Across Languages and Cultures 24 (2023) 2, 295–301

DOI: 10.1556/084.2023.00607

BOOK REVIEW

Pöchhacker, F. (2022). Introducing interpreting studies (3rd ed.). London and

New York: Routledge, xix þ 281 pp. ISBN 978-1-032-0305.
Reviewed by Piroska Szentirmayp

© 2023 The Author(s)

The third edition of the volume Introducing Interpreting Studies was published in 2022 by
Routledge. The author, professor of Interpreting Studies at the Centre for Translation Studies
at the University of Vienna, is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on Interpreting
Studies (IS), besides being an experienced conference and media interpreter himself.
The first edition of the same book was published by Routledge in 2003. It was a pioneering
effort to provide a textbook for trainee interpreters, trainers and researchers engaged in and/or
interested in IS. It was an immediate success; it received high praise and was hailed as a
milestone in the development of a new academic field:
[…] Introducing Interpreting Studies is intended to serve as "a map of the interpreting studies
landscape" (p. 205), providing orientation for newcomers to academic research related to inter-
preting. It succeeds admirably in its aim. This comprehensive, structured, and accessible primer will
quickly become the standard textbook around which introductory courses are organised. (Dawrant,
2004, p. 1.)

Dawrant’s prediction soon turned out to be right: this introductory text soon became a
widely used textbook in interpreter training and beyond, in doctoral studies. Evidently, trainee
interpreters, besides practising the basic skills of interpreting, must learn something about the
research background of the profession (that is, IS), and novice researchers need a reference book
that provides comprehensive treatment of an emergent academic field characterized by diversity.
Pöchhacker’s book has eminently suited this purpose, and, while presenting diversity, it also
contributes to creating unity. Indicative of the wide use of the book is the fact that the citation
index of Introducing Interpreting Studies on 22 July 2023, stands at 2,698 on Google Scholar.
This means that the book has become a solid reference book in the field of Interpreting Studies
(IS) during the past two decades. As Dawrant writes,
The author’s vision of "unity in diversity" is admirably executed, bringing new cohesion to this
nascent field and staking a convincing claim for Interpreting Studies as an academic discipline in its
own right. (Dawrant, 2004, p. 2.)

Following the 2016 second edition, Introducing Interpreting Studies has now been updated
for the second time. In the 2016 edition, although some topics received more extensive

p
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: szentirmay.piroska@gmail.com

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296 Across Languages and Cultures 24 (2023) 2, 295–301

treatment, the original structure of the book was preserved, showing that the original concept of
the book had stood the test of time. Now, just six years after the second edition, it has become
apparent that the “steady growth” (p. 1) of the discipline, accelerated by demographic,
educational, legal and technological developments (Pöchhacker, 2022, p. 148) necessitates
another updating. Given the fundamental role that this book has played in IS, a review of this
third edition appears to be justified.
The fundamental aim of the third edition, just like that of its predecessors, is to provide a
comprehensive overview of the field through mapping the different domains of IS. In the
following, I will describe first what has remained almost unchanged from the 2016 edition
and then focus on the changes and additions in the 2022 third edition. The latter is most evident
in the last three chapters, where new information is found in every chapter compared to the
second edition.

