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Discoursing Into Interpreting - Sign Language Interpreting Students And Their Construction Of Professional Identity As Interpreters For Deafblind Individuals, Gro Hege Saltnes Urdal

Journal of Interpretation

This article reports on students’ process of Bildung expressed as their construction of professional identity as interpreters for deafblind individuals. With a qualitative research design and critical discourse analysis, focus group discussions were used to gain insight into which discourses students drew upon when constructing their professional identity at different stages during their education. Data from the focus group discussions were analyzed by using Fairclough's (1989, p. 112) values of features, experiential and expressive values. The findings indicate that students drew upon intersecting and antagonistic discourses in the construction of their professional identity. At the beginning of their education, and …