Telephone interpreting connects human interpreters via telephone to individuals who wish to speak to each other but do not share a common language. The telephone interpreter converts the spoken language from one language to another, enabling listeners and speakers to understand each other. Interpretation over the telephone most often takes place in consecutive mode, which means that the interpreter waits until the speaker finishes an utterance before rendering the interpretation into the other language. Telephone interpreting is one :wikt:modality|modality or delivery mechanism for providing interpreting services. Other forms of delivering interpreting services include in-person interpreting and video interpreting for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Historical timeline
1950s: Telephone lines first proposed as a medium for the delivery of interpreting services.
1973: Australia introduces telephone interpretation as a fee-free service to respond to its growing immigrant communities.
1981: The first Over-the-Phone Interpretation service is offered in the United States.
1981–1990: Telephone interpreting enters major U.S. industries including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, and public safety.
1990s: The demand for telephone interpreting grows significantly; contributing factors include decreased prices in long-distance calls, toll-free number access, and immigration trends.
1995: Language services company Kevmark, later known as CyraCom, patents a multiple-handset phone adapted for telephone interpreting.
2000s: Telephone interpretation becomes more sophisticated; quality of interpreting, faster connection speeds, and customer service become important to consumers.
2005: The U.S. telephone interpreting market is estimated at approximately $200 million.
2013: Language Lines Services acquires Pacific Interpreters.
There are many types of organizations that provide telephone interpreting services, including for-profit companies, governmental organizations, non-profit groups, and internal divisions within organizations. For example, the government of Australia operates a telephone interpreting service, as do the governments of South Africa and New Zealand.
United States
In the United States, telephone interpreting is widely used by its federal courts. Numerous commercial providers are also available and commonly used. Many of the commercial telephone interpreting providers connect users with interpreters for more than 150 languages. Some providers claim to have the ability to connect an interpreter at any time of day, within a matter of seconds. Some hospitals and health care systems also provide telephone interpreting services. Major providers of telephone interpretation in the United States include Language Line Services, Lionbridge, CyraCom International, Pacific Interpreters. In 2009, CyraCom was the second largest supplier of telephone interpretation in the world behind Language Line Services ranked #1, while Pacific Interpreters was the fifth largest. In 2013, Language Line Services acquired Pacific Interpreters.
United Kingdom
Language Line Inc. is an American commercial interpreting provider that in 2006 acquired a UK company Language Line Limited: British social activist Michael Young noticed that language barriers were leading to substandard services for ethnic minorities at Royal London Hospital, so he obtained grant funding to provide free telephone interpreters starting in 1990. Police on the Isle of Dogs became his second client, and he later began serving corporate clients and converted the charity into a commercial service. There is now a prevalence of companies that offer this service, many on a more global basis which is a natural benefit of "virtualising" interpretation. Similarly to translation, the diversity of organisations cover generic interpretation, as well as domain-specific services such as legal, medical, pharmaceutical and other technical.
Equipment
Users typically access telephone interpreting services with a telephone or computer with VoIP. However, if the two parties wishing to communicate are in the same location, using a dual handset phone, a phone with two receivers, can relieve the two parties from passing a phone back and forth. Speakerphones are also sometimes used, but these can create challenges both in terms of confidentiality, and for the interpreter, especially due to background noise, which can hinder the interpreter's ability to hear. Where one party is deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired, communication via an off-site sign language interpreter can be performed using a video link using the necessary video telecommunication equipment.
Access
The provisioning of telephone interpreting generally fits into two main categories:
Operator-led: utilise customer-care staff to answer the call, gather the required information from the caller, and facilitate the connection to the interpreter. A service of this nature can be preferred by organisations such as emergency services, where the client's knowledge of language codes is absent.
Additionally, some of the companies that have the required capability will offer a hybrid of the two principles, where for example a customer can:
Call in to the service
Input their "account code" into a single-layer Interactive Voice Response using the phone keypad
Be connected to a call-centre agent who will already know who the caller is, and will facilitate other data capture relevant to the call
Uses
Telephone interpreting is widely used in a number of settings, including health care, government, financial, emergency telephone call centres, and others. Telephone interpreting is especially helpful for settings in which the two parties would communicate via telephone anyway, such as interactions between call centers and consumers, calls between members of the public and emergency telephone call centres, etc. Telephone interpreting can be used to take applications over the phone and help individuals with account issues. Telephone interpretation via Video Remote Interpreting or a Video Relay Service are also useful where one of the parties is deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired. In such cases the interpretation flow is normally within the same principal language, such as French Sign Language to spoken French, Spanish Sign Language to spoken Spanish, British Sign Language to spoken English, and American Sign Language also to spoken English, etc. Multilingualsign language interpreters, who can also translate as well across principal languages, are also available, albeit less frequently. Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the translator, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction and syntax, which are different from the aural version of the same principal language.
Market
In 2007, the global telephone interpreting market was worth $700 million, with an estimated $500 million generated in the United States. Industry analyst firm Common Sense Advisory estimates that in 2012, the market will be worth $1.2 billion, an increase of 70% from 2007. The market for telephone interpreting is global in scope and includes companies from the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, Norway, Spain, and Hong Kong.
