Interpreting in international sign: decisions of Deaf and non-Deaf interpreters

© 2013 The Authors. Published by WASLI. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://wasli.org/wasli-2011-conference-proceedings?cn-reloaded=1The professional use of Deaf Interpreters (DIs) is increasing in several countries and across several contexts. However, there have been few studies that have explored the nature of the work when it involves a Deaf and nondeaf interpreting team. The current study examined the work of two teams of Deaf/non-deaf interpreters providing service in a conference setting. The participants were videotaped while providing service in order to examine the linguistic decisions made by non-deaf interpreters acting as a natural signed language feed, the linguistic decisions made by Deaf interpreters working into International Sign (IS), as well as the meta-communication strategies the team used while constructing the interpretation. The data suggest that interpreting teams that are more familiar with each other rely on different strategies when chunking information, asking for feeds, and for making accommodations. There also appear to be significant differences in the work when the two interpreters share a common natural signed language. All of the data analyzed thus far offer insight into the nature of the relationship and may provide guidance to those arranging interpreting services for international events.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (Grant RES-620-28-6001), Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) University College London