Disrupter or enabler? Assessing the impact of using automatic speech recognition technology in interpreter-mediated legal proceedings

颠覆者还是推动者？

• 批准号: 2889440
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Surrey
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2889440
• 关键词: Disrupter; enabler; Assessing; impact; using

Covid-19 has accelerated the use of communication technologies. In multilingual settings, this has increased the use of remote interpreting, whereby interpreters are connected to clients via digital platforms. Whilst remote interpreting is challenging, digital platforms create new opportunities to assist interpreters with their task. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has been proposed as a state-of-the-art-technology that might support and indeed revolutionise the practice of interpreters. ASR can provide interpreters with a live transcript of the speech they are listening to and interpreting. This could have substantial benefits for interpreters in the legal setting. This is because legal proceedings now often require remote interpreting while communications in court and similar settings can be highly unpredictable, posing challenges for legal interpreters often lacking in training and preparation time. When working remotely, interpreters may face additional problems, such as poor sound quality. However, the research on remote legal interpreting has not yet investigated the use of ASR. To address this gap in the existing research, this study aims to assess the impact of ASR on interpreters' performance in remote legal interpreting. The specific objectives are: firstly, to develop a quality assessment model for remote legal interpreting that is sensitive to ASR use; secondly, to explore to what extent ASR can improve the performance of remote legal interpreters; thirdly, to investigate how interpreters adapt to this new technology. To this end, a two-stage methodology has been designed. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review will be conducted to adapt existing quality assessment approaches to evaluate interpreters' performance in remote legal interpreting, with and without ASR support. Secondly, empirical data will be collected through multiple resources, including simulated court hearings and reflective sessions with interpreters. Quantitative and qualitative data gathered through these resources will be cross-analysed to draw conclusions regarding the second and third objectives.

Covid-19 加速了通信技术的使用。在多语言环境中，这增加了远程口译的使用，口译员通过数字平台与客户连接。虽然远程口译具有挑战性，但数字平台为协助口译员完成任务创造了新的机会。自动语音识别 (ASR) 已被认为是一种最先进的技术，可能会支持甚至彻底改变口译员的实践。 ASR 可以为口译员提供他们正在收听和口译的演讲的实时文字记录。这可能会给法律环境中的口译员带来巨大的好处。这是因为现在的法律程序通常需要远程口译，而法庭和类似环境中的通信可能高度不可预测，这给缺乏培训和准备时间的法律口译员带来了挑战。远程工作时，口译员可能会面临其他问题，例如音质差。然而，远程法律口译的研究尚未调查ASR的使用。为了弥补现有研究中的这一空白，本研究旨在评估 ASR 对口译员远程法律口译表现的影响。具体目标是：首先，开发对ASR使用敏感的远程法律口译质量评估模型；其次，探讨 ASR 在多大程度上可以提高远程法律口译员的绩效；第三，研究口译员如何适应这项新技术。为此，设计了两阶段方法。首先，将进行全面的文献综述，以适应现有的质量评估方法，以评估口译员在有或没有 ASR 支持的情况下在远程法律口译中的表现。其次，将通过多种资源收集经验数据，包括模拟法庭听证会和与口译员的反思会议。通过这些资源收集的定量和定性数据将进行交叉分析，以得出有关第二个和第三个目标的结论。