NIC Language Receptive & Expressive Skills 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An interpreter working in an educational setting hears a teacher use the phrase 'scaffold your learning.' When interpreting this into ASL, the interpreter should:
- Fingerspell S-C-A-F-F-O-L-D then sign LEARN
- Interpret the pedagogical metaphor using an ASL equivalent that captures the concept of building on prior knowledge (Correct answer)
- Sign the literal concept of a physical scaffold structure
- Ask the teacher for clarification before interpreting
Correct answer: Interpret the pedagogical metaphor using an ASL equivalent that captures the concept of building on prior knowledge
Educational jargon often uses metaphor; effective interpretation conveys the intended pedagogical concept rather than the literal image.
Question 2: Simultaneous interpretation requires the interpreter to process the source message while simultaneously producing the target. The primary cognitive skill supporting this is called:
- Chunking and lag time management (Correct answer)
- Sight translation
- Consecutive note-taking
- Transliteration
Correct answer: Chunking and lag time management
Managing the decalage (lag time) while chunking incoming information allows the interpreter to process and produce simultaneously without losing content.
Question 3: A Deaf consumer uses non-manual markers (NMMs) to indicate a conditional clause in ASL. The interpreter must recognize these NMMs as:
- Emotional expressions unrelated to grammatical meaning
- Grammatical morphemes that signal syntactic structure (Correct answer)
- Voluntary gestures added for emphasis only
- Paralinguistic features similar to English tone of voice
Correct answer: Grammatical morphemes that signal syntactic structure
In ASL, non-manual markers carry grammatical information such as conditionals, negation, and questions and must be recognized as such.
Question 4: When an English source speaker suddenly shifts from a formal register to a colloquial one mid-sentence, the interpreter should:
- Maintain the formal register throughout to ensure professionalism
- Reflect the register shift in ASL using appropriate lexical and non-manual adjustments (Correct answer)
- Stop to note the shift and then continue in the original register
- Ask the speaker to maintain consistent register
Correct answer: Reflect the register shift in ASL using appropriate lexical and non-manual adjustments
Register shifts carry communicative meaning and must be reflected in the target language to preserve the speaker's full intent.
Question 5: Which of the following is an example of a receptive error that could lead to a significant interpreting error?
- Choosing a formal English word over an informal one
- Misreading a handshape that changes the meaning of an ASL sign (Correct answer)
- Using a slightly longer lag time than usual
- Slightly rearranging the order of English adjectives
Correct answer: Misreading a handshape that changes the meaning of an ASL sign
Misperceiving a handshape in ASL can change the sign entirely, leading to a fundamentally incorrect message in the target language.
Question 6: In expressive interpreting, 'source language interference' refers to:
- Background noise affecting the interpreter's hearing
- Allowing source language structures to inappropriately influence target language production (Correct answer)
- A Deaf consumer's use of contact signing
- The interpreter speaking over the Deaf consumer's signing
Correct answer: Allowing source language structures to inappropriately influence target language production
Source language interference occurs when the grammar or lexicon of the source language bleeds into the target language, reducing target language quality.
Question 7: A Deaf presenter is using ASL topic-comment sentence structure. When interpreting into English, the interpreter should:
- Reproduce the topic-comment order verbatim in English
- Reorder the information into English subject-verb-object structure while preserving meaning (Correct answer)
- Omit the topic to simplify the English sentence
- Fingerspell each topic word before signing the comment
Correct answer: Reorder the information into English subject-verb-object structure while preserving meaning
ASL and English have different syntactic structures; effective interpretation restructures the message into natural target language grammar while preserving meaning.
NIC Language Receptive & Expressive Skills 4
An interpreter working in an educational setting hears a teacher use the phrase 'scaffold your learning.' When interpreting this into ASL, the interpreter should: