ASL to English Interpretation Flashcards

An interpreter is voicing for a high school Deaf student who uses conceptually accurate ASL. The student signs: 'YESTERDAY ME GO-TO STORE, BUY APPLES, BANANAS, ORANGES.' A grammatically correct English interpretation would be:

Answer: "Yesterday, I went to the store and bought apples, bananas, and oranges."

This answer is the most accurate and natural-sounding English interpretation. It correctly applies English syntax and tense by changing 'ME GO-TO' to 'I went' and appropriately uses conjunctions ('and') for the list of items. The other options are either too literal, grammatically incorrect in English, or add unnecessary words.

When voicing for a student, the interpreter encounters a sign they do not recognize. The student is explaining a key concept in their science presentation. Which of the following is the most professionally appropriate immediate action?

Answer: Voice 'The student used a sign I don't understand for a key term' to the audience.

This approach is transparent and accurately represents the communication situation to the audience without stopping the flow of the presentation or guessing, which could lead to a significant misinterpretation. It places the 'communication challenge' on the interpretation process itself rather than on the student. After the presentation, the interpreter should seek clarification.

Which of the following describes a significant challenge when interpreting from ASL to spoken English, but is less of a challenge when interpreting from spoken English to ASL?

Answer: The need to voice a student's message that may contain linguistic errors or be developmentally immature.

Voicing for children and teens requires the interpreter to accurately represent the student's language, which may be ungrammatical, incomplete, or reflect developmental stages. The interpreter must decide how to voice this faithfully without 'cleaning it up' so much that it misrepresents the student's actual language abilities. The other options are challenges present in both directions of interpreting.

A Deaf elementary student signs with a strong topic-comment structure and frequent use of classifiers. When voicing for this student, the interpreter's English output should prioritize:

Answer: Reconstructing the message into grammatically correct English sentences that convey the full meaning.

The goal of ASL-to-English interpretation is to convey the meaning and intent of the source message in a way that is grammatically and culturally appropriate in the target language. This requires restructuring ASL's topic-comment syntax and unpacking the meaning conveyed by classifiers into standard English sentences, rather than providing a literal, word-for-word transliteration.

An educational interpreter is voicing for a student during a class discussion. The student signs a message, but their non-manual markers (facial expressions and body language) clearly contradict the signs being produced. The interpreter should:

Answer: Attempt to integrate the emotional tone and intent from the non-manual markers into the English interpretation.

Non-manual markers are a critical grammatical component of ASL, conveying tone, affect, and grammatical information (e.g., questions, negations). A faithful interpretation must include the meaning conveyed by these markers to achieve message equivalency. Voicing only the manual signs would omit a significant part of the student's intended message.

When is it most appropriate for an educational interpreter to switch from a more conceptually-based ASL-to-English interpretation to a more literal transliteration in their voicing?

Answer: When the student is signing in English word order (e.g., using PSE) and mouthing English words.

Transliteration involves conveying the message from one language into another while maintaining the source language's structure. When a student is intentionally using a more English-like signing system like Pidgin Signed English (PSE) and mouthing the English words, a more direct transliteration is appropriate as it most accurately reflects the student's linguistic choices and intent.