NIC Educational Settings 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Deaf student's IEP team wants to eliminate interpreting services because the student is 'doing well academically.' The interpreter should:
- Support the decision since the student is succeeding
- Provide factual observations about the student's communication needs if asked, but leave decisions to the team (Correct answer)
- Advocate strongly to keep services regardless of the team's assessment
- Refuse to attend any future IEP meetings without services in place
Correct answer: Provide factual observations about the student's communication needs if asked, but leave decisions to the team
The interpreter can share professional observations about communication access when asked but must remain impartial and defer to the IEP team's authority on placement decisions.
Question 2: When interpreting a classroom debate for a Deaf student, the interpreter must manage rapid turn-taking. The most effective strategy is to:
- Ask participants to slow down or raise hands before speaking
- Use name signs or brief identifiers to attribute each speaker as efficiently as possible (Correct answer)
- Interpret only the most important speaker in each exchange
- Pause the interpretation and summarize when speakers overlap
Correct answer: Use name signs or brief identifiers to attribute each speaker as efficiently as possible
Using speaker attribution strategies (name signs, pointing, brief identifiers) allows the Deaf student to follow the debate's dynamic turn-taking without significant lag.
Question 3: An educational interpreter notices a Deaf student appears to misunderstand a crucial safety instruction in a science lab. The interpreter should:
- Stop and explain the safety instruction to the student personally
- Re-interpret the instruction clearly; if misunderstanding persists, alert the teacher (Correct answer)
- Ignore the situation as it is outside the interpreter's responsibility
- Ask another student to re-explain the instruction to the Deaf student
Correct answer: Re-interpret the instruction clearly; if misunderstanding persists, alert the teacher
The interpreter should re-render the message accurately, and if comprehension problems persist, alert the teacher who has the authority and responsibility to address safety.
Question 4: Which communication approach used in some Deaf education programs emphasizes the use of both ASL and English in written or visual form as equal languages?
- Oral/Aural method
- Cued Speech
- Bi-Bi (Bilingual-Bicultural) education (Correct answer)
- Simultaneous Communication (SimCom)
Correct answer: Bi-Bi (Bilingual-Bicultural) education
Bi-Bi education treats ASL and written English as two full languages, valuing Deaf cultural identity alongside English literacy development.
Question 5: During a field trip, the Deaf student's interpreter is unavailable. The school arranges a substitute who uses a different communication system. The Deaf student refuses services. What should the school do?
- Force the student to use the substitute or stay behind
- Document the student's refusal and attempt to find a more compatible interpreter while ensuring access (Correct answer)
- Cancel the field trip for all students
- Ask a hearing student to assist with communication
Correct answer: Document the student's refusal and attempt to find a more compatible interpreter while ensuring access
Schools must make reasonable efforts to provide compatible communication access; if the student refuses, documenting the situation and seeking alternatives upholds both the student's rights and the school's obligations.
Question 6: When an educational interpreter is processing lag causes them to miss a segment of a teacher's lecture, the best practice is to:
- Fabricate plausible content to fill the gap seamlessly
- Omit the missed content and continue with what follows
- Use a brief hold signal to the teacher and request the missed information be repeated if critical (Correct answer)
- Ask the Deaf student to lip-read during the gap
Correct answer: Use a brief hold signal to the teacher and request the missed information be repeated if critical
When critical content is missed and a request is feasible, briefly signaling the teacher for a repeat preserves message completeness; silently skipping content denies the student access to instruction.
Question 7: An educational interpreter who is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) grew up using home signs specific to their family. In a classroom, this interpreter should:
- Use those family home signs as they reflect native language exposure
- Use standardized ASL consistent with the Deaf community and the student's known communication system (Correct answer)
- Mix home signs with ASL to enrich the student's vocabulary
- Teach the student the family home signs as vocabulary enrichment
Correct answer: Use standardized ASL consistent with the Deaf community and the student's known communication system
Regardless of background, interpreters must use the communication system appropriate to the consumer's needs, not personal or family-specific variations.
NIC Educational Settings 5
A Deaf student's IEP team wants to eliminate interpreting services because the student is 'doing well academically.' The interpreter should: