In recent years, stricter standards have been proposed for interpreters in healthcare settings, but evidence for those proposals has yet to be shown through research. This study begins with exploration of the current literature regarding interpreting in healthcare settings to determine if specialization would address issues, problems, and concerns identified in previous research. The author also collected data via pilot surveys among both the d/Deaf community and working ASL-English interpreters, with a total sample size of ten participants, to investigate where current opinions stand on the issue of healthcare specialization. Surveys reflected widespread agreement among d/Deaf participant that healthcare interpreting should require specialized certification, but opinion among working interpreters was more evenly divided. These results provide evidence that current interpreting standards in the medical field fall short of the ideal, and require action from professional organizations to provide better service to d/Deaf and hearing consumers. Before professional organizations establish guidelines, further research should be done to better understand current opinion and interpreter concerns.
Citation: Lonergan, Carly (2016) “The Importance of Specialized Certification in Healthcare Interpreting,” Journal of Undergraduate Interpreting Studies by NIEC. Northeastern University
This article explores the concept of e-professionalism—an expansion of the professionalism paradigm to include behaviors and attitudes displayed in online environments—as it may relate to signed language interpreters. The rising importance of e-professionalism is illustrated by examining research showing increasing participation in online social networking activities across all generations of society and the possibility of a shifting cultural landscape online. The concept of small world ethics is applied to the Deaf community, and it is argued that the new cyber culture is rendering an already small community metaphorically even smaller via social media. It is argued that there is a need for more formal research into how social media is impacting the interpreting profession, and there is a call for interpreter educators to proactively incorporate e-professionalism into interpreter training and continuing professional development programs. The article concludes with considerations to foster professional usage of SNS and a reminder that while the avoidance of unprofessional online behaviors is one component, e-professionalism awareness should also incorporate knowledge of how the power of social media can be effectively harnessed to an individual’s professional advantage.
Citation: Best, Brett A. (2016) “E-Professionalism and Signed Language Interpreters: Considering Social Media, Online Disclosure, and Small World Ethics,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 2.
This paper focuses on Chicana/os who are hearing impaired and the struggles they face. This research project will address the different styles of sign language and different kinds and levels of hearing loss. Using peer review sources I provide statistics on the number of Chicana/os in the United States with hearing disabilities and narrow it down to the number of Deaf Chicana/os in Washington state. In this paper I will address the additional challenges faced by deaf Chicana/os as they attempt to communicate with their families who only speak Spanish; most of the time a sibling is compelled to learn sign language and become their personal interpreters, which brings it own sets of challenges. This paper also addresses the high demand that exist for trilingual interpreters. Finally, this paper address the challenges Chicana/os Latina/os face in acquiring an insurance the properly covers the needs of the hearing impaired in their community.
Citation: Gutierrez, Christina, “The Lack of Diversity Among Sign Language Interpreters Presents Major Challenges for the Health Care Industry Serving the Chicana/o Community” (2016). 2016 Symposium. 10.
This paper examines the history of oppression of the Deaf as a cultural minority and the ways in which interpreters may contribute to oppression. The paper then shows how interpreters can recognize and stop such oppressive tendencies and how they can instead empower the Deaf as an ally. Society views the Deaf as defective and requires that they conform to the hearing majority—a type of oppression called audism—this can cause interpreters to unconsciously form a negative view of their Deaf clients. Also, because interpreters are often the only ones that understand what is going on between both languages and cultures, they are in a powerful position that could easily be abused. Even after the establishment of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), interpreters have still frequently caused oppression in the Deaf community, and whether that oppression is caused by ignorance or lack of respect, becoming aware of such tendencies will help to stop oppression. Oppression ceases and empowerment begins when the interpreter becomes an ally, someone who comes alongside and supports the Deaf. There are many different ways to empower the Deaf, such as using a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) and constantly working at improving competence with skills in interpreting and American Sign Language (ASL). The end goal is dynamic equivalence for Deaf and hearing clients. It is when both hearing and Deaf people work alongside each other that the cycle of oppression will be broken.
Ziebart, Erika L. (2016) “Oppression, Empowerment, and the Role of the Interpreter,” Montview Liberty University Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 1.
This article presents the findings of a study conducted with Deaf and hearing American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters from Canada and the United States who interpret legal discourse and legal interactions. This qualitative research study was designed to explore constructs of power and power dynamics that emerge in interpreted interactions. Sixteen interpreters, with at least fifteen years of experience in legal interpreting participated in an on-line survey; nine also participated in focus groups. This study found intersections among power and privilege, interpreters’ sense of agency, their conceptualization of the task of interpreting, and their training. Participants reported situations where the power dynamics between Deaf and hearing interpreting teams did not support effective interpretation and ultimately had a negative impact on the interaction. How interpreters conceptualize the task of interpreting appears to be a key factor in producing successful interpreted interactions where power is mediated via interpretation. Participants offered examples of how conceptualization of the task of interpreting by various participants in an interpreted interaction (e.g. self, team partner, consumers) impacts their decision-making in several ways: qualification for an assignment; how they function as a Deaf-hearing team; and, what strategies they use to create meaning-based interpretation. This study highlights that the interpreter’s own awareness of power and privilege is a crucial pre-requisite to support active decision-making that facilitates effective interpretation.This study has implications for interpreter educators and interpreters, and while the focus is on interpreting in legal settings, results are applicable across settings.
Russell, Debra and Shaw, Risa (2016) “Power And Privilege: An Exploration Of Decision-Making Of Interpreters,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 7.
