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This paper describes the development of protocols with interpreters employed in an East London psychological trauma clinic. The service treats traumatized refugee people with cognitive methods, according to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidelines for PTSD. NICE states that language should not be a barrier to treatment, but provides no further guidance to achieve this. These protocols for interpreting CBT are designed to be explicit, consistent and ethical. A telephone poll from a recent UK-wide trauma survey, a focus group with local interpreters, and practitioner reflection were all used to develop and refine the protocols and their rationale, which are described, together with implications for future culturally sensitive practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether and how pre-adolescent girls style-shift in Multicultural London English (MLE), a variety of English that is relatively new and potentially still changing. We looked at the extent to which five 11-year-old girls in a homework club in East London, where MLE is spoken, changed their pronunciations in different speech contexts. The results showed that the girls did indeed change their pronunciations in the different contexts (i.e. they style-shifted), and that the patterns of style-shifting varied between both the individual participants and the three vowels which were examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is controversy about the value of psychological interventions offered to refugee people through an interpreter, but little empirical evidence in this field. This study compared routine clinical outcomes of three groups of PTSD patients receiving CBT: refugees who required interpreters; refugees who did not require an interpreter; and English-speaking non-refugees. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether interpreted CBT is feasible. All three groups attended a similar number of sessions and showed significant improvements after treatment. Refugees receiving treatment with and without interpreting did not differ in treatment outcomes. The findings suggest that interpreters can be used with positive outcome in treating PTSD patients with CBT. This study supports NICE (2005) recommendations that CBT should be offered regardless of language need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]