Innovative Practices for Teaching Sign Language Interpreters

Interactive Role-Plays As a Teaching Strategy

MELANIE METZGER Interactive Role-Plays As a Teaching Strategy STUDENTS OF INTERPRETATION are often taught that the interpreter 's role in interactive settings is that of a neutral service provider. This is likely due to the fact that interpreters have long been viewed as merely a tool to interaction. For example, the traditional view assumes that interactive discourse facilitated by an interpreter is a dyad between two monolinguals or between deaf and hearing participants rather than a triad that includes the interpreter as a participant. In conjunction with this view, the field of interpreting has perpetuated the expectation that interpreters will not be involved in interpreted interactions. Evidence for this exists in the sign language interpreters' professional Code of Ethics by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) in the United States. The third tenet ofthe code states: An interpreter ... shall not become personally involved because in so doing he/she accepts some responsibility for the outcome, which does not rightly belong to the interpreter. (Frishberg 1990, 197) Yet, recent research calls into question the assumption that it is possible for an interpreter to function as a passive conduit. For example, interpreters have been found to take an active role in the turn exchanges in interpreted encounters (Roy 1989, 1993) and to contribute self-generated utterances that not only relay the utterances of the primary participants but also fulfill a coordinating function, at 83 84 MELANIE METZGER times providing information that no one has uttered but which is nonetheless an inherent part ofthe interaction, such as the identity of the original source (Wadensjo 1992; Metzger 1995, 1999). In addition , Zimmer (1989) discusses ways in which interpretation, via features such as lengthy pauses, influences the participants' behavior and possibly even their perception of one another. These findings raise questions both about how interpreters influence or participate in interpreted interaction and how this issue is addressed in interpreter education. Because interpreters have been found to take a more active role in interactive settings, sometimes negotiating participants' turn taking , at other times asking for clarification or providing supplementary information (such as indicating the source ofa given utterance), the teaching ofsimultaneous interactive interpretation is not simply an extension ofmonologic interpreting skills. Students who have already studied and mastered interpreting monologic discourse from a source language to a target language will have knowledge and skills related to comprehension, finding equivalence, and production of the target text. Additional skills that these students must learn in order to develop interactive interpreting expertise are (1) the ability to switch back and forth between languages rapidly, (2) knowledge of the features ofinteraction (such as overlap), and (3) the ability to appropriately generate relevant contributions to the interaction (such as indicating the source ofan utterance). Although videotapes are often used to teach and evaluate interactive interpreting skills, they do not realistically capture conversational turn taking and overlap or many other features ofinteractive discourse that practicing interpreters face on a daily basis. Thus, one of the most important tools that interpreter educators have for teaching interactive interpreting skills is the role-play. Role-plays can be more or less meaningful for interpreting students depending on the extent to which the students' metalinguistic knowledge about interaction is utilized by the activity and the extent to which the role-play realistically captures the features of natural interactions that interpreting students will eventually face in the professional arena (Metzger 1995, 1999). LIVE INTERACTIVE ROLE-PLAYS 85 INTERACTIVE ROLE-PLAYS AS A TEACHING STRATEGY When selecting the role-playas a strategy for teaching interactive interpretation, three objectives should guide the interpreter educator . These three objectives surpass the goals established for any interpretation (e.g., simultaneous monologic) related to equivalence and language production. That is, while the interpreter educator will certainly provide feedback to the students regarding the equivalence oftheir translations and their choice and production ofwords and sentences in the target utterances, the three primary objectives ofthe interactive role-play are for students to be able to do the following: 1. Recognize and identify features ofinteractive discourse 2. Understand interpreters' strategies for coping with interactive discourse 3. Apply strategies for coping with interactive discourse These three objectives provide a simple guide for distinguishing between the interpretation of monologic and dialogic or multiparty discourse. Objective #1: Recognize and Identify Features of Interactive Discourse Objective #1 refers to the process of taking linguistic knowledge that students already have as native users ofa language...