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So You Want to be An Interpreter? Chapter 10

Terms in this set (20)

The process of interpreting: A closer look:
The following is an attempt to describe the social, cognitive and linguistic task of an interpreter.
Process Models:
The task of taking source language utterance and transmitting them into the target language requires the same mental tasks and processes no matter where the work takes place.
Internal Monitor:
Refers to the interpreter's own sense of the accuracy of the interpretation; external monitor refers to cues gleaned from client responses that indicate the clarity of the interpretation.
Five steps of the interpreter process:
1.) Take in source language;
2.) Identify deep structure meaning;
3.) Apply contextual/schema screen;
4.) Formulate/rehearse target language utterance;
5.) Produce interpretation.
Step one: take in source language:
The first step in the interpreting process is perceiving and temporarily storing the incoming source language utterance.
True Comprehension:
Is only possible when the listener remains focused on the SL message until s/he is able to make sense of the incoming text.
Cognitive Competence:
Momentary inability to hear/see can be overcome by a process of mentally "filling in the blanks" by using clues from the overall context, the information immediately preceding and following the point where the interruption occurred, and by drawing on her/his cumulative world experience.
Linguistic and Cultural Requirements:
Seeing/hearing the source language must be comprehended with bilingual-bicultural competence.
Physical Requirement:
Physically able to hear (in the case of spoken language) and see (in the case of signed source language). The bimodal nature of ASL/English interpretation requires the interpreter to move back and forth between auditory/oral channels and visual/gestural channels.
Reciprocal signals:
Certain eye behaviors, head nods, verbal utterance (e.g. right, uh-huh) to indicate that one is attending one comprehending (or not comprehending) the message being received.
Step Two: Analyze deep structure meaning:
An interpreter is required to analyze the surface structure of source language texts.
Critical thinking skills:
Refers to the ability to break the whole into its parts, to examine in detail, to look more deeply into a text and determine its nature.
Social Competence:
The interpreting process takes place primarily in the head of the interpreter.
Thinking:
Requires the exercise of mental faculties in order to form ideas and make conclusions, "starting with what is known or assumed and advancing to a definite conclusion through the inferences drawn."
Listening Critically:
Means to attend to the SL utterance in order to maximize our understanding of what an individual means when speaking/signing.
Step three: apply contextual/schema screen:
At a later phase in the interpreting process, the interpreter must determine how the original message can be presented in the target language and culture in order to maintain all of the units of meaning (propositions), the affect (feelings), appropriate linguistic register and textual organization.
Step four: formulate/rehearse equivalent message:
An interpreter begins to consider how to convey the intended meaning in the target language/ culture in such a way that it will have the same dynamic impact on the recipients of the message.
Linguistic and cultural requirements:
Being linguistically and culturally able to recognize various rhetorical structures (personal anecdote, formal presentation, negotiation, etc.) and use that knowledge to identify speaker/signal goals, as well as to predict the logical path the speaker will follow in accomplishing those goals.
Contextual scan:
An interpreter needs to be constantly scanning the environment in order to note a variety of contextual factors.
Step five: produce target language interpretation:
To produce an interpretation that is linguistically correct, culturally appropriate, that sounds natural and comfortable and that contains all of the units of meaning carried in the original utterance.
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