Sign Languages Commons^™

Deaf Accessibility In The Christian Church, Madison Finley

Honors Projects

Around the globe, only two percent of Deaf people have had the opportunity to be introduced to the Gospel. Religious accessibility is limited for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. This paper begins to investigate:

• How can Christian churches increase accessibility to religion, worship, and other programs for Deaf individuals?

My Honors Project activity is preparing research and materials for a physical guide booklet for Christian churches that do not currently offer any Deaf ministries or American Sign Language interpretation or that may be seeking to increase accessibility for Deaf individuals. The primary purpose of this project is to create …

Afterword: Some Thoughts From The Former School Superintendent, Paul S. Bartu

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Wartime Emergency And The Education Of Deaf Children, 1941–1944, Clifton F. Carbin, Donna J. Fano

Society for American Sign Language Journal

According to historical accounts, three Canadian schools for deaf children temporarily vacated their premises during World War II (1939–1945). Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Manitoba School for the Deaf in Winnipeg was the third wireless school site for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), from February 17, 1941, to December 31, 1944. In Vancouver, British Columbia, the RCAF took over the grounds of Jericho Hill School for the Deaf, which was in proximity to the RCAF Station Jericho Beach, from early 1942 to December 1945. And the Ontario School for the Deaf (OSD) in Belleville was home …

John Barrett Mcgann, Pioneer In Canadian Deaf Education, Clifton F. Carbin, Donna J. Fano

Society for American Sign Language Journal

This article1 is one of several sesquicentennial projects undertaken by staff of the OSD-SJW Archives to commemorate the 150th anniversary (1870–2020) of the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf (SJW) in Belleville, Ontario. Initially known as the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (OIDD), it opened on Thursday, October 20, 1870. This article includes a condensed history of the life of John Barrett McGann, an Irish-born immigrant to Canada in 1855, and his founding of schools for deaf children in Toronto (1858), Hamilton (1864), and Belleville (1870), taken from a forthcoming book by …

A Decade Of Hard Work And Success, 2010–2020, Clifton F. Carbin, Donna J. Fano

Society for American Sign Language Journal

This article1 is an account of the archives and museum at the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf (SJW) in Belleville, Ontario, which has a long history dating back to 1870. The deaf community affectionately calls this school “Belleville” in American Sign Language after the city where it is located, and so references to the school in this article are also to “the Belleville school.” It is also important to understand that the Belleville school had different names over the years: The school was first called the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb …

Why Schools For Deaf Children Are A Good Thing..., Jody Cripps

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 5, Issue 1

Society for American Sign Language Journal

No abstract provided.

How Hearing Parents With Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing Children Construct Deafness Through Their Early Intervention Experience, Bettie T. Petersen

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores how hearing parents with deaf/hard of hearing children come to understand deafness. This mixed methods study used an online survey and multiple case studies (volunteers from survey). Participants were asked about early intervention experiences and beliefs about deafness. The survey had 74 respondents and five families participated in the interviews. Survey participants’ beliefs about deafness were primarily medical, focusing on the perceived barriers caused by deafness and the remediation of those barriers through spoken language options. A small number of respondents adopted a cultural perspective of deafness and focused on remediation of barriers through involvement in the …

Collaging As Embodied Method: The Use Of Collage In A Study Of American Sign Language (Asl) Interpreters' Experiences, Lucy E. Bailey, Taylor L. Woodall-Greene

The Qualitative Report

This methodological essay describes the generativity of collaborative collaging in a qualitative inquiry project with American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters who serve D/deaf students within a public university. Sign language interpreting is a demanding profession requiring physical endurance, creativity, and quick mental processing to switch between spoken and sign language. Interpreters’ visual communicative culture aligns conceptually with the embodied arts-based, visual, and tactile research technique of collaging. We first introduce collaging scholarship to ground our discussion of using collaging as a method within this case study of ASL interpreters. We then provide an overview of ASL interpreter research and our …

The International Academy Of Language And Culture: The Global (Pre)K-12 Charter School Network, Dree-El Simmons

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The International Academy of Language and Culture (IALC) is a charter school based on the original concept of charter schools by Ray Budde and Albert Shanker, as an academic environment dedicated and designed to improving the educational outcomes for its students through innovative pedagogy. Committed to American (and global) education reform, the IALC incorporates elements from higher education into the early childhood and adolescent settings. We accomplish this by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in our language and culture-based program.

