Interpreting Skills & Techniques Flashcards

During a medical appointment, the Deaf patient uses regional signs unfamiliar to the interpreter. What is the best immediate response?

Answer: Ask the patient to fingerspell or clarify the intended meaning

Asking for clarification ensures message accuracy and respects the patient's right to be fully understood.

Which ethical obligation is most relevant when an interpreter realizes mid-assignment that they lack sufficient expertise in the subject matter?

Answer: Inform the hiring agency or client and request a more qualified interpreter if possible

NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct requires interpreters to disclose limitations and advocate for a qualified replacement.

In a team interpreting scenario, what is the primary role of the 'support' (non-active) interpreter?

Answer: Monitor the active interpreter for errors and provide unobtrusive cues

The support interpreter monitors the work and feeds corrections or missed information unobtrusively to the active interpreter.

When interpreting a spoken-English lecture into ASL, the interpreter uses ASL spatial grammar to show relationships between concepts. This practice is called:

Answer: Semantic restructuring using ASL linguistics

Restructuring source content using ASL's spatial grammar and visual syntax produces a semantically equivalent and linguistically appropriate interpretation.

A CDI (Certified Deaf Interpreter) is most effectively utilized in which of the following situations?

Answer: Situations involving Deaf-Blind consumers, foreign sign language users, or consumers with minimal language competency

CDIs bring native language fluency and cultural knowledge critical when communication access is especially complex.

Which processing strategy helps an interpreter avoid falling into the 'source language trap' of producing a word-for-word rendering?

Answer: Increasing lag time to allow for full message comprehension before production

Increasing lag time (processing time) allows the interpreter to comprehend meaning holistically before producing an equivalent target-language message.

An interpreter is working in a K-12 educational setting. The teacher uses humor involving a cultural reference unfamiliar in Deaf culture. The best approach is to:

Answer: Interpret the humor and, if appropriate, briefly provide cultural context that preserves intent

Interpreters should convey all messages including humor, adapting cultural context minimally to preserve the speaker's intent without overstepping.