Court Interpreting in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

In this dissertation, the situation of court interpreting in Oman is discussed and the challenges that face court interpreters are further investigated. This thesis touches upon significant issues about court interpreting emphasizing the challenging nature embedded in the court interpreter's task. In Oman, court interpreting is still a young profession for which a code of ethics and established regulative laws don not even exist. In this thesis, the situation of the court interpreting profession and that of court interpreters in Oman are set under focus. In chapter one, an overview to the thesis is stated considering the circumstances that surround the profession of court interpreting in Oman. Chapter two touches upon some important translation theories that are relevant to the discussion of the thesis. In chapter three, an overview of the principal interpreting theories is attempted referring to some of the recent studies conducted by interpreting researchers. Chapter four focuses on interpreting theories that are oriented to explain the central issues that revolve around the court interpreting profession. In chapter five, a study on the situation of court interpreters in Oman is presented, based on structured questionnaires distributed to six court interpreters working in different courts of law. In the last chapter, the thesis concludes that court interpreters in Oman face certain challenges that have the liability to obstruct their interpretation assignments in courtrooms. Based on the established theoretical considerations and the findings inferred from the study displayed in chapter five, the thesis suggests some useful strategies court interpreters can adopt to overcome the challenges of their tasks.