Situated Learning in Interpreter Education: From the Classroom to the Community 3030689034, 9783030689032

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Situated Learning in Interpreter Education From the Classroom to the Community Annette Miner · Brenda Nicodemus

Situated Learning in Interpreter Education “This book bridges the gap between knowledge and real-world work experience by delineating a scaffolded curriculum that supports students’ trajectory toward authentic learning that maximally develops their interpreting skills.” —Kim B. Kurz, Associate Professor, Department of American Sign Language & Interpreter Education, National Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA “This is a systematic, didactic, very readable handbook on interpreter training. The authors make a good case for situated learning, the underlying principle being the gradual introduction of aspects of authentic situations and challenges of real-life interpreting into the guidance of student interpreters being prepared for work in the field.” —Daniel Gile, Professor Emeritus, Université Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle, France “What a useful and fascinating approach to teaching and learning interpretation. This book offers a promising method for guiding students on their journey to becoming professionals, through authentic and meaningful practice.” —Sharon Neumann Solow, Interpreter, Educator, Author, and Consultant

Annette Miner · Brenda Nicodemus

Situated Learning in Interpreter Education From the Classroom to the Community

Annette Miner San Diego, CA, USA

Brenda Nicodemus Department of Interpretation and Translation Gallaudet University Washington, DC, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-68903-2 ISBN 978-3-030-68904-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Alex Linch/shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

*** For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. —Aristotle *** Learning is experience. Everything else is just information. —Albert Einstein *** I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. —Confucius ***

Acknowledgments

A book that promotes student learning through engagement with the community inevitably led us to reflect on the many individuals who encouraged us to create this book. Here we gratefully acknowledge our community of practice who supported us throughout this process. First, we give thanks to the many students who willingly played along as we experimented with situated learning principles in our teaching. Their cooperation allowed us to tweak, modify, and retry our ideas over the years. Similarly, we give recognition to the various community members who gave up their personal time to participate in our schemes by acting in scenarios, offering students their perspectives, serving as audience members for presentations, and every other quirky little thing we asked them to do. In addition, we are grateful to our colleagues in interpreter education who generously shared their ideas and experiences, which greatly shaped our thinking about both the theory and application of situated learning in interpreter education. The possibility of this book had been brewing in our minds during our collective years of teaching, but only became a reality because of Annette’s dissertation on situated learning in interpreter education. We are grateful for the assistance provided by the Gallaudet University doctoral program in getting Annette’s thinking out of her brain and on to paper. We appreciated the excellent graphic design work by Annie Marks who illustrated several of the ideas in the book. We also give thanks to our editor at Palgrave MacMillan, Milana Vernikova, and associate editor,

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Linda Braus, who have been enthusiastic supporters of this project from the beginning. Finally, we thank our families who were situated with us in this learning process. We are not sure what they learned, but we suspect it was that our writing took time away from them. For their patience with that lesson we are extremely grateful.

The Five Pillars

When facilitating situated learning activities with our own students, we found that we repeatedly turned to the same principles to guide our teaching. We now fondly refer to them as “The Five Pillars.” In this box, we point you to those documents in the hopes that they are helpful to you as well. Figure 2.2 The Four Cornerstones of Situated Learning Page 35 Figure 3.1 Staircase Model for Interpreter Education Page 45 Figure 3.2 Cornerstones of Situated Learning at Each Step of the Staircase Model Page 46 Figure 3.3 Examples of Situated Learning Activities at Each Step in the Staircase Model Page 49 Table 3.1 Expanded List of Situated Learning Activities at Each Step in the Staircase Model Page 60 ix

Contents

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1

Introduction: Grabbing a Cat by the Tail

2

What Is Situated Learning?

17

3

The Staircase Model for Interpreter Education

41

4

Situated Community Engagement

69

5

Situated Simulated Interpreting

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Situated Authentic Interpreting

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7

Mock Interpreting Scenarios

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Partnerships and the Road Ahead

185

Bibliography

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Index

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List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 3.1 Fig. 3.2 Fig. 3.3 Fig. 3.4 Fig. 3.5

Fig. 3.6

Fig. 3.7 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

4.1 5.1 6.1 6.2 6.3

Legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice The four cornerstones of situated learning Staircase model for interpreter education The cornerstones of situated learning at each step of the staircase model Examples of situated learning activities at each step in staircase model Application of the staircase model for facilitating a mock conference Application of the staircase model for teaching a module: Scaffolding student learning for interpreting for Deaf students in an educational setting Application of the staircase model for teaching a course: Scaffolding student learning for interpreting a museum tour between Spanish and English Application of the staircase model across a two-year interpreter education program The process of a video relay call Gibbs’ reflective cycle Sample email to actors for mock interpreting event Sample rotation schedule for mock interpreting event Sample checklist for mock interpreting event