ALMOST UNCHANGED
The main features of Pöchhacker’s introductory text include user-friendliness and accessibility,
noted by all previous reviewers. These features have been retained. The volume can be efficiently
used both as a textbook and as a source of reference, supported by the introductory main points
at the beginning of each chapter in Part 1, as well as by the summaries and further reading
suggestions closing them. The various chapters and subsections are linked by cross-references
that not only make practical but also theoretical connections between concepts, approaches and
models. Navigation between these concepts and topics is facilitated by two indexes, a Subject
Index and an Author Index. The author recommends the Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting
Studies (Pöchhacker, 2015) and The Interpreting Studies Reader (Pöchhacker & Shlesinger, 2002)
as companion volumes to his introductory textbook.
Like the second edition, the present volume is also divided into three parts and 13 chapters,
with the headings and subheadings almost unaltered. In Part I, the foundations are laid for
topics discussed in Part II, while directions of further developments for the field are detailed in
Part III.
The consolidation of the discipline as an academic area of study is reflected mainly in the
typically unchanged content of Part 1, which presents the foundations of the discipline. These
chapters contain the basic concepts that are unlikely to change with time and can be kept
constant in a textbook. Only where new information was required were minor adjustments
made, like the last subsection of Chapter 2 giving account of the growth of the field of study after
its consolidation. In Part 1 new developments and trends are reflected in the extended list of
references. From the 694 works cited, 143 were published after 2016, including authors from all
over the world, beyond Western Europe.
In Chapter 1 the author presents the main concepts related to IS as an object of academic
study. The section Main concepts, broadly speaking, comprises a definition of interpreting and a
description of the various types of interpreting. The author defines interpreting as a form of
translation, distinguished by the fact that “a first and final rendition in another language is
produced on the basis of a one-time presentation of an utterance in a source language” (p. 11).
In several other places he voices his conviction that IS should be regarded as a subfield of
Translation Studies: “the positioning of IS as a subfield of TS is beyond doubt” (p. 32). He cites

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some new references (published after the second edition) in support of this view, including the
Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (Baker & Saldanha, 2019) and the Handbook of
Translation Studies (Gambier & van Doorslaer, 2021). This chapter then gives an introduction to
the various types of interpreting, according to social setting (e.g. business and legal interpreting),
type of interaction (e.g. dialogue, conference and community interpreting) language modality
(e.g. spoken vs. signed language), working mode (e.g. consecutive and simultaneous), direction-
ality (e.g. A to B and retour interpreting). Compared to the second edition, a novelty in this
chapter is a reference to the increased use of technology and the increasing attention paid to
community and signed language interpreting in recent IS research.
Chapter 2 describes the historical evolution of IS as a discipline. This is a fascinating read,
which confirms another main idea of the author’s, “unity in diversity” (p. 74), that is, that
diverse approaches lead towards a unified discipline. He notes the increasing degree of inter-
nationalization, which promises further substantial progress in IS. New developments in inter-
preting practice are identified as “border crossings” (p. 49) because they call into question
fundamental assumptions about the concept of interpreting and in this way go beyond its
familiar borders, having thus transformative effect on the discipline. Pöchhacker mentions
two such border crossings: on the one hand, increasing automation and technological develop-
ments in computer-assisted and AI-supported interpreting, and, on the other, the principles of
social justice and equal accessibility.
Chapter 3 is concerned with the object of study in IS and presents the most important
disciplinary, theoretical and methodological approaches, paradigms or research traditions. Based
on the concept of memes (Chesterman, 1997) he identifies the following memes of interpreting:
verbal transfer, making sense, cognitive information processing skills, text-discourse production
and mediation (pp. 60–65). These key ideas are addressed in empirical research by several
“paradigms”, the Parish School’s Interpretative Theory of Translation (IT), the Cognitive Pro-
cessing Paradigm (CP), the Neurolinguistic Paradigm (NL), the Discourse-in-Interaction Para-
digm (DI) and the Target-Text-Oriented Paradigm (TT). The author looks at these research
traditions not as isolated efforts but rather as complementary approaches forming “unity in
diversity”.
Chapter 4 presents the models of interpreting. Models can be interaction or process-oriented
and can take into consideration the interconnectedness of interpreting with the anthropological,
socio-professional, institutional, interactional, textual and neural level.
Following the conceptual outline of IS in the four chapters of Part I, the eight chapters of
Part II give a more detailed presentation of the most important topics in IS as an academic field.
Instead of introductory main points, in this part summaries and suggestions for further study as
well as minimalist, thematically grouped lists of references to relevant entries in the Routledge
Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies close the chapters.
Interpreters are a special type of bilingual persons and interpretation requires a good mem-
ory, so it is natural that the topic of language and memory and the workings of the bilingual
mind have always been in the foreground of IS. These issues are dealt with in Chapter 5, in
which recent developments in the study of language control and multilingual processing are
mentioned (p. 109). The main features of the neurocognitive model of simultaneous interpre-
tation (Chmiel, 2018; Hervais-Adelman & Babcock, 2020) are also highlighted.
Chapter 6 is concerned with cognitive processes at the interface of language and cognition.
The author addresses issues like the characteristics of processes that take place between intention

