Sign Language Interpreting: The Art Of Sign Language

For centuries, deaf people across the globe have used sign language to communicate, mostly using it privately in their own homes as a part of everyday life. Just recently, in the early ‘60s, professional linguists had discovered new truths concerning sign language and its native users. The news of these truths spread like wildfire and, thus, many turned their attention to sign language and the deaf community. With a horde of hearing people and deaf people needing to interact and exchange information with each other, how would they do so with a large-scale communication barrier? Because of this issue, the art of sign language interpreting was born. Although at first glance it seems effortless, sign language interpreting is quite a complex process

So, when expressing from, in the normal case, English to ASL (American Sign Language), a lot takes place. One must remember, English and ASL are two separate languages that have their own linguistic features: grammar, vocabulary, syntax, etc. Therefore, when interpreting, one must produce the original message into sign language while keeping the original meaning of the message intact. Any change in the meaning of the original message will cause an invalid interpretation, which then brings forth an ethics issue. The issue here is that a wrong interpretation causes ineffective communication between the hearing and deaf client/s, which candidly would be an interpreter’s fault in any situation. Interpreters are cautious to avoid this type of ethics dilemma at all costs. To add, it’s important that, when expressing in sign language, an interpreter considers his or her client’s linguistic level. A client’s linguistic level can be determined by noticing patterns in how the deaf or hard-of-hearing client uses sign language and how much they understand the signed message from an interpreter. For instance, interpreters working with first-grade children should use ASL vocabulary and grammar appropriate for the children’s’ grade level. Interpreters would not use the complex terms and sentence structure of a collegiate level adult in a first-grade classroom. Clearly, it’s evident that an interpreter must keep the message intact as well as match the level of his or her client while exercising the third step of the interpreting