Half day workshops* on a variety of topics will provide an opportunity for professional engagement with the IAFL Conference in Melbourne.
All workshops will run on Monday 1st July, prior to the main conference. Scroll down to find details of the workshops.
Note: Registration and payment for workshops is separate to conference registration and will be available on this page shortly.
*Workshops listed here are subject to change. Details of all available workshops will be published online prior to workshop registration opening.
The cost is AUD75.00 for each workshop.
Morning workshops Monday 1st July 9.00 – 12.00pm
Workshop 1 – Forensic Interviewing
Workshop 2 – Plain Language Writing
Workshop 6 – NEW Forensic Transcription and Translation for Linguists
Afternoon workshops Monday 1st July 1.00pm – 4.00pm
Workshop 3 – Forensic Linguistics for Teachers
Workshop 4 – Legal/Police Interpreting for T&I and legal professionals
Workshop 5 – Forensic Speech Recordings as Evidence
Workshop 1
Forensic Interviewing
9.00am – 12.00pm Monday 1st July, 2019
Presenter: Associate Professor Georgina Heydon
Intended audience: legal practitioners, members of the judiciary, law enforcement and justice department agents, legal interpreters, students in related fields
Description:
Do you know how to be a good listener? Do you know how to elicit the most reliable information from a client or witness? Is your interviewing technique based on scientifically tested methods? This workshop will introduce the main concepts you need to improve interviewing in your professional practice, including:
- International best practice models of interviewing
- Planning an effective interview
- Question types
- Reliability of responses
- Contamination of evidence
- Topic management
- Closure
- Information management
About the Presenter:
A/Prof Georgina Heydon lectures in forensic interviewing at RMIT University and has delivered interviewing training to police, judges, lawyers and interpreters around the world. She has advised the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group in Washington, D.C. and published extensively on the language of police and legal interviewing.
Workshop 2
Plain Language Writing:
Clarifying communication between the legal system and the public.
9.00am – 12.00pm Monday 1st July, 2019
Presenter: Adjunct Professor John Gibbons
Intended Audience: anyone interested in lawyer-lay communication.
Description:
It is no secret that legal language is hard to understand for non-lawyers (and sometimes for lawyers). However, ignorance of the law is no defence, so there is a fundamental problem. Some of the complexity of legal language is a product of the complexity of some legal concepts, but it has been demonstrated often that much of the complexity is unnecessary. Legal contexts can introduce further impediments to communication.
This session:
- analyses some of the sources of the communication difficulty, provides an example, and suggests some possible solutions;
- then participants have the opportunity to workshop some legal language that is targeted at a lay audience, analysing the sources of difficulty, and them attempting to remedy them;
- finally participants will compare the results of their efforts, and the workshop leader will provide feedback.
About the Presenter:
Adjunct Professor John Gibbons has varied experience in language and law issues (Forensic Linguistics). He worked with the New South Wales Police on their language procedures; was consulted concerning federal legal interpreter legislation by the Attorney General’s Department Canberra; was adviser to the Law Foundation of New South Waleson language and law issues 1994-2000; has acted as an expert in more than 40 legal cases; and was a consultant to the Victorian Charge Book Committee on the language of jury instructions. He has published widely in the field.
NEW! Workshop 6
Forensic Transcription and Translation for Linguists
9.00am – 12.00pm Monday 1st July, 2019
Presenter: Dr Helen Fraser (Adjunct Assoc Professor, University of New England)
Intended audience: Linguists at all levels (familiarity with some form of linguistic transcription is an advantage, but no background specifically in forensic transcription or translation is required)
Description:
Transcription and translation of indistinct covert recordings used as evidence in criminal trials has been shown to be a major problem. For example, courts allow police transcripts to ‘assist’ juries’ comprehension, with inadequate protection from misleading errors they might contain (see forensictranscription.com.au for background).
