The role of the court interpreter is to allow minority language speakers to receive fair trial, just as any mainstream language speaker would, by removing the language barrier that hinders it. However, court interpreters come to surpass their original role and undertake several other social roles due to the nation's institutional restrictions, expectations and demands. News reports point out the need to have expert court interpreters in Korea. The study describes the social roles that court interpreters take on during trial proceedings in Korea based on discourse analysis on actual trial records and interviews with court interpreters. Results of the study show that court interpreters in Korea undertake various roles, such as the role of assistant for the institution and the role of spokesman for the minority language speaker among others. It was also observed that the court interpreter's role as an assistant for the institution, which is to ease communication, can affect the defense of the accused and have an influence on court proceedings and judgment in great and small scale. The study adds weight to the need for an official certification system for court interpreters and the need to assign them a socially recognized position.
목차
Abstract I. 들어가는 말 II. 법정통역사의 역할 III. 한국사회의 법정통역 담론 IV. 연구 방법 V. 분석 결과 1. 법원의 보조자 2. 소수언어사용자의 대변자 3. 법정통역 전문가 VI. 나오는 말 참고 문헌