NIC Interpreting & Transliterating Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When a Deaf consumer uses a signed language variety that differs significantly from ASL, what is the interpreter's best approach?
- Refuse the assignment and request a Deaf interpreter
- Attempt to match the consumer's language variety while maintaining clarity (Correct answer)
- Insist the consumer use standard ASL throughout the interaction
- Request an ASL glossing system be used instead
Correct answer: Attempt to match the consumer's language variety while maintaining clarity
Skilled interpreters adapt to the consumer's preferred language variety to ensure effective communication.
Question 2: During a medical appointment, the Deaf patient fingerspells a term the interpreter doesn't recognize. What is the most appropriate immediate response?
- Skip the term and continue interpreting the rest of the sentence
- Ask the patient to repeat and spell more slowly, then seek clarification from the provider (Correct answer)
- Make an educated guess based on context
- Pause the appointment to look the term up on a phone
Correct answer: Ask the patient to repeat and spell more slowly, then seek clarification from the provider
Interpreters should seek clarification rather than guess or omit terms, especially in high-stakes medical settings.
Question 3: Which of the following best describes the role of prosody in signed language interpreting?
- The speed at which signs are produced
- The use of non-manual markers and rhythm to convey meaning, tone, and grammatical structure (Correct answer)
- The order in which signs appear in a sentence
- The handshape chosen for a particular sign
Correct answer: The use of non-manual markers and rhythm to convey meaning, tone, and grammatical structure
Prosody in ASL encompasses non-manual markers, rhythm, pausing, and pacing that carry grammatical and emotional meaning.
Question 4: A transliterator working with a hard-of-hearing student notices the student is relying more on speech reading than on the transliterated message. What should the transliterator do?
- Stop transliterating and let the student speech-read entirely
- Inform the educational team and adjust positioning to support both access modes (Correct answer)
- Ask the student to ignore the speaker and focus only on the transliteration
- Switch to full ASL interpreting without consulting anyone
Correct answer: Inform the educational team and adjust positioning to support both access modes
Transliterators should collaborate with the educational team to optimize communication access for the student.
Question 5: In contact signing, which feature is typically retained from spoken English?
- ASL spatial grammar
- English word order (Correct answer)
- ASL classifier predicates
- Topic-comment sentence structure
Correct answer: English word order
Contact signing generally follows English word order while incorporating ASL signs and some ASL features.
Question 6: An interpreter working a platform assignment at a large conference notices the lighting makes their signing difficult to see. What is the appropriate action?
- Continue signing and hope the audience can see
- Quietly address the technical issue by alerting the event coordinator before or during a break (Correct answer)
- Switch to spoken language only
- Stop interpreting until the lighting is fixed regardless of timing
Correct answer: Quietly address the technical issue by alerting the event coordinator before or during a break
Interpreters have a professional responsibility to address environmental barriers to communication access.
Question 7: What is the primary difference between simultaneous and consecutive interpreting modes?
- Simultaneous interpreting requires note-taking while consecutive does not
- In simultaneous mode the interpreter produces the target message while the source message is still being delivered; in consecutive mode the interpreter waits for a complete unit before rendering (Correct answer)
- Consecutive interpreting is always used in legal settings
- Simultaneous interpreting is only used for spoken language
Correct answer: In simultaneous mode the interpreter produces the target message while the source message is still being delivered; in consecutive mode the interpreter waits for a complete unit before rendering
The timing of message rendering relative to source message delivery is the defining distinction between the two modes.
NIC Interpreting & Transliterating Skills 2
When a Deaf consumer uses a signed language variety that differs significantly from ASL, what is the interpreter's best approach?