The next question is: what alternative should linguists offer to ensure juries are always assisted by reliable and useful transcripts and translations? Transcription is an important tool in many branches of linguistics, especially phonetics and conversation analysis. However, forensic transcription is undertaken in very different circumstances. Most notably, ‘ground truth’ regarding their content is typically not available, and the transcript will be used in ways that are unusual in linguistics.
This workshop explores these issues in a way that contributes to improving both forensic transcription and translation, and theoretical understanding of the process and product of transcription.
About the Presenter:
Dr Helen Fraser is a leading figure in the field of forensic transcription. An extended career covering both academic research and practical case work give her a unique perspective at the interface between science and the law. Find out more at forensictranscription.com.au.
Workshop 3
Forensic Linguistics for Teachers
1.00pm – 4.00pm Monday 1st July, 2019
Presenter: Associate Professor Georgina Heydon
Intended audience: teachers of English and linguistics
Description:
This hands on workshop presents a variety of methods for engaging students in the study of English language through forensic linguistics case studies and methods. The models for classroom exercises are suitable to use within secondary school English curricula at all levels and the English Language (VCE) curriculum as well as undergraduate linguistics courses. Teachers will be shown how to develop materials for a mock crime exercise involving authorship identification and how to use voice analysis to investigate the sounds of English. The workshop will include collaborative learning opportunities and participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas for class projects to share and develop with peers.
About the Presenter:
A/Prof Georgina Heydon is the President of the International Association of Forensic Linguists and lectures in forensic interviewing and criminology at RMIT University. She has previously been a guest presenter for the BooBooks English Teachers Conference in Melbourne and is a regular presenter for professional development workshops in law and justice organisations.
Workshop 4
Legal or Police Interpreting for both T&I and legal professionals
Monday 1st July 1.00pm – 4.00pm
Presenter: Dr Miranda Lai
Intended audience: legal practitioners, members of the judiciary, law enforcement and justice department agents, legal interpreters, students in related fields
Description:
Are you a good interviewer? Do you have the interviewing techniques to elicit the most reliable information for the case at hand? If you answer is yes, think about when your interviewee doesn’t speak the same language as you, and you have to work through an interpreter. Are you still confident the answers are still yes? This workshop will introduce the main concepts you need to improve interviewing in your professional practice, including:
- Interlingual challenges in legal discourse
- Concept of ‘accuracy’ in interpreting
- Speech styles and interpreting
- Challenges of interpreter-mediated interviews
- Planning an effective interpreter-mediated interview
- Achieving effective interpreter-mediated interviews
About the Presenter:
Dr Miranda Lai lectures in the interpreting and translating discipline at RMIT. She completed a PhD in interpreter-mediated police interviews, looking into how interpreters facilitated, or otherwise, such processes. Her research interests include police interviewing in bilingual settings, public service interpreting and translating, and ethics for interpreters and translators. She is widely published in translating and interpreting studies, and has delivered training in Australia and overseas.
Workshop 5
Effective use of forensic speech recordings as evidence in criminal trials: Legal and scientific issues
Monday 1st July 1.00pm – 4.00pm
Presenter: Dr Helen Fraser (Adjunct Assoc Professor, University of New England)
Intended audience: legal practitioners, members of the judiciary, students in related fields
Description:
Your brief includes covert recordings. The transcript shows they contain admissions that concern you – but is the transcript reliable? You listen to the audio: it is unintelligible (poor quality; foreign languages; maybe both). Then again, your ears aren’t the best. When you check the enhanced version against the transcript, you can hear most of the key phrases. Surely the judge and jury will too – they’ll have headphones. So should you spend time checking it out further? Or go along with it, directing limited resources to bigger issues? It’s a judgment call, but there’s some relevant science that can help you make the right decision.
Learn about it in this workshop, rather than in the rush of trial preparations.
About the Presenter:
Dr Helen Fraser is a leading figure in the field of forensic transcription. An extended career covering both academic research and practical case work give her a unique perspective at the interface between science and the law. Find out more at forensictranscription.com.au.