Submission to Family Law Council:
Indigenous and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse clients in the family law system
OCTOBER 2011
Background
The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (trading as NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia. It is the only agency to issue accreditations for practitioners who wish to work in this profession in Australia.
A.NAATI’s Purpose
NAATI’s primary purpose is to strengthen inclusion and participation in Australian society by assisting in meeting its diverse and changing communication needs and expectations, through:
- setting, maintaining and promoting high national standards in translating and interpreting
- implementing a national quality-assurance system for credentialing practitioners who meet those standards.
NAATI credentialing provides quality assurance to the clients of translators and interpreters and gives credibility to agencies that employ practitioners who are credentialed appropriately.
B.About NAATI
The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (trading as NAATI) is incorporated in Australia under the Corporations Act 2001. The company is owned jointly by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and is governed by a board of directors, who are appointed by the owners. NAATI’s main business activities are providing accreditation and other credentialing services for translators and interpreters and related activities. NAATI services are available through offices in every State and Territory of Australia and in New Zealand. The National Office is in Canberra.
C.NAATI Accreditation
NAATI Accreditation may be obtained through one of five pathways:
- passing a NAATI accreditation test
(see
- successful completion of a course of studies in translation and/or interpreting at an Australian institution as approved by NAATI
(see
- providing evidence of a specialised tertiary qualification in translation and/or interpreting obtained from an educational institution overseas
(see
- providing evidence of a membership of a recognised international translating and/or interpreting professional association
(see
- providing evidence of advanced standing in translating or interpreting.
(see
In the 2010/11 financial year the testing pathway accounted for 30% and the approved course pathway 67% of the accreditations awarded.
D.Levels of NAATI Accreditation
Conference Interpreter (Senior) (formerly known as Level 5): This is the highest level of NAATI interpreting accreditation. It reflects a level of excellence in conference interpreting, recognised through demonstrated extensive experience and international leadership. It encompasses and builds on the competencies of Conference Interpreter accreditation.
Advanced Translator (Senior) (formerly known as Level 5): This is the highest level of NAATI translating accreditation. It reflects a level of excellence in specialised translating, recognised through demonstrated extensive experience and international leadership. It encompasses and builds on the competencies of Advanced Translator accreditation.
Conference Interpreter (formerly known as Level 4): This represents the level of competence required to handle complex, technical and sophisticated interpreting, in both consecutive and simultaneous modes, in line with recognised international practice. Conference Interpreters operate in diverse situations, including at conferences, high-level negotiations, and court proceedings and may choose to specialise in a particular area(s).
Advanced Translator (formerly known as Level 4): This represents the level of competence required to handle complex, technical and sophisticated translations in line with recognised international practice. Advanced Translators operate in diverse situations, and may choose to specialise in a particular area(s), including translating technical manuals, research papers, providing translations for conferences, high-level negotiations and court proceedings.
Professional Interpreter (formerly known as Level 3): This represents the minimum level of competence for professional interpreting and is the minimum level recommended by NAATI for work in most settings, including banking, law, health, and social and community services. Professional Interpreters are capable of interpreting across a wide range of semi-specialised situations and are capable of using the consecutive mode to interpret speeches or presentations.
Professional Translator (formerly known as Level 3): This represents the minimum level of competence for professional translating and is the minimum level recommended by NAATI for work in settings including banking, law, health, and social and community services. Translators at this level work across a wide range of subjects involving documents with specialised content.
Paraprofessional Interpreter (formerly known as Level 2): This represents a level of competence in interpreting for the purpose of general conversations. Paraprofessional Interpreters generally undertake the interpretation of non-specialist dialogues. Practitioners at this level are encouraged to obtain Professional-Level accreditation.
Paraprofessional Translator (formerly known as Level 2): This represents a level of competence enabling the production of a translation of non-specialised information (for example a birth certificate). Practitioners at this level are encouraged to obtain Professional-Level accreditation.