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and articulation as well as the factors underlying hesitations and corrections. Here again we find
references to recent studies in lexical, and syntactic and predictive processing (Amos, 2020),
cognitive load in collaborative meaning-making in dialogue interpreting, and knowledge-based
comprehension and the cognitive background of hesitations and corrections are touched upon
(Bóna & Bakti, 2020; Plevoets & Defrancq, 2018).
The following two chapters focus on discourse in interpreting. In Chapter 7 discourse is
discussed from a textual perspective. The term ‘text’ is extended from written language to orality,
taking into account sign language use, as well as a range of nonverbal signalling systems, like
intonation or accent, summarized as situated and embodied multimodal performance, as they
influence attitudinal effects and audience judgment, too. Recent studies have placed a major
focus on effect and pragmatic impact. However, accuracy also continues to enjoy special sig-
nificance for quality, a prevailing issue in professional practice, training and research. As in TS,
corpus-based research has gained momentum in IS, making it possible to devote increased
attention to textural and pragmatic shifts in interpreting. The topic of effect is discussed, pri-
marily in connection with sign language interpreting and interpreting in educational contexts,
judicial processes, and in the media, settings inherently linked to the aforementioned border
crossing issues related to equal rights and accessibility to interpreting.
Chapter 8 approaches discourse from a sociolinguistic perspective, highlighting the fact that
the interpreter has a role as a participant in the interpreted interaction, managing and coordi-
nating the flow of discourse, by implicit or explicit means, using the full range of verbal to
nonverbal sign systems. In addition to gestures, gaze, and physical positioning, recent studies
have also begun to consider the use of modern technology, like headsets as interactional re-
sources and video-recordings to investigate multimodality in interpreting (Davitti, 2019; Vranjes
& Brône, 2020; Warnicke & Plejert, 2018).
Chapter 9 explores the history of interpreting as a practice, encompassing ancient civiliza-
tions and modern empires, extending from Europe to the Far East and other regions. The most
recent investigations address not only the status of interpreters, but also ethical issues, as well as
specific fields, like the role of interpreters in military settings. This chapter has been substantially
extended to give a detailed account of historical events in the twentieth century when the
professionalization of interpreting unfolded. These milestone events and technological develop-
ment catalysed the professionalization of interpreting, calling for training programs and the
creation of professional organizations like AIIC or RID to meet the demand for quality.

SUBSTANTIALLY REVISED
Professionalization, technology and education, are further elaborated on in the final three
chapters of Part II. These are the chapters that were subject to major revisions as a result of
recent developments. Without doubt, interpreting as a profession is strongly dependent on
technological innovation, which also impacts on interpreter training and the major trends of
development in the field.
Chapter 10 bears the title Profession, since IS is fundamentally concerned with interpreters
who practice interpreting as a profession, requiring “special knowledge and skills acquired
through education” (p. 167). This chapter has a sociological slant: it discusses the identity, status
and image of interpreters, their competences, personal qualities, certification, expected and

