Sign Languages Commons^™

Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward A Replicable Coding And Scoring Methodology, Jason Parks

Theses and Dissertations

This study describes and evaluates a methodology for sign language word list comparisons. The purpose of this sociolinguistic research tool is to identify similarity relationships among sign language varieties by assessing similarities of lexical items. Similarities are calculated using the Levenshtein distance metric which measures the number of differences between signs.

In this study, the methodology was refined for optimal efficiency through an analysis of: which parameters of a sign should be compared, which values should be included in each parameter value inventory, and which items should be used in the word list. As a result of the study, I …

Creating Your Own Interpreting Materials For Use In The Classroom, Fatima Cornwall

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Currently, there are a few excellent manuals and books on the market for practicing the 3 modes of interpretation. However these materials are more appropriate for advanced spoken language students of court interpretation or practicing interpreters interested in polishing their skills. The speed of the recordings (105–165 words per minute) is very challenging for inexperienced but long-term prospective court interpreters. In this article, the author focuses on how to develop activities that require students to create their own scripts and recordings—that is, their own classroom materials—for use in an Introduction to Court Interpretation course. The author also reflects on the …

Striving For An "A" Grade: A Case Study Of Performance Management Of Interpreters, Karen Bontempo, Bethel Hutchinson

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Research regarding the efficacy of an interpreted education for deaf students has suggested that the practice is fraught with challenges. This could be because interpreters provide merely the illusion of access in a mainstream setting (Winston, 2004), or it may be because many education systems are simply not interpreter ready (Patrie & Taylor, 2008), among other factors. A primary concern is often the proficiency and skill level of interpreters working in education settings. In this article, the authors report on a best-practices process of diagnostic skills analysis, performance management, and a tailored series of ongoing training opportunities undertaken by a …

Editorial: Education, Educating, Educational..., Jemina Napier

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

The Teaching Of Pragmatics As Interpreter Training, Annette Sachtleben, Heather Denny

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Research undertaken in 2010 with an interpreting class at a New Zealand university showed that explicit teaching of pragmatic features of New Zealand English discourse helped develop the students’ awareness of the differences between the semantic meaning and the pragmatic purpose of an utterance.

In this research project, the authors intended to test whether explicit classroom instruction of pragmatic features and these features’ impact on meaning through the use of recorded discourse samples would be effective, considering that explicit language instruction to language learners has been researched and was found to assist success (Kasper & Roever, 2004). In the classroom, …

Developing Expertise Through A Deliberate Practice Project, Gertrude Schafer

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Ericsson (2001) defines expertise as follows, “Expert performers can reliably reproduce their performance any time when required such as during competition and training” (p. 194). Merely practicing a skill repeatedly will not result in expert performance. However, “deliberate practice” can improve performance. Deliberate practice is defined as “…tasks that are initially outside of their current realm of reliable performance, yet can be mastered within hours of practice by concentrating on critical aspects and by gradually refining performance through repetitions after feedback” (Ericsson 2006, p. 692). Mindset effects deliberate practice. Dweck (2006) describes two types of mindset: fixed and growth. A …

Characteristics Of Effective Interpreter Education Programs In The United States, Lisa Godfrey

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The goal of this study was to expand the limited research that currently exists in the field of interpreter education—specifically, as it relates to the readiness-to-credential gap, the consensus in the field that students graduate from interpreter education programs (IEPs) but are not ready to obtain the minimal interpreting credentials set forth by the field at both the state and national levels. To accomplish this goal, in this article the author identifies programs that have a low readiness-to-credential gap and analyzes the characteristics that are contributors to each program’s success so that improvements can be made in current IEPs. In …

Dissertation Abstracts, Julie White Armstrong, Joe Mclaughlin, Rebecca Minor Dr., Jessica Bentley Sassaman, Bruce Sofinski, Linda K. Stauffer Dr., Mary Thumann, Julia Weisenberg

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

A Grammar Of Signwriting, Stuart M. Thiessen

Theses and Dissertations

Signed languages have not enjoyed the benefits of writing for lack of an effective writing system. Writing systems designed for spoken languages are not easily adaptable to signed languages because signed languages are not based on sound. A successful writing system for sign languages must convey a different set of articulators, namely the configurations and movements of the hands, head, and body to convey meaning. This necessarily means that writing systems for signed languages must find a way to express those articulators, reducing a three-dimensional event to a written representation.

One such writing system is SignWriting, a system developed by …

Comparing Deaf Native Signers And Deaf Early Signers With Respect To Phonological Perception, Ian Deandrea-Lazarus

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Common criteria for a native ASL signer include exposure to ASL from birth and having Deaf parents. This study questions the necessity of the second criterion by comparing two groups: 16 Deaf adults with Deaf parents and exposed to ASL from birth, and 16 Deaf adults with hearing parents and exposed to ASL before age two. All determined whether pairs of pseudosigns, sometimes differing in phonological details, matched. The two groups did not differ significantly on accuracy, but the first group responded faster than the second group on average. These findings suggest processing differences between the two groups, but otherwise …