Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice

This article explores the creation of communities of practice in the context of military training and capacity-building missions deployed by Western armed forces in countries in conflict. It reports on a participatory study with Spanish military officers deployed in Afghanistan and civilian interpre...

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Main Author: Lucia Ruiz Rosendo
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: ZHAW 2022-01-01
Series:JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation
Online Access:https://www.jostrans.org/article/view/7964
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author Lucia Ruiz Rosendo
author_facet Lucia Ruiz Rosendo
author_sort Lucia Ruiz Rosendo
collection DOAJ
description This article explores the creation of communities of practice in the context of military training and capacity-building missions deployed by Western armed forces in countries in conflict. It reports on a participatory study with Spanish military officers deployed in Afghanistan and civilian interpreters who worked for them. The discussion is framed in new military doctrines that advocate for strengthening local forces of countries in conflict and premised on Lave and Wenger's (1991) social theory of learning. The article argues that, when civilian interpreters start to work for the military, they lack knowledge of military procedure and of interpreting skills. For their part, the military personnel are generally not aware of the non-linguistic elements and culture-specific aspects of communication. Group cohesion is created, allowing for an iterative exchange of information and a constant learning process. Since civilian interpreters have not been trained before being recruited by the armed forces, their role as interpreters is contingent on their role as legitimate peripheral participants in the military sphere. The interpreters' personal background and their language proficiency in Spanish conditioned their degree of participation in the community of practice.
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spelling doaj-art-96b7bd0fe5d541fca48832489d487dc02025-08-20T02:21:20ZdeuZHAWJoSTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation1740-357X2022-01-013710.26034/cm.jostrans.2022.102Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practiceLucia Ruiz RosendoThis article explores the creation of communities of practice in the context of military training and capacity-building missions deployed by Western armed forces in countries in conflict. It reports on a participatory study with Spanish military officers deployed in Afghanistan and civilian interpreters who worked for them. The discussion is framed in new military doctrines that advocate for strengthening local forces of countries in conflict and premised on Lave and Wenger's (1991) social theory of learning. The article argues that, when civilian interpreters start to work for the military, they lack knowledge of military procedure and of interpreting skills. For their part, the military personnel are generally not aware of the non-linguistic elements and culture-specific aspects of communication. Group cohesion is created, allowing for an iterative exchange of information and a constant learning process. Since civilian interpreters have not been trained before being recruited by the armed forces, their role as interpreters is contingent on their role as legitimate peripheral participants in the military sphere. The interpreters' personal background and their language proficiency in Spanish conditioned their degree of participation in the community of practice.https://www.jostrans.org/article/view/7964
spellingShingle Lucia Ruiz Rosendo
Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation
title Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
title_full Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
title_fullStr Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
title_full_unstemmed Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
title_short Interpreting for the military: Creating communities of practice
title_sort interpreting for the military creating communities of practice
url https://www.jostrans.org/article/view/7964
work_keys_str_mv AT luciaruizrosendo interpretingforthemilitarycreatingcommunitiesofpractice