Since NAATI began at total of 41,762 accreditations have been awarded (please note that many practitioners hold more than one accreditation). The total accreditations awarded by level (for interpreting) are:
Paraprofessional Interpreter / Professional Interpreter / Conference Interpreter / Conference Interpreter (Senior)12,504 / 4,184 / 124 / 81
E.Available Accreditation Tests
The following table shows the currently available accreditation tests by language and accreditation type.
Paraprofessional Translator / Paraprofessional Interpreter / Professional Translator / Professional Interpreter / Advanced Translator / Paraprofessional Translator / Paraprofessional Interpreter / Professional Translator / Professional Interpreter / Advanced TranslatorAlbanian / / / / Lao / / /
Amharic / / / / Macedonian / / /
Arabic / / / / / Malay / / /
Armenian / / / Mandarin / /
Assyrian* / / / Maltese* / / /
Auslan / / / Nepali /
Bangla / / / / Nuer / /
Bosnian / / / / Oromo / /
Bulgarian / / / / Persian / / /
Burmese / / / / Polish / / /
Cantonese / / / Portuguese / / /
Chinese / / Punjabi / / /
Croatian / / / / / Pushto / /
Czech / / / Romanian / / /
Dari / / / / Russian / / / /
Dinka / / / Samoan / / /
Dutch / / / / Serbian / / /
Filipino / / / / Sinhalese / / /
Finnish / / / / Slovak* / / /
French / / / / Somali / / /
German / / / / / Spanish / / / /
Greek / / / / / Swahili / /
Hakka (Chinese)* / / / Tamil / / /
Hazaragi / / Tetum /
Hindi / / / / Thai / / /
Hungarian / / / / Tigrinya / /
Indonesian / / / / Tongan / / /
Italian / / / / Turkish / / /
Japanese / / / / / Ukrainian / / /
Khmer / / / / / Urdu / / /
Korean / / / / Vietnamese / / /
As at 28 September 2011
Accreditation testing is available across a broad range of Indigenous languages through a process involving third party organisations (like the Aboriginal Interpreter Service [AIS]).
F.NAATI Recognition
Recognition as a translator may be obtained in either direction, LOTE into English or English, but an interpreter must operate in both directions. Recognition is granted on the basis of a direct application to NAATI with the required evidence and paperwork.
Recognition is an acknowledgement that at the time of the award the candidate had recent and regular experience as a translator and/or interpreter, but no level of proficiency is specified.
Recognition is only granted in languages of very low community demand for which NAATI does not offer accreditation testing.
G.Accreditation and the Family Law Setting
For work in a family law setting, NAATI would recommend that, where available, interpreters hold Professional accreditation (see section D.) but it should be noted that the range of languages where Professional level accreditation has been awarded is smaller.
H.Accreditation for Indigenous Languages
While there are approximately 250 accredited interpreters for Indigenous languages, see Attachment A from a list of languages, these are almost exclusively at the Paraprofessional Interpreter level. There are only three practitioners accredited at the Professional Interpreter level for Djambarrpuyngu.
Accreditation testing for Indigenous languages is typically undertaken through third parties like the Aboriginal Interpreter Service in the Northern Territory. NAATI approved courses exist currently at TAFESA.
NAATI is currently in discussions with FaCHSCIA about improving the availability of accreditation pathways for Indigenous languages.
NAATI Response to Key Themes
NAATI undertsands there are a number of key themes that have come out of consultations with CALD communities. Relevant issues raised are addressed below.
A.Ethical Issues
Ongoing NAATI accreditation and recognition is conditional on ethical behaviour in accordance with the Australian Institute for Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT) Code of Ethics (see for all language except Auslan. For Auslan interpreters the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association (ASLIA) Code of Ethics (see is applicable.
There are a number of pathways to NAATI accreditation, some of which involve training in the relevant ethical standards and others which involve an assessment as part of the accreditation process. Each of these involves an assessment of the theoretical knowledge of the ethics and the practical application.
