Navigating language variety: ASL/English interpreters “giving voice” to African American/black deaf signed language users

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Title: Navigating language variety: ASL/English interpreters “giving voice” to African American/black deaf signed language users
Creator: Nicole Shambourger
Degree Name: Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies
Project Type: thesis
Date: 6/3/2015
Abstract: American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters working between ASL and spoken English make linguistic and cultural choices that impact the success of an interpreted event. One task is the selection of comparable vocabulary to best represent their clients' thoughts. This exploratory qualitative study was conducted to identify how ASL/English interpreters transfer meaning when African American English (AAE) is incorporated into signed language. Each interpreter simultaneously interpreted an ASL narrative into spoken English. Participants were asked to complete a demographic survey to ascertain whether social factors of age, race, ethnicity, experience, mode of language acquisition, and/or age of language acquisition had any bearing on the interpretation. Following the collection of the interpreting sample and demographic data, two interviews were conducted utilizing a semi-structured format to provide insight into the strategic decisions made by the participants. The findings identify three strategic decisions interpreters used in lieu of incorporating AAE: omission, external processing, and discourse chunking. The overarching purpose was to collect empirical data that will lend itself to dialogues on how to best equip signed language professionals to meet the needs of African American/Black Deaf consumers.
Committee Member: Pamela Cancel, Elisa Maroney, Carolyn McCaskill
Rights: Western Oregon University Library has determined, as of 6/26/2018, this item is in copyright, which is held by the author. Users may use the item in accordance with copyright limitations and exceptions, including fair use. For other uses, please ask permission from the author at the email address listed above.; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Language: eng
Date Available: 6/9/2015
Type: Text
Identifier: theses/23
Subject: African American Studies; Bilingual; Multilingual; and Multicultural Education; Critical and Cultural Studies; Discourse and Text Linguistics; Ethnic Studies; Other Languages; Societies; and Cultures; Race; Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies; African American/Black; ASL/English Interpreter; Deaf; Signed Language; African American English; Culture