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Across Languages and Cultures 24 (2023) 2, 295–301 299

accepted behaviour (ethics), codes of conduct, quality of service and working conditions. The
work of scholars from the Far East adds new perspectives to this field, which is a new addition to
this chapter.
Chapter 11, entitled Technology, covers an area that has become one of the major research
focuses of IS, impacting on interpreters’ preparation, strategies, cognitive processes as well as
interpreter training. Compared to technology used for documentation and preparation,
technology designed for computer-assisted interpreting (CAI) and those replacing human skills
were the most outstanding developments that have taken place since the publication of the
second edition of this volume, together with the appearance of tools that make visual and
acoustic sign transmission possible for remote and distant interpreting. The features of these
tools are evolving at a rapid pace, and what first was designed for terminology management,
became useful for information retrieval from corpora and ultimately for linking knowledge
management functions with automatic speech recognition (ASR). The issue of technology is
also linked to more traditional questions in IS like accuracy and cognitive processing.
Part II concludes with Chapter 12, updated and completed extensively, since the field of
Education has also been profoundly affected by developments related to the profession and
technology. The chapter first discusses issues regarding approaches, levels and formats as well as
the content and structure of curriculum in interpreting education. The author addresses ques-
tions regarding the selection of the right candidates for interpreter training, the competences
and skills required for entry and aptitude testing.
Due to recent developments the role of technology in interpreting training has also changed,
affecting not only the content of curricula but also the medium through which teaching occurs.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact but as every cloud has a silver lining, video-
conferencing-based instruction accelerated the adaptation of skills to the latest developments in
digital and virtual-reality technologies, compensating for the very limited in-person interaction,
which makes role-play and drama techniques inapplicable in remote instruction.
The chapter concludes with considerations regarding assessment and final testing, an issue
underpinned by didactic considerations like ‘competency’ and ‘quality’. Since the second edition,
research in this respect has made significant progress giving account of “advanced methods of
rater-mediated educational assessment” (p. 215) particularly in China, driven also by efforts
towards standardization and enhancement of certification tests. It remains a question how “to
minimize the human factor” most effectively in assessment. New research suggests that relying
on automated analyses and “adopting metrics used in the evaluation of machine translation
output” (p. 215) may contribute to the validity and reliability of examinations.
Educational issues include the requirement of continuous professional development, sup-
ported by institutions like the AIIC and RID, as well as the training of trainers to maintain a
direct link between the profession and interpreting education. A final point in this chapter is
research training, crucial for higher scientific standards and methodological expertise.
Part III, entitled Directions, contains only one chapter, offering useful guidelines and sug-
gestions for future generations of researchers who wish to find their way along the various trends
prevailing in the discipline. These developments have an impact not only on the field of study
itself and its theoretical and methodological foundations, but also on the profession at its various
levels and dimensions, largely due to increasing research efforts, the academization of training,
internationalization and the establishment of an ever growing number of academic institutions,
journals and publications. At first sight, these trends can seem arbitrary and unpredictable,

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nonetheless diversification within the field of IS appears to be controlled by a certain pattern of

convergence at international, institutional and also at individual level, thanks to interdisciplinary
cooperation among scholars active in the various paradigms of IS.
Beyond the basic disciplinary issues Pöchhacker identifies six critical problem areas, the six
Ms (manpower, motivation, material, market, means and methods) and elaborates them in more
detail than in the second edition of the book.
The author also outlines future perspectives for IS on the basis of mega-trends such as
globalization and technologization, taking into account the strong influence of power relations,
the need for cultural adaptation, migration and technological development on interpreting
practice, training and research.
The conclusion of the book gives a practical list of steps and suggestions on how to get help if
one wishes to venture into interpreting research. The book itself constitutes a good basis for the
first five steps. Critical reading, selecting relevant literature from the bibliography of this text-
book and its complementary reference books pave the way for wording research questions,
choosing appropriate research methods and design as steps 6–8. Further steps include success-
fully implemented data collection, processing and analysis leading to a sound evaluation and
interpretation of findings that can be finally reported in publications.
The whole book reflects a genuine and personal commitment to interpreting studies on the
part of the author, encouraging the readers to develop their own personal approach to the
field and to ultimately contribute to the enrichment of knowledge shared by the IS research
community.

REFERENCES

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Hervais-Adelman, A. G., & Babcock, L. (2020). The neurobiology of simultaneous interpreting: Where
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