Non-native English at international conferences: Perspectives from Chinese–English conference interpreters in Taiwan

Abstract

With the spread of English as a lingua franca (ELF), interpreting researchers have started to explore its effects on interpreting quality and on the conference interpreting profession as a whole. This study is based on interviews with ten professional conference interpreters working with Chinese A and English B in Taiwan. We focus on their experiences of interpreting ELF speakers, with particular reference to their three most recent international conferences, exploring how the interpreters cope with the challenges involved and how they perceive the effects of ELF on their profession. Overall, a total of 25 conferences were included in the analysis, involving 235 ELF speakers. The results provide a comprehensive picture of how Chinese–English conference interpreters in Taiwan have risen to the challenge presented by the ELF phenomenon, after years of experience in dealing with the difficulties this often involves.