How sign language interpreters use multimodal actions to coordinate turn-taking in group work between deaf and hearing upper secondary school students

Abstract

This study examines interpreted group work situations involving deaf and hearing senior high school students, using Norwegian Sign Language and spoken Norwegian. The research question is: how does the sign language interpreter explicitly coordinate turn-taking in group work dialogues among deaf and hearing students? Video recordings of authentic learning situations constitute the basis for analysis of how a sign language interpreter uses multimodal actions to convey information that is used by the deaf and hearing students in establishing a shared focus of attention and thus coordinating their turn-taking. Five types of actions were recurrently identified: construction of visual gestures; timing of the interpreter’s input; use of gaze to negotiate for the deaf students’ speaking turns; left-right shifts in body position to convey information about which of the hearing students is speaking; and backward-forward shifts in body position to negotiate for shared attention. The analysis draws mainly on concepts developed by Goffman (1959, 1981), Goodwin (1994, 2000, 2007) and Wadensjö (1998). The discussion examines implications for the educational interpreter’s role set (Sarangi 2010, 2011), and the dual responsibility s/he fulfils by not only interpreting the students’ utterances, but also explicitly coordinating their interaction.

The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Education

“…Furthermore, the literature sampled here illustrates that the interpreter has an influence over the education of deaf students (Jones et al 1997;Kurz et al 2015) and that mediation if preferred in some contexts (Berge and Ytterhus 2015). Focusing on the language work interpreters do provides a tremendous amount of insight into the complicated nature of interpreting work, including the multimodal nature of sign language interpreting in the classroom (Berge and Thomassen 2016;Berge 2018) and the way access through an interpreter adds additional layers of consideration.…”

Tolkemedierte gruppearbeid mellom elever med talt og tegnet språk

“…For det første kan tolken bare gjengi én taler av gangen, og hvis flere snakker samtidig, vil enkelte ytringer falle bort fra gjengivelsen. I tillegg kan det vaere uklart hvem som er medlemmer i gruppen, hvem taleren henvender seg til, hvem som har ordet og hvilket tema de snakker om (Berge, 2018;Herreweghe, 2002). Det vil si at selv om tolken tolker, så er det ikke sikkert at gjengivelsen dekker meningsinnholdet i ytringene eller at elever med tegnspråk har anledning til å ytre seg.…”

“…Manglende tilrettelegging fører til at elever med tegnspråk har et marginalisert opplaeringstilbud sammenlignet med sine medelever. Det kommer til uttrykk i redusert tilgang til faglig informasjon i situasjoner der laereren snakker samtidig som han/hun viser frem ulike artefakter (Berge & Thomassen, 2015), og i redusert deltakelse i uformelle og formelle gruppearbeid (Berge, 2018;. En nyere publikasjon fra dette datamaterialet viser at laerere og tolker har ulike forventninger til tolkenes yrkesrolle og hvilke oppgaver de kan ta ansvar for og ikke (Berge, 2020).…”

“…Et gjentagende funn i studier om tolking av gruppearbeid er at de er utfordrende å tolke (Berge, 2018;Hansen, 2005;Hjelmervik, 2008). Dette bekreftes også i denne studien, slik tolken i utdraget ovenfor beretter.…”

The translated deaf self, ontological (in)security and deaf culture

“…From this perspective, being known in translation is a potential threat to ontological security because of the inherent disruptive potential of the expression of self and knowledge of the other, inherent in indirect and mediated interpreted conversation. Although this might be true of any interpreted social transaction, sign language interpreting is a different order of transaction than that of spoken language interpreting because it is an inherently multimodal process (Berge 2018;Napier 2015b;Major and Napier 2019). Furthermore, modality translation queries fundamental assumptions that to be is to speak: 'to be able to "hear oneself speak" is a moment of ontological significance, the lack of which is deeply challenging to fundamental ideas about language and identity' (Anglin-Jaffe 2011, 31).…”