Türkiye.