ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Investigating how the spatial and audiovisual conditions in video remote interpreting (VRI) shape communicative interaction in a language-discordant clinical consultation. METHODS: We conducted a multimodal analysis of an authentic VRI-mediated consultation with special reference to spatial arrangements, audiovisual conditions, and the healthcare professional's use of embodied communicative resources (body orientation, eye gaze, gestures). RESULTS: The physician is found to pursue his communicative goals for the consultation by first creating an appropriate spatial and technical environment and then supporting his information-giving and relationship-building actions through the use of nonverbal (embodied) resources like body orientation, gaze and gestures as well as specific turn-management behaviour. CONCLUSION: VRI allows healthcare professionals to access professional interpreters for language-discordant consultations but requires appropriate technical and spatial arrangements as well as users capable of adapting their communicative behaviour to spatial and audiovisual constraints. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Alongside telephone interpreting, VRI is the solution of choice for language-discordant clinical encounters in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its use requires appropriate technical and spatial arrangements as well as specific skills on the part of healthcare professionals to cope with inherent audiovisual constraints.