Book review of Multilingual Practices and Monolingual Mindsets: Critical Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Health Care Interpreting

Abstract

First paragraph: In Multilingual Practices and Monolingual Mindsets, Jinhyun Cho sets out an ambitious and timely goal: to examine the persistent under-recognition of healthcare interpreting in Australia through the lens of critical sociolinguistics, with particular emphasis on language, race, and class. Drawing on interviews with 67 healthcare interpreters, Cho argues that the marginalisation of interpreting is deeply tied to Australia’s English monolingualism and the racialised and classed hierarchies that structure Australian society. The book seeks to highlight how these structural conditions shape interpreters’ everyday experiences, limit their recognition as professionals, and undermine equitable access to healthcare for patients who speak languages other than English (LOTE).