Colloquium Lecture Series, 2013-2014

Gallaudet’s Department of Interpretation (DOI). Center for Advancement of Interpreting and Translation Research (CAITR), & Regional Interpreter Education Center (GURIEC) partnered to present the 2013-14 Colloquium Lecture Series.

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2013-14 Colloquium Lecture Series Presentations

Following the Paper Trail: Putting Institutional Ethnography into Practice

Jeremy L. Brunson,.PhD
Associate Professor, Gallaudet University
Washington, DC

Institutional ethnography adopts a different ontology from traditional approaches to research than traditional sociologies. Rather than exploring a particular phenomenon at either the micro- or macro-level, institutional ethnographers begin in the everyday and trace its organization back to the remote apparatuses that coordinate it.

In order to do this, an emphasis is placed on the role of texts as they are the means by which the everyday is organized and are how people in various locales are connected to one another. This is particularly true in an industrialized society.

This talk provides an overview of institutional ethnography as a method of inquiry and explores the use of texts in two milieus in which interpreters work: video relay and legal.

Assessing Communicative Effectiveness and the Conventions of International Sign (IS)

Lori A. Whynot
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia

Recent decades have seen increased visibility of the signing contact phenomenon, International Sign (IS). Website video blogs publish information in IS for a global Deaf audience, and international Deafness-related conferences regularly adopt it as an auxiliary conference “language” to make content accessible to varied signed language users.

There are unexamined assumptions about what information can be successfully conveyed with IS. Furthermore, there is insufficient research to inform teaching or interpreting with it, yet IS training is in demand.

IS is described as a complex pidgin which employs similar structures found in conventional national signed languages (Supalla,1995; Padden,1993, Moody, 2002; Allsop, Woll, and Brauti, 1995; Locker McKee & Napier, 2002; Rosenstock, 2004, Rosenstock, 2008). The only study of comprehension suggests that this ‘de facto’ lingua franca is more readily understandable by North American or Western signed language users who viewed interpreters using it (Rosenstock, 2004). There is still more to learn about factors that afford and limit understanding of International Sign.

This presentation describes a current PhD project that analyzes conventions of lexicon and depiction observed in expository IS, as created by diverse Deaf, international signers. Comprehension is subsequently assessed in five different countries using a mixed methods approach.

The research examines sociolinguistic factors and the extent that discourse information in IS is conveyed to viewers from distinctly different signed language backgrounds. It offers defining parameters of IS and suggests differences between comprehension of IS and conventional national signed languages.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Christine Monikowski
RIT/NTID
Rochester, NY

The study of interpreting between American Sign Language (ASL) and English is a relatively new discipline linked to linguistics, communication, sociology, and studies of social interaction.

The dramatic increase in ASL/English interpreter education programs in institutions of higher education across the United States requires instructors who can succeed in the academy, which often means completing doctoral degrees and navigation through the tenure and promotion processes.

This presentation discusses the challenges faced in our field – teaching, practice, and research – and offers reflections on the “academization” we are experiencing including changes in our programs and faculty.

Trust and Responsibility in the Deaf Community: The Role of Community Engagement for Interpreters and Students

Sherry Shaw

This presentation addresses the fundamental elements of community-interpreter relationships of trust and responsibility. In recent years, interpreter education has evolved from cultural, social, experiential, and linguistic immersion in the Deaf Community to a classroom far-removed from the community.

Video Relay Service Interpreting: Findings from Two Studies

Erica Alley & Annie Marks

Following innovations in video technology, signed language interpreters began working in a new communication environment known as video relay services (VRS), which relies on equipment (e.g. cameras, monitors, computers) to provide telecommunication access to the Deaf community in the United States.

Cognition and L2 British Sign Language Acquisition

Christopher Stone, PhD

Although signed language interpreters have been trained within a university setting from many years, to date little has been understood of the underlying cognitive and linguistic skills required for L2 sign language acquisition and sign language interpreting.

This presentation will report on a longitudinal aptitude study following the learning trajectory of undergraduate students within Deaf studies and interpreting programs identifying the factors that are relevant for sign language learning and relevant for sign language interpreting.