The norms of sign language interpreting in Turkey: The interpreters' self-perceptions on their role

Sign language interpreting can be deemed as a new field of research in Turkey although studies on Turkish Sign Language (TID) started about thirty years ago, and sign language interpreting has been officially recognized as a profession as of 2006 while sign language interpreters have been hired to offer free interpreting services at social service departments since 2007. Emerging from this need in the field, this thesis is an exploratory study in which the field of sign language interpreting in Turkey is investigated. The study covers the prevailing norms in the field with a special focus on the role perceptions of the sign language interpreters in Turkey as well as social and social psychological factors influencing them. The data have been gathered through qualitative research methods including semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The interpreters' opinions on their role in the interpreting settings and their behavioral tendencies along with official practices and legal frameworks in which sign language interpreting is conducted in Turkey reveal that the profession is still at the very beginning of its development process. The findings of the study also reveal that perceptions of the sign language interpreters regarding their role and their profession are highly influenced by the inequalities in the distribution of certain types of capital (Bourdieu, 1986) among the actors in the field, especially the members of the deaf community and the interpreters, and by the social representations (Moscovici, 1961/1976) of the deaf community among sign language interpreters. Keywords: Sign language interpreting, The role of the interpreter, The norms of sign language interpreting, Self-perceptions of sign language interpreters, Social representations, capital