The issue of interpreters providing advice to clients is a matter directly addressed in the respective codes. However, in practical terms it would seem that, anecdotally, as typically interpreters come from the same CALD community as the client there is the feeling that they should be advocating/looking after the best interest of the client.
Confidentiality, is also an issue which comes up regularly with interpreting for small CALD communities. It is expected that an interpreter holding NAATI accreditation abides by the relevant codes (AUSIT and ASLIA) where the issue of confidentiality is addressed directly. Both codes clearly state that any information gained in an interpreting assignment should not be relayed to third parties. NAATI, if made aware of situations where information was not remaining confidential, would treat all situations where confidentiality was not being maintained as a serious breach of ethics.
NAATI can, and has, withdrawn accreditations where we have evidence of a serious breach of the ethics, although this is an extreme and rare action.
NAATI is currently commissioning research to review, among other matters, the current accreditation system and this will consider the current approach to assessment of the ethical standards.Details of the NAATI Board’s intentions for this project are provided in Attachment B.
B.Training and Accreditation
NAATI supports the availability of qualifications for translators and interpreters as a policy. For some thirty years it has worked with education providers to raise the standards to training available to practitioners entering the profession.
NAATI sees that there is a clear distinction between training – provided by the Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Higher Education (universities) sectors – and NAATI accreditation.Translating and interpreting qualifications are developed nationally and delivered locally within the VET sector and developed and delivered locally with the Higher Education sector. NAATI sees its role, in maintaining a set of national standards for translating and interpreting, having involvement of quality assurance of programs across both sectors.
Australian educational institutions in the Vocational Education Training (VET) and Higher Education (HE) sectors can make an application to NAATI for approval of their translating and/or interpreting courses.
If the application meets NAATI’s requirements, the course (for example Advanced Diploma of Interpreting) and the languages in which the course(s) can be run will be approved by NAATI.
The advantage of a NAATI-approved course is that students who complete the course at the standard required by NAATI are eligible to apply for NAATI accreditation without further requirements e.g taking a NAATI test.
NAATI accreditation is based on a non-topic specific ability to transfer meaning between the two languages. Therefore, NAATI accreditation is awarded based on an ability to transfer meaning at a general level and has not been set up to function for interpreters to work within specific areas like family law.
In recent years there have been increasing concerns expressed about the adequacy of a generalist approach to accreditation, most recently in Professor Sandra Hale’s recent report (see below).
The research described in Attachment B will review the suitability of the current accreditation system for court settings and this will consider whether there is the need to move to a system including specialisation. This project will be a systematic examination of the NAATI accreditation arrangements and is much wider in scope than just testing. It is likely to influence how translating and interpreting accreditation is managed in the future.
The award of the accreditation is subject to formal confirmation of the candidates’ achievements by the educational institution and recommendation of accreditation to NAATI
NAATI maintains a list of currently approved courses and the languages the course is approved for on its website
Approved courses normally lead to one of the following qualifications:
Higher Education (HE) Sector
1. Post Graduate Diploma
2. Bachelor Degree
3. Master Degree
Vocational Education and Training (VET) Sector
1. Diploma
2. Advanced Diploma
In some instances approved courses will involve units of study that deal with specialisations (for example leagal interpreting) but this is not a requirement to gain NAATI approval.
C.Accessibility of Interpreters
NAATI’s role gives it little direct influence in the availability of interpreters. The system is very much market driven.This is the same issue in relation to the availability of interpreters in specific genders.
NAATI has awarded credentials in over 170 languages, with accreditation, at various levels, being awarded in a total of 113 languages (see Attachment A). Please note that the table at E. lists the 62 languages in which accreditation tests are currently conducted. There are a significant number of accreditations achieved through the other pathways and this accounts for the discrepancy.
One measure of the coverage of NAATI accreditation is to consider the range of languages TIS, the largest provider of telephone interpreting services, provides services in. 96% of all TIS’s assignments are for languages in which there is a NAATI accredited interpreter.
