Training sign language interpreters in Australia: An innovative approach (original) (raw)
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The main aim of this research is to introduce the future interpreters with their role and work activities, suggestions, responsibilities, skills and to familiarize the existing interpreters with what is expected from them within or during an interpreting setting. This research also aims to show or identify different ways and types of interpreting and above all to emphasize the need for mastering the three most essential skills such as; language skills, interpretation skills and interpretation protocol skills and interpretation management skills as well.Keywords: interpreter, role, facilitate, setting, suggestion, skill
This paper focuses on public service interpreting in Australia, which, like many predominantly Anglophone countries, had policies and practices that openly discouraged bi-and multilingualism and that marginalised translation and interpreting. A change to this occurred in the mid-1970s when social policy caught up with post-WWII reality and multiculturalism became a cornerstone of public policy at all levels. Virtually overnight, national policy required the establishment of a national body that registered suitably attributed interpreters and translators to service the needs of non-English-speaking residents. This has led to the development of T&I infrastructure that is responsive to larger and smaller, older and newer linguistic groups, but which encounters attendant difficulties in the harmonisation of standards of practice amongst interpreters across different languages. The relationship of testing to training is examined and this paper concludes with data on those currently entering the sector: statistics are provided from a sample of 50 trainees, attending an introductory, 40-hour course entitled 'Entry-level Interpreting' on their motivational and career-aspirational features, and on their views and experiences of interpreting practice. Resumen: Este artículo se centra en los servicios públicos de interpretación en Australia, y provee información general sobre elementos sociales e históricos de Australia. Australia, como muchos otros países angloparlantes, tenía políticas y procedimientos diseñados para desalentar el bilingüismo y poliglotismo, lo cual consecuentemente marginalizó la traducción e interpretación. Esto comenzó a cambiar a mediados de los años setenta, cuando la política social se puso al corriente de las realidades de la posguerra y el multiculturalismo se volvió una pieza clave de la política pública a todos niveles. Prácticamente de un día a otro, la política nacional requirió el establecimiento de una entidad que registrara intérpretes y traductores adecuadamente acreditados para satisfacer los servicios requeridos por aquellos residentes que no hablaban inglés. Esto llevo al desarrollo de una infraestructura de intérpretes y traductores capaz de responder a las necesidades de grupos lingüísticos grandes y pequeños, nuevos y viejos, pero que a la vez se encuentra con la constante dificultad de asegurar que sus intérpretes en diferentes idiomas mantengan los mismos estándares profesionales. Este artículo examina la relación entre capacitación y examen, y concluye con información sobre estudiantes que se encuentran a punto de unirse a la industria. Las estadísticas provistas son de una muestra de cincuenta estudiantes, los cuales estudiaron un curso de introducción de cuarenta horas llamado " Curso de interpretación de nivel básico ". Así mismo, este artículo provee información sobre la motivación de los estudiantes, sus ambiciones profesionales, y sus opiniones y experiencias sobre la práctica de interpretación. 60 Palabras clave: servicio público de interpretación, políticas gubernamentales de servicios de idiomas, estudiantes de interpretación, pedagogía de interpretación.
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The lack of practical training in interpreting courses at universities represents considerable challenges. Many university interpretation students suffer from inadequate training that prepares them for the interpretation market. Graduates will not be hired as interpreters unless they have high-quality interpretation skills. In spite of the crucial role of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting training in preparing well-qualified interpreters, researchers have not treated this role in much detail. The present study investigates the impact of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting training on fostering EFL learners' interpretation competencies. The study sample consists of 26 students from the fourth level in the Translation Department, UST, Yemen, who are studying consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. The students will be exposed to extensive training in interpreting courses, including many practical activities such as role-playing, focus group discussion, simulation,...
New demands on interpreting and the learning curve in interpreter training
Demands on conference interpreters have changed in the 50 years since the birth of the modern profession. Meetings on complex topics are compressed into a few hours, English is spoken in many varieties, and interpreters must increasingly deal with discourse which is fast, dense and/or often read from text, and must often provide clear, accurate SI into a B (acquired) language. The paper examines the cognitive and technical challenges posed by these modern conditions, and the strategies of experienced professionals for dealing with them, then reviews the existing interpreter training model and the stages trainees pass through in developing basic competence, and proposes exercises and other measures to upgrade interpreter training to meet the new challenges.
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Interpreting in legal settings has become a specialized area of practice that requires specific training and ongoing professional development. This study examined the training and professional development needs of ASL-English interpreters in North America. The 1,995 participants in an online survey included interpreters who provide services in legal settings and those who do not. The data suggest that interpreters desire certificate programs that are delivered in multiple formats, including face-to-face intensive experiences, online distance learning, and regional and local mentoring experiences. The training content areas participants wanted most include specialized interactions; legal discourse across a range of settings including police, domestic violence, depositions, and jury trials; interpreting techniques when working in deaf/hearing teams, using consecutive interpreting and error identification and correction; and ethics and decision making. All of the data analyzed offer in...
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The Interpreters' Newsletter, 18, 17-34, 2013
This paper explores the way in which 10 professional interpreters develop and cultivate their expert interpreter competence. It draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews and carries forward the previous process- and experience-based account of interpreter skills and (sub)competencies based on the same 90,000 word corpus (cf. Albl-Mikasa 2012). The main points addressed are the requirements that can be learned, the timeline of acquisition of the various (sub)competences, and the ways in which they are further developed. These ways include formal continuous professional development, semi-formal assignment- geared knowledge building, informal off-the-job acquisition of relevant information, on-the-job learning by doing, and the evolvement of savoir-faire in the course of professional life. (http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/handle/10077/9738)
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Profoundly deaf people, whose first or preferred language is British Sign Language (BSL), face many barriers in the workplace. These range from under-employment and difficulties in securing job interviews, to communication difficulties, discrimination, isolation, exclusion from the workplace, and lack of career promotion and progression 2 . Many deaf people cannot lip-read or use speech to communicate.
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In postgraduate interpreter training, the main objective of the course is to help trainees develop various competences, from linguistic, textual and cultural competence, to professional and specific interpreting competence. For simultaneous interpreting (SI), the main focus is on mastering the SI technique and strategies as well as on developing and strengthening communicative skills, which will be discussed and illustrated with examples in the present paper. First, a brief overview will be given of all the necessary competences of a professional interpreter with greater emphasis on specific interpreting competence for SI. In the second part of the paper, various approaches will be described in terms of acquiring specific skills and strategies, specifically through a range of exercises. Besides interpreting entire speeches, practical courses should also consist of targeted exercises, which help trainees develop suitable coping strategies and mechanisms (later on almost automatisms), while at the same time “force” them to reflect on their individual learning process and interpreting performance. This provides a solid base on which trained interpreters can progress and develop their skills also after joining the professional sphere. Keywords: interpreter training, competence, strategies, skills, exercises.