Die professionalisering van taalpraktisyns in Suid–Afrika en Vlaandere : ? vergelykende studie

[摘要] While striving for excellence in an increasingly market-dominated, multicultural, multilingual,service-oriented, and globalised society, language practitioners �?translators, text editors,interpreters, audio describers, sign language interpreters and subtitlers �?in South Africa andFlanders find themselves under increasing pressure to defend the professional status of theirwork, and to justify the conception of their different occupations as a homogenousprofession. Given the cultural and mediatory role of the language practitioner in thisdecentralised, dynamic, complex, and virtual market, the professionalization of languagepractitioners is rapidly developing into a matter that needs urgent academic consideration.Scientific and multidisciplinary research on the occupations collectively and colloquiallyreferred to as the language professions, or more academic, language practice, is thereforecurrently of the utmost importance and relevance to ensure market-related expert languageservices. Unquestionably, without such research language practice cannot become a bonafide profession.From the point of view of the sociology of professions, language practitioners are an extremeexample of an understudied professional occupation (Sela-Sheffy & Schlesinger, 2011). Byfocusing attention on the marginal status of the language occupations (which persists despitethe ever-increasing need for professionalized expert language services in a globalisedmultilingual and multicultural world), this research project aims to identify the perceivedimpediments to desired professional status for language practice, thereby creating a moresystematic basis for future professionalization endeavour.The sociological literature on the professions as manifest in the functional, interactional andconflict approaches of Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx, as well as a critical, postmodernapproach offers a body of history and theory of the development of modernprofessions and their attributes. The service ideal; a viable income congruous with expertstatus; occupational autonomy and monopoly; career oriented training and continuingeducation; professional training institutions; professional bodies; ethics, and jurisdiction (seefor example Abbott, 1988; Barber, 1963; Freidson, 1983, 1994; Goode, 1969; Hughes, 1963;Larson, 1977; Macdonald, 1995; Torstendahl & Burrage, 1990; Wilensky, 1964) areattributes unique to the true profession.These characteristics served as the matrix to establish a framework for the prototypicalprofession whereby the current professional status of language practitioners in South Africaand Flanders could be ascertained, and a formal language practice professional projectinitiated.Using the professional project (Larson, 1977) as a conceptual tool advantageouslyestablishes the concrete, historically bounded character of the professions as empirical entities (Witz, 1992:64) within the context of three different approaches to categorisation asdescribed in this project: the classical model, the critical model, and the prototype model.The identification of perceived obstacles to the professionalization of language practice asper the literature provided the context for a comparative appraisal of the current professionalstate of affairs of language practitioners in South Africa and Flanders. An objectiveinvestigation into the character of these obstacles revealed the catalyst opportunitiesinherent in the alleged barriers to professionalization. This perspective provides a rationalframework for the implementation of essential measures to augment a viable professionalproject of language practitioners in general.

[发布机构] North-West University