Focusing on health care interpreting in Australia, this book examines the under-recognition of interpreting from a critical sociolinguistic perspective encompassing language, race and class. Interpreters play an important role in promoting diversity and inclusion but why is interpreting not properly recognised? Cho grapples with this question by focusing readers’ attention to developments in interpreting following increased migration in an English-monolingual Australia, a context in which other languages and speakers have been historically under-valued. Through compelling analysis and the voices of health care interpreters in Australia, this groundbreaking book explores how issues with interpreting are fundamentally issues of justice that affect minority languages and their speakers. Covering diverse professional and social spaces of interpreting, the book discovers linguistic, racial and class hierarchies embedded in English monolingualism and their impact on multilingual practices and populations. From both historical and contemporary perspectives, the book critically investigates monolingual practices from the past and tensions between enduring monolingual ideologies and multilingual realities, suggesting specific ways to overcome monolingual mindsets to make societies more inclusive. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars in interpreting studies, health communication, intercultural communication, and sociolinguistics.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgment Chapter 1. Questioning interpreting in society 1.1 A tale of two interpreters 1.2 Social approaches to interpreting 1.3 The study 1.3.1 Health care interpreting as a key site of inquiry 1.3.2 Qualitative approaches 1.3.3 Structure of the book Chapter 2. Monolingual understanding of multilingualism 2.1 Rethinking monolingualism 2.2 Borders in language, race and class 2.3 English monolingualism in Australia 2.4 Institutional monolingualism in interpreting 2.5 Interpreting from a critical sociolinguistic perspective 2.6 Summary Chapter 3. Societal monolingualism 3.1. English in imagined homogeneity 3.2 The beginning of interpreting 3.3 Unrecognised profession 3.4 Continued problems 3.5. Summary Chapter 4 Market monolingualism 4.1 Any bilinguals can interpret 4.2 Migration and interpreting 4.3 Bilingualism as a non-skill 4.3.1 In the linguistic market 4.3.2 In the language market 4.4 Reconciling with reality 4.5 Summary Chapter 5. Institutional monolingualism 5.1 Underuse of free interpreting provision 5.2 Front desk staff as gatekeepers 5.3 Provider perception: interpreters as translation machines 5.3.1 Face-to-face interpreting 5.3.2 Telephone interpreting 5.4 Systemic problems 5.5 Summary Chapter 6 Individual responses to monolingualism 6.1 Why do interpreters stay in the field? 6.2 It is still worth it 6.3 Alone or together? Managing communication problems 6.3.1 Navigating the field 6.3.2 Interpreters’ strategies 6.4 Ways to work together 6.5 Summary Chapter 7. Multilingual understanding of monolingualism 7.1. Interpreting monolingualism 7.1.1 Societal monolingualism 7.1.2 Market monolingualism 7.1.3 Institutional monolingualism 7.1.4 Individual responses to monolingualism 7.2. Way forward Index