Contents
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Service models
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Text analysis
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Simultaneous Interpreting
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Text analysis: Linguistic Features
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Consecutive Interpreting and Simultaneous Interpreting: Mapping
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Educational Research
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Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
ASL Interpreting Service Models Further Explored
Suggested activity: Read the two articles explaining various service models of interpreting then click on the reflection PDF and answer the questions.
Text Analysis
The following Powerpoint walks you through the "Meaning of Texts" process. As you read the text below you can follow along with the Powerpoint for more information. You will need to choose a source text to use for this exercise.
Witter-Merithew, A., Taylor, M., and Johnson, L., “Guided Self-Assessment and Professional Development Planning: A Model Applied to Interpreters in Educational Settings”. Appendix A, pp. 177-196 in Proceedings of the 17th National Conference of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf: Tapestry of Our Worlds, Clay Nettles (Ed.) (2002). RID Publications: Alexandria, VA.
Simultaneous Interpreting
For the following videos provide a simultaneous interpretation and record your work. Once you have completed the recording of your work go back and gloss your interpretation. It is important that you only gloss what you see on your recording. Do not fix errors, add interpretation to what you sign or fill in gaps. If you do, you will not benefit from this exercise. In your gloss include not only the words signed but add the information you see on your face and body as well. This includes NMM, shifting, leaning, etc. After you have completed your gloss, compare the gloss to the original text. Analyze your work and look for completion of thoughts, clarity in pronouns or referents, missing information, cohesion, sentence markers, constructed action/dialogue, etc. Were the choices made in the interpretation effective? Equivalent? Were there other choices that could've been incorporated into the interpretation? How was space utilized in the interpretation? How were different speakers or comparisons represented in the interpretation? What did the process of choosing the signs present in the work look like? Reflect on your work and use these questions to help guide your reflection.
Text Analysis: Identifying Linguistic Features
While watching the source text utilize the list of linguistic features as a guide of what to look for in the text. You may add features to look for to your own list. This exercise can be done solo or with a partner to debrief about what you saw. You may also want to choose a sign with which you are unfamiliar and analyze it by describing the sign parts (parameters of: location, movement, NMM, palm orientation, handshape).
Register of speaker
Constructed action/dialogue
Discourse markers: sequential, listing, transitions
Cohesion: referents, lexical [word level], grammatical, space, repetition
Non-manuals: eyes/eye gaze, facial grammar, shoulders, torso, head
Prosody: pace, affect, pausing, sign production, rhythm, tone, stress, duration of sign
ASL Texts
*TW//Violence/Genocide
Consecutive/Simultaneous Interpreting: Mapping
Choose a text and whether you will interpret simultaneously or consecutively. Once you have rendered your interpretation choose another text and proceed with the opposite interpreting approach as you took for the first text (if you interpreted consecutively the first time then you will interpret simultaneously the second time). Once finished compare the two interpretations specifically for linguistic features related to mapping. How was space used in each interpretation? What linguistic features were used to organize the information? Was information organized horizontally, vertically, by listing, in neutral space? Were any visual organizational structures, e.g. bubble map, tree, used in the note-taking? Were there instances of constructed action or dialogue? Was space used in a temporal manner (past, present, future)? Was sequencing used to organize the interpretation? What prosodic features were used? How were main ideas, propositions and details organized? How was the relationship between a main idea and supporting ideas shown? Use these questions to guide your reflection and comparison. Once you have done so, pick a text and brainstorm some ways in which you could organize the information differently in the target language.
ASL Texts
*TW//Sexual Assault
Educational Interpreting Scholarly Research
Access and Outcomes
Code Choices and Consequences: Implications for Educational Interpreting
Davis, Jeffrey E. “Code Choices and Consequences: Implications for Educational Interpreting.” Sign Language Interpreting and Interpreting Education, pp. 113–141.
Marschark, M., Sapere, P., Convertino, C., Seewagen, R. (2005). In Marschark, M., Peterson, R., & Winston, E.A., (Eds.), Interpretingand interpreter education: Directions for research and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Academic and Educational Interpreting from the Other Side of the Classroom: Working with Deaf Academics
Campbell, Linda, and Kathryn Woodcock. “Academic and Educational Interpreting From the Other Side of the Classroom: Working with Deaf Academics.” Interpreting for Academics, edited by Meg J Rohan, pp. 81–105.
Ethics in Educational Interpreting
Winston, Elizabeth A. “Ethics in Educational Interpreting.” Views, Feb. 1998, p. 30.
Improving Professional Relationships in the Classroom: Teachers and Interpreters Working Together
LeGal, B. C. (2019). Improving Professional Relationships in the Classroom: Teachers and InterpretersWorking Together (master's thesis). Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon. Retrieved fromhttps://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/56
Secondary Educational Interpreters: Role Ambiguity and Role Strain
Smietanski, R. (2016). Secondary educational interpreters: role ambiguity and role strain (master's thesis). Western Oregon University,Monmouth, Oregon. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/33
Interpreter Competencies in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics as Identified by Deaf Professionals
Grooms, C. (2015). Interpreter competencies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as identified by deaf professionals (master'sthesis). Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/18
Prescriptive or Descriptive: An Objective View of Language
"Sign language interpreters should act as linguistic descriptivists. That is, interpreters should look at language as it is used by native signers in the Deaf community and attempt to emulate that language in their target language production. Unfortunately, there is a trend toward linguistic prescriptivism in interpreter education and in the sign language interpreting community. These prescriptivists focus on some notion of ASL “purity” and how they assume ASL should be signed. While, on the face of it, it seems that such a motivation would be praiseworthy, in reality this approach frames the Deaf community’s language as an object of judgment with the interpreter serving as judge." -Steven Surrency (CI/CT, SC:L)
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Surrency, Steven. “Respecting Language: Sign Language Interpreters as Linguistic Descriptivists.” Street Leverage, Streetleverage.com, 10 Nov. 2015, streetleverage.com/2015/11/respecting-language-sign-language-interpreters-as-linguistic-descriptivists/.