Fingerspelling, an aspect of American Sign Language, is difficult for second language English-speaking adults to learn (Bahleda, 1998), yet mastery is required by professional ASL-English interpreters. This study compared novice and expert interpreters’ interpretation of fingerspelled words under the assumption that exposure to priming material in their L1, English, would enable the interpreters to recognize those terms when fingerspelled in their L2, ASL. In this study, participants (15 novices, 15 experts) were asked to interpret an ASL text with 25 “carefully” fingerspelled words embedded. Ten subjects were not given priming materials, ten a list of words in printed English that represented the “carefully” fingerspelled words in the ASL text, and ten were given a printed English story synopsis with the “carefully” fingerspelled words embedded. Overall, there was evidence of an L1 priming effect as the interpreters who were given access to the English words interpreted more of the fingerspelled words correctly than the interpreters who were given no priming materials (*p=0.04). As predicted, the experts did significantly better at recognizing the “carefully” fingerspelled words than the novices (*p=0.00). As there was no significant difference across the three conditions for the experts (no priming, list of words, story synopsis), they may have been more balanced bilinguals than the novices. However, the expert interpreters who were given no L1 priming materials did not perform significantly better than the novices in any of the three conditions. The five novices who were given a list of words as priming material were more accurate than the ten novices in the other two conditions (no priming and story synopsis). There was also no significant difference for the five novices who were given the list of words as compared to the three expert groups. Tentatively, it would seem that experts without priming materials experienced a depressed ability to read fingerspelling and novice interpreters benefited greatly from the provision of a list of English words.
This is a study of ambiguities and tensions that occur within the role of the bilingual/bicultural researcher in an ethnographic study. This manuscript presents an analysis of three instances from two interviews in a study on the acculturation of deaf students in deaf kindergarten classrooms in Japan and the US. This is an auto-ethnographic analysis of conflicts found in fluctuating between multiple roles: research assistant, interpreter, cultural mediator, and sociolinguistic consultant. In these examples my bicultural knowledge allowed me to identify “hidden” meanings overlooked by other members of the research team. However, my interpreter role at times made it awkward to contribute my insights to the research team. The findings of this study show that interpreters who are linguistically and culturally in-between the researchers and researched play a crucial but delicate role in cross-cultural studies.
Hensley, Jennifer S. (2016) “Blurred Boundaries: Interpreters as Researchers in Cross-Cultural Settings,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.
Sign language interpreters are routinely exposed to the high physical and cognitive demands inherent to the profession. Unfortunately, many interpreters suffer from musculoskeletal disorders as a result of this exposure. There are a myriad of factors that can contribute to the development of a musculoskeletal disorder, but many of these are not under the control of the interpreter. However, individual technique is something that affects upper extremity biomechanics and is something that an interpreter can regulate. Research with musicians has demonstrated that early exposure to musical technique can lead to the development of a technique that is more biomechanically efficient than the technique used by musicians who learn later in life. By extension, a similar effect may exist among sign language interpreters based on the age at which an interpreter first gains competency in a signed language. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether interpreters who learn sign language at a young age (middle school or younger) sign differently than interpreters who did not learn sign language until after high school. An experiment was conducted in which two groups of interpreters interpreted a recorded classroom lecture. Instrumentation was used to evaluate the posture, velocity, and acceleration of the wrist. For all biomechanical variables analyzed, no statistically significant difference was observed between the interpreters who learned sign language early in life and the interpreters who learned sign language later in life.
Donner, Abigail; Marshall, Matthew; and Mozrall, Jacqueline (2016) “Effects of Early Exposure to Sign Language on the Biomechanics of Interpreting,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 4.
The purpose of this case study was to track the progression of a novice interpreter’s use of self-reflective practice while interpreting a series of six University lecture segments, in a controlled environment over a period of three months. It became evident that the novice interpreter in this case study was able to articulate a variety of coping strategies used, and found improvements in her self-reflective practice skills. The results of this study support key suggestions in the literature: that interpreters need to be motivated to aim for expertise by improving their skills through self-reflective practices, via supported environments such as ongoing mentorship, training and professional development.
This longitudinal case study was developed as a multi-methods qualitative study that triangulated three forms of data (quasi-experimental, ethnographic, and retrospective), comparing the novice interpreter’s performance through observations from both the researcher and the participant. A rubric (Appendix 1) was designed based on a variety of assessment tools and taxonomies related to interpreting, and used to track the participant and researcher perceptions each session. This case study has contributed to the field of interpreting in that very few case studies to date have focused on novice interpreters’ self-reflective practices over a period of time.
Citation: Dangerfield, Kirri J. Ms and Napier, Jemina M. Prof (2016) “Tracking The Development Of Critical Self-Reflective Practice Of A Novice Sign Language Interpreter: A Case Study,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 3
This study examines the language and communication dynamics at national conferences of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). RID conferences typically have thousands of attendees who vary in language background, type of linguistic experiences, and fluency. Data in this study were gathered through an online survey and, among other topics, included questions about behaviors, choices and perceptions of communication in structured and unstructured conference activities and language regulation at conferences. Findings indicate the majority of participants reported the perception that spoken English is used more prevalently than American Sign Language (ASL) at RID conferences. Further, 80% of respondents support the use of ASL during unstructured conference time. Slightly more than half of the respondents favored establishing a policy for language use at RID conferences. This empirical study was designed to examine language use at RID national conferences with the aim of offering insights into the linguistic perceptions and decision-making processes in a bilingual conference environment. Results may serve to guide organizations and conference planners on the development of language policy as well as increase awareness of stakeholders in the ASL-English interpreting community.
Citation: Lang, Cassie (2015) “Language Use at RID Conferences: A Survey on Behaviors and Perceptions,” Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 24: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/joi/vol24/iss1/4
