Profesyonel olmayan sözlü çevirmenlerin akademik ortamlardaki rolü

Nowadays, it can be observed that people get help from not only professional but also non-professional interpreters to meet their needs of interpreting service, which is especially related to the context of community interpreting. People who can speak two languages may take an active role especially in the settings where there is no professional interpreter available. The research focusing on this issue predominantly centers on medical and law settings, whereas a very small amount of the ones which concentrate on education is related to interpreting in university settings conducted by non-professionals. According to the data of Yükseköğretim Kurulu (YÖK) (Turkish Higher Education Council), the number of international students studying in Türkiye in the 2022-2023 academic year is 50.106. 43.784 of these students have studied in private universities and private vocational schools of higher education in Istanbul. This study questions in which language pairs foreign students feel more comfortable while interpreting for their friends, relatives, or fellow countrymen, whether service providers feel confident and remain impartial while translating or not. This thesis tried to shed light on these questions through the answers given to the questionnaire by non-professional interpreting service providers and service receivers. In the light of the answers given by the non-professional interpreting service receivers, it was observed that they felt comfortable receiving the service from non-professional interpreters in the context of higher education and had not faced serious problems yet most of them preferred to receive the service from professionals. In addition, it was concluded that non-professional interpreters who provided the service generally trusted themselves, considered themselves as competent interpreters, however most of them defended that the service should be provided by professionals.