Presentation and Workshop for ISL Interpreters, Limerick, 2nd Oct 2010

Puzzled? 

What IS that signer doing 

(and HOW am I supposed to interpret it)?

Presentation and Workshop

(For only ISL interpreters)

By Lorraine Leeson

Saturday, 2^nd October 2010

At Deaf Community Centre, 96A O Connell Street, Limerick City

At 3pm-5pm

Interpreters worldwide often express fear of voice-over and this sometimes has its basis in how they will be judged by other interpreters-or the audience. Some of this anxiety seems be based not in a lack of knowledge of English as a TL, but rather the relationship between the SL and the TL, and perhaps a lack of clarity regarding how information is structured. We know Daniel Gile’s Effort Model (Listening & Attention, Memory, Production, and Coordination) helps identify where interpreter processing goes awry. But-maybe what we also need to look again at what the signer is saying…this presentation and discussion introduces some recent findings from cognitive linguistics that are invaluable in helping interpreters figure out why certain types of text seem ‘harder’ to figure out than others, how the signer partitions out their body to represent different aspects of events, and how more than one perspective on an event can be encoded at one time. We will look at some examples and consider how an interpreter might produce a Target Language given these new ways of considering ISL Source Language messages, and also consider what this brings to SLIs working into ISL as a Target Language.

Tea & coffee will be provided

Let us know if you are coming by email: info@dcclimerick.eu or text 086 7348641

Deaf News "Interpreters lack signs"

Open Yale courses - subtitled University Lectures FREE online

Hi all

I found a great resource for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Education.

Yale University in USA has lots of free lecture series online - in all these subjects:

• Astronomy
• Biomedical Engineering
• Classics
• Economics
• English
• History
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Religious Studies

Each course has about 12 - 24 lectures (one hour each) and all of them have Closed Captions. (or if you prefer, text transcripts.)

You can use QuickTime to play each lecture (the files are very big so you need good BroadBand) and click 'CC' to turn on subtitles.

Just go to the homepage:

http://oyc.yale.edu/

Then choose one of the subject on the left.

You will see different courses listed on the page for each subject.

Click on a course.

Then on the next page, click view class sessions >> Then you will see a list of lectures.

Click on any lecture.

Here you can download the entire transcript of the lecture AND the video of the lecture.

At the end of the screen you will see:

Quicktime Options
[low bandwidth] - dialup
[high bandwidth / closed captioned] - cable / T1
average file size 600MB


Click on closed captioned

Then a new window will open and the lecture will play
Click on CC to switch on subtitles.


Great resource for Deaf / HOH people who want to find out more (not just Deaf / HOH, I am thinking of watching an Economics course there myself!)



Bad news: no ISL or ASL there yet! Maybe thats next step .... ?



Cormac

MEAN^DEEP BUT DEPEND CONTEXT

Lorraine Leeson and Susan Foley-Cave (2004): 'MEAN^DEEP BUT DEPEND^SITUATION'*: Some Reflections on the Challenges of Interpreting Semantics and Pragmatics in an Irish context.

This paper challenges two related notions:(1) that interpreters are not actively involved in creating the discourse that they ‘mediate’ and (2) they are impartial with respect to both the message and the participants in an interpreted event. While much has been said regarding the myth of neutrality vis-à-vis interpreters in medical settings (Metzger 1999) and in police interviews (Wadjensjo 1998), we wish to look at the particular challenges that face interpreters in the postgraduate education environment, specifically, in a classroom dedicated to introducing topics in semantics and pragmatics.

We suggest that the challenges of discussing the semantics of one language in translation demands decision making on several levels on the part of the interpreter. We outline some of these and consider the consequences of such decisions. We also discuss the role of consultation with students and staff regarding appropriateness of message transfer and contrast the practice of active preparation, consulting and decision making both on and off task with the notion of the interpreter as mediator and impartial bystander.

Finally we suggest that while the decisions made by the interpreters in the semantics/ pragmatics classroom are influenced by a metalinguistic framework, similar decisions are made in other interpreted domains. We suggest that old, highly embedded models of interpreter as conduit continue to influence understanding of the interpreters’ role and that this needs to be challenged in order for us to come to appreciate more fully the nature of co-constructed interpreted discourse in action.

Arranging for Sign Language Interpretation Abroad: A Disability Service Provider Perspective

Disability services offices across the [USA] are asking themselves whether or not to provide accommodations for Deaf students who hope to travel abroad through educational exchange programs. After the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ruled that Arizona State University did not have to provide interpreter services for a Deaf student who wanted to attend University College in Cork, Ireland, in January 2002, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported, “Advocates for students with disabilities say the decision… could cause some colleges to begin denying many students accommodations when they want to study overseas.”*. However, the Arizona case remains one ruling among several regarding overseas accommodations, leaving the educational community with lingering questions.

Read the rest of this article here or here.

Educational Interpreting in Ireland - Guidelines

Found a couple of interesting documents on Irish educational interpreting.

DNA Project website based in Trinity College Dublin

AHEAD Educational Support Worker Handbook.


Handy to have reference to these as a guide to how educational interpreters should work, and produced by two very high authorities in the field. The DNA Project was a highly successful project (not sure if the project is still going but really hope it is) focusing on integration of Deaf and hard of hearing students into third level, administered by Amy O'Shea, a NAATI-accredited Australian interpreter herself. AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability) is a highly respected independent non-profit organisation working to promote full access to and participation in third level education for students with disabilities in Ireland.