COURTROOM DISCOURSE: SOME RECURRENT CHALLENGES IN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE HIGH COURT OF MALAWI

Abstract

English is the language of Law in non-traditional courts in Malawi where about forty-five percent of the population are not proficient in English. When a person who is not proficient in the language is involved in a court case being tried in the non-traditional court, an interpreter is required to interpret the proceedings from and into English. Some scholars have contended that court language interpretation is problematic in Malawi. The study attempted to find out the kinds of misinterpretations and the associated challenges that beset language interpretation of courtroom discourse in the High Court of Malawi, using a mixed methodology that was more qualitative than quantitative. Data collection was done using a questionnaire, interview and observation of real-time courtroom discourse interpretation. The data were computed into tables and figures using SPSS and Microsoft Excel computer applications. Misinterpreted utterances observed during courtroom proceedings were analysed and discussed in light of the Speech Act Theory and Relevance Theory. The results showed that in many cases the interpreter did not make a faithful rendition of the source language message into the target language. The effect of interpretation in the non-traditional court was that some of the source language messages were changed. This study argues that courtroom discourse interpreters in Malawi do not always convey the same source language message into the target language. They sometimes misinterpret due to challenges such as lack of fluency in the languages being interpreted into and from and lack of proper training in courtroom discourse interpretation. To minimise misinterpretation problems, the study suggests that there should be proper training for courtroom discourse interpreters in Malawi.