A study of the problems encountered by interpreters in translating criminal case examination questions from Thai into English

Abstract

The official language used in the Thai judicial system is the Thai central dialect. All documentation and testimony must be submitted in this language. Because of this, all documentation in a foreign language that needs to be submitted to the court must first be translated into Thai. Additionally, non-proficient speakers of Thai (NPT’s) require the services of an interpreter to render their foreign language testimony into Thai during court proceedings. The goal of this research was to study and better understand the types of problems that interpreters in court have in interpreting criminal case examination questions from Thai into English. As audio recordings and transcripts of Thai court proceedings are not available due to Thai laws that restrict all audio and video recording in the courtroom, a mock criminal trial scenario was developed and a video of it recorded. This video was then successfully used to obtain the interpretations for seventeen question-in-chief, twenty-two cross-examination, and two re-cross-examination questions from nine interpreters that participated in the study. Most of the witness examination questions were relatively straightforward and short. However, three of the seventeen question-in-chief examination questions and five of the twenty-two cross-examination questions saw at least four of the nine interpreters make errors that changed the pragmatic intention of the question in Thai when translated into English. This suggests that Thai interpreters do experience problems when interpreting even less complex criminal case examination questions from Thai into English.