The IALC is a multilingual, full-immersion program. Food Studies (including culinary arts), the Arts, the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Martial Arts …

Lived Experiences Of Mixed-Race Children Of Deaf Adults, Marissa Rivera

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative exploratory study was to examine the impact of Deaf culture upbringing on mixed-race children raised in the United States. The data was obtained through virtual semi structured focus groups with ten mixed-race children of Deaf adults (Codas) over the age of eighteen years old, and an anonymous survey with the phenomenological analysis of participants’ experiences growing up as a mixed-race child of a Deaf adult. Growing up mixed-race as a Coda revealed four overarching themes of lived experiences such as: intersectionality of a mixed-race Coda, parental culture transmission, hearing family members, and managing intersecting …

Goodnight Gorilla: How Do Second Language Learners’ American Sign Language Narrative Renditions Change After Viewing An Asl Model?, Jennifer Beal Dr., Jessica Scott, Terynce Butts

Journal of Interpretation

We investigated the effects of a single viewing of an American Sign Language (ASL) model on university second language learners’ ASL narrative renditions. Spoken English was the first language of all participants and they had varied lengths of signing experience, ranging from 1 to 26 years. Participants completed a receptive measure of ASL. Then they rendered a wordless picture book in ASL. Afterwards, they watched a native-signing adult model of the story in ASL, and then told the story again. We investigated their inclusion of specific details and how they expressed them, including their use of constructed action (CA), depicting …

Novice Interpreters, American Sign Language Proficiency, And The National Interpreter Certification Performance Exam, Laurie Swabey, Andrea M. Olson, Aimee M. Sever-Hall, Keith Gamache

Journal of Interpretation

More than 40 years after American Sign Language (ASL) and interpreter education were first offered as programs of study in higher education, little is known about the level of ASL proficiency of graduates from baccalaureate degree programs in interpreting and what level of ASL proficiency may be associated with passing the performance portion of the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) examination. With this in mind, we posed three questions: 1) What is the distribution of ASL Proficiency Interview (ASLPI) ratings of a national sample of novice interpreters relatively near the time of graduation from baccalaureate degree programs in interpreting? 2) What …

Resiliency: Experiences Of African American/Black Sign Language Interpreters., Jordan Satchell, Campbell Mcdermid, Lindsey Totten, Anna Yarborough

Journal of Interpretation

There is a growing body of literature on the experiences of African American/Black sign language interpreters (Carpenter, 2017; West Oyedele, 2015), but still many challenges faced by this community in the field. For example, many experience isolation in their interpreter education programs and later in the field, and they described the programs they attended as White-centric and oppressive (Carpenter, 2017; Cokey & Schafer, 2016; West Oyedele, 2015). To understand their experiences better, a qualitative study was conducted which involved interviewing ten African American/Black interpreters. The findings indicated many barriers in the field, including racism and discrimination in systems of networking. …

Editorial Commentary, Kim B. Kurz, Danielle Hunt

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Translanguaging In Court Proceedings: How Interpreter Pedagogy Needs To Address Monolingual Ideologies In Court Interpreting That Delegitimize Litigants’ Voices, Alan James Runcieman

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The majority of court proceedings are based on monolingual ideologies that assume that the court is speaking one, specific, bounded language and the litigant another. Thus, interpreting processes in this context are framed as an L-B to L-A interchange, a bridge between two linguistically and culturally discrete entities. In increasingly superdiverse societies, however, court interpreters are finding that their clients do not always respect these rigid boundaries, often engaging instead in what has become to be known as translanguaging, a form of linguistically fluid, hybrid, and often creative discourse that sources all the client’s (para)linguistic repertoires, acquired throughout their personal …

Dynamic Sight Translation: A Simultaneous Interpreting Strategies Driver, Kun Yan, Zhongwei Song

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This paper reports on eliciting anticipation strategy, a common strategy in simultaneous interpreting (SI) via sight translation (ST). A new ST variant, the dynamic type, was designed in a modular and progressive manner to facilitate the trainees’ transition into SI at the early stage of learning. The new tool was used and tested under a framework of action research that was conducted continuously over 3 years. Despite some limitations, the longitudinal study finds that the newly designed set of exercises is not only a skill development and transfer enabler but also a contributor to eliciting SI-related strategies. This article explains …

Public Service Interpreter Education In The Gulf States: Ideas For Curriculum Design And Teaching, Mustapha Taibi

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The Gulf States host large numbers of non-Arabic-speaking residents and visitors. These non-nationals need to deal with such public services as hospitals, schools, courts, and other local administrations. In many cases, English is used as a lingua franca; however, not all public service staff or clients are able to speak or communicate effectively in this language. The communication needs in such situations require the assistance of professional public service interpreters, which, in turn, calls for appropriate education. In this paper, I outline education needs in public service interpreting in the Gulf States; provide an overview of common curricular contents and …

Re-Examining “Practice” In Interpreter Education, Rachel E. Herring, Laurie Swabey, Elisabet Tiselius, Manuela Motta

International Journal of Interpreter Education

In this commentary, the authors explore “practice” in interpreter education. They outline differences in meaning and usage of the term, including the notions of “reflective practice” and “deliberate practice,” discuss the importance of high-quality skill development-focused practice (SDFP) in skill acquisition, and call for a systematic program of research into SDFP in interpreter education, particularly within the context of dialogue interpreting.