D.Accuracy of Interpreters
It is wrong to think that there is always equivalence between languages: All languages are different and the process of interpreting is not as simple as converting meaning on a word-for-word level. The level of equivalence between English and a language spoken by a member of a CALD community can vary greatly. In areas like law there can be significant difficulties in relaying concepts or responses as there may not be any equivalent term or possibly even language to explain the concept. A paper which discusses this issue (and others) for Indigenous languages is Indigenous Interpreting Issues for Courts, Dr Michael Cooke.Much of what is talked about in this paper also applies to the languages of CALD communities.
As such the interpreter may be required to paraphrase or explain certain concepts in a way that changes the obvious cues around accuracy, like length of time it takes in to interpret.
Interpreter policies, practices and protocols in Australian Court and Tribunals: A National Survey by Professor Sandra Hale
This report was written for the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administrators by Professor Sandra Hale (UNSW, formerly UWS) and published in 2011. It considers a number of the current issues surrounding interpreting in the courts and provides 16 recommendations. While many of these have little relevance to NAATI there are some that do. Comment has been made on the most relevant:
Recommendation 2: That all interpreters be required to state their qualifications at the commencement of proceedings.
NAATI agrees provided the term “qualifications” includes NAATI accreditation. Ideally interpreters should state their academic qualifications and NAATI credentials. NAATI feels that the two are complementary and both have an important role to play. Qualifications may be achieved with interpreting performance well below the level required for NAATI accreditation. The majority of NAATI-approved courses currently will award a qualification based on a “pass performance” within all units of a qualification, while NAATI accreditation requires performance at a higher level within the qualification. For example at RMIT University a “pass” for the interpreting components of the course is achieved with performance at 50% while NAATI accreditation can only be achieved based on performance at 70% or higher on the same units.
Recommendation 5: That NAATI introduce a specialist legal interpreter accreditation.
The issue of offering specialised accreditations has been raised in the past and is one that NAATI currently has underconsideration (along with other changes to the accreditation system).See details of the Improvements to NAATI Testing Project at Attachment B.
While on the surface this may seem a simple proposal there are a number of issues to consider like the number of different court and legal systems that operate both within states and federally in Australia and whether a single specialisation could be created to function within all of these areas or whether specific training would be required for each area, like Family law.
With those caveats, NAATI expects there is likely to be some form of specialisation introduced in Australia for interpreters at some point and that court/legal interpreting will be an early participant in that development.
ATTACHMENT A - Languages Accreditation Awarded In (Based on all five pathways)
Page 1 of 10NAATI Submission – October 2011
Afrikaans
Albanian
Alyawarra
Amharic
Anindilyakwa
Anmatyerr (alt name Anmatyerre)
Arabic
Armenian
Assyrian
Auslan
Bangla
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Burarra
Burmese
Cantonese
Chinese
Chinese, Min Nan
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dari
Deaf Oral
Dinka
Djambarrpuyngu
Djapu
Dutch
Eastern Aranda(Arrernte)
Eastern Arrernte
Filipino
Finnish
French
Georgian
German
Greek
Gumatj
Gunwinkgu
Gupapuyngu
Hakka
Hazaragi
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Iwaidja
Japanese
Jaru
Kala Lagaw Ya
Karen
Kaytej
Khmer
Kija
Korean
Kriol
Kukatja
Kunwinjku
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kurdish (Sorani)
Lao
Liyagalawumirr
Luritja
Macedonian
Malay
Maltese
Mandarin
Martu Wangka
Modern Tiwi
Mongolian
Murrinh-Patha
Nepali
Ngaanyatjarra
Norwegian
Nuer
Nunggubuyu
Nyangumarta
Oromo
Persian
Pitjantjatjara
Polish
Portuguese
Punjab
Pushto
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Serbian
Sinhalese
Slovak
Slovene
Somali
Spanish
Swahili (alt.name Kiswahili)
SwedishTamil
Tetum