Are Two Heads Better Than One? Interpreting Students’ Moral Reasoning Skills, Robyn Dean, Vincent Samar, Daniel Maffia

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) is an internationally used instrument that measures an individual’s moral reasoning skills—that is, how an individual explains right and just action. DIT scores are correlated with age and education, and they are also correlated with clinical performance when administered to professional practitioners. Practicing signed language interpreters’ scores, however, were not reflective of their age and education in one study, being much lower than those of practitioners from other professions. Providing communication access for individuals who do not share the same language as their service providers is grounded in social justice and equity, yet practicing interpreters’ …

Shades Of Us: The Need For Culturally Pluralistic Educational Tools And Practices In Asl-English Interpreter Education, Pamela Collins

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The aim of this paper is to detail one professor’s use of storied experience as a strategy to engage and stimulate interpreting students. It also maps out a proposed dream project intended to move students past the confines of interpreting classrooms and toward an exploration of community that spans time.

Book Review: Theorising Interpreting Studies, Rui Du, Weiwei Wang

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Exploring Healthcare Interpreting For Chinese Immigrants In New Zealand: Current Practices And Stakeholder Perspectives, Yunduan Gao

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Cai Tool-Supported Si Of Numbers: A Theoretical And Methodological Contribution, Francesca Maria Frittella

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Numbers are an area of interpreting that is particularly prone to human error. Thanks to recent advancements in automatic speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, computer-assisted interpreting (CAI) tools may soon be used to enhance delivery accuracy for numbers during simultaneous interpreting (SI).

Given the novelty of the topic, the impact of in-booth CAI tool support on the SI of numbers is still largely under-researched. First, only a few studies have addressed the topic. Second, due to a number of methodological limitations, their findings yield only a partial understanding of the issue. The present work aims to make …

International Journal Of Interpreter Education, Volume 14, Issue 1

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Underlying Forces In Interpreter Education In The United States, Chris Mcgaha

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

In interpreter education programs across the United States, future practitioners are shaped and molded by many factors during their education journey, some explicit and some implicit. Those factors can include the formal curriculum, faculty and staff diversity, and interactions with mentors and peers. The underlying forces or hidden curriculum that often goes unseen can impact a student’s educational journey positively or negatively. The impact can vary depending on certain demographic variables of the individual students. The data was analyzed using a system thinking framework and validated that there are underlying forces influencing interpreter student development. The following research briefly examined …

Adjusting To Change: Learning American Sign Language Online During A Global Pandemic, Kara Gournaris

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Second language acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) requires opportunities for engagement with native language models (Krashen, 1988). The shift to online instruction due to the impact of COVID-19 presented unique challenges for ASL programs across the United States. With little time to redesign courses, instructors and students had to navigate the experience of online learning together. The students who participated in this 2020 study at Western Oregon University (WOU) shared their raw experiences related to this transition, and unfortunately, one year later, many of the same barriers reported by students persist. The purpose of this article is to share …

Exploring Teaming Dynamics In Video Remote Interpreting, Jana R. Mauldin

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

Collaborative work is an integral part of providing a successful interpretation in certain situations, and the practice of working in Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) settings has left interpreters without their usual strategies or approaches available to work as a team. This research study utilized an online questionnaire to explore strategies employed and challenges faced by interpreters working together in VRI. A descriptive survey revealed that interpreters alter their approach to teaming, juggle a multitude of technological demands, and have created inventive ways of connecting or using technology to their advantage. Findings also indicate the need for increased training in VRI, …

Interpreting Beyond The Binary: An Exploration Into The Experience Of American Sign Language Interpreters Beyond And Between Female/Male Binaries, Tristen Evah Hellewell

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

This study explores the experience of sign language interpreters who exist between and beyond female/male gender binaries. Limited research in the field of sign language interpreting to date centers the experiences of transgender and non-binary interpreters, prompting the need for inquiry into this population. Through a mixed-methods approach using surveys (N=31), interviews (n=4) and a focus group (n=4) participants were asked to describe experiences with colleagues, interpreter users, hiring bodies and the general interpreting field. Three themes emerged from the findings including (a) collegial relationships indicating both lack of support and instances of collegial solidarity; (b) personhood of interpreters pertaining …

Error Occurrences And Types Between Certified And Non-Certified Interpreters, Ariel Baeseman

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

Much of the standard interpreting practice is dependent on an interpreter’s certification level. As a result, many interpreters find themselves at assignments for which they are not qualified. This study aimed to identify what differences in error rates - if any - were present between interpreting samples from certified and non-certified interpreters of similar experience levels. In a sample of ten interpreters with less than five years of professional interpreting experience, split evenly between certified and non-certified, each provided an unrehearsed interpretation of the same stimulus to be analyzed. The sample was rated against a rubric measuring knowledge-lean interpreting skills …