33 35 45 46 49 53

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58 59 72 95 116 117 118

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List of Tables

Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 5.1

Expanded list of situated learning activities at each step in the staircase model The role of educators in situated learning Parallel components of objectivist and constructivist assessment Role play assignment description

60 63 65 85

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Grabbing a Cat by the Tail

For over 2,000 years, thinkers such as Aristotle, Einstein, and Confucius have stated what each of us intuitively knows—that learning is the offspring of experience. Even humorist Mark Twain pointed to the benefits of experiential learning when he wrote, “I know a man who grabbed a cat by the tail, and he learned forty percent more than the man who didn’t.” While we don’t recommend grabbing a cat by the tail as a learning activity, we do suggest that experience may be the best teacher. While some disciplines, such as pure mathematics and quantum physics, rely on doing conceptual exercises in order to acquire the cognitive skills needed for abstract representation and analysis, the skills required in performance fields and human service professions may be best acquired through the enaction of real-world experiences. For example, a person who wants to become a professional dancer may spend long hours reading about classical choreography, analyzing videos of dance performances, and studying the body’s musculature, but learning to dance requires engaging in purposeful rhythmic movement intended to communicate symbols, ideas, and emotions. If one must dance to become a dancer, one must also cook to become a chef, mix compounds to become a chemist, and strike an arc to become a welder. Similarly, to develop expertise in a human service profession such as teaching, students must first practice delivering short lessons with the guidance of an experienced teacher before taking on their own classroom. To become a counselor, students study techniques © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_1

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for developing therapeutic rapport and rehearse with their classmates long before meeting with actual clients. In nursing, students practice the process of taking vital signs as one step in becoming accredited in the field. Similarly, whether one considers interpreting a human service profession, a performance field, or a blend of both, an essential step in moving toward becoming a professional is learning by doing.1 That is, interpreting students must necessarily experience the act of constructing messages between people who don’t share the same language, while addressing the multitude of interpersonal, institutional, and social dynamics that come into play during any interaction prior to working as a professional interpreter. Thus, identifying interpreting as a practice profession holds a dual meaning—individuals become practitioners but do so only after long hours of practice. We recognize the work of interpreters as a complex multi-layered task that requires both performance skills and human service expertise. Performance skills are acquired when students repeatedly experience the pressure of rapidly decoding and encoding linguistic messages between interlocutors in real time. The human service aspect of interpreting is honed when students practice negotiating with interlocutors about various aspects of a communicative event, for example, making seating arrangements that foster clear communication, or requesting clarification from one of the interlocutors. As with other practice professionals, interpreters experience growth by both performing and reflecting on the multifaceted aspects of interpreting. The social learning theorist Etienne Wenger observed that learning stokes the engine of practice, and practice represents the history of that learning.2 Wenger contends that deep learning occurs through experiencing a task and that the degree of skill a learner attains is shaped over a lifetime of practice. The basic premise of this book can be summed up in four words— people learn from experience. We believe that each of us instinctively knows that real-world experience leads to deep learning. As practice professionals, we have felt the impact of experience firsthand. The wisdom of experiential learning is also reflected in well-known adages such as, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It is from these personal and wise perspectives that the theory known as situated learning was borne. This book is written to advocate for the use of situated learning, a theory of learning in which teachers and mentors guide individuals

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through authentic, experiential learning opportunities in a scaffolded manner. The premise underlying situated learning is that meaningful learning is made possible when it takes place in authentic social situations. Another premise is that individual knowledge flourishes and widens through legitimate engagement with people, especially those who are actual recipients of a particular service. For example, in academic programs in the human service fields of psychology, nursing, and social work, students are typically given opportunities to situate their learning by applying their theoretical foundations in environments within the community. In interpreter education, students engage in meaningful learning experiences when they must manage the real-world challenges that arise when facilitating communication between people who use different languages. Profound learning occurs when interpreting students are situated in a variety of contexts such as wedding rehearsals, museum tours, and conferences. As proponents of situated learning theory, we argue that it is imperative for students to transition from the relatively safe, sterile, and idealized environment of the classroom into challenging, messy, and complicated real-world environments within the community. By moving into the real world, students learn firsthand how to mitigate the challenges. As the title of this book suggests, by applying situated learning theory, instructors are able to support their students in successfully moving from the classroom into the community. To clarify, we aren’t making the strong claim that experience is everything in the learning process. While we have witnessed the impact of situated learning on the development of interpreting students, we understand and assert that experiential activities must build on the theoretical foundations of interpreting typically taught in the classroom. Without question, theory and experience go hand in hand when creating situated learning opportunities. That said, in our years of teaching, we have found that students repeatedly say that nothing compares to the thrill—and the fear—of performing the actual work of an interpreter. Beyond building students’ resilience in managing the challenges faced by professional interpreters, another benefit of learning by doing is that students are initiated into a community of practice. Are we making a groundbreaking claim when we argue that interpreting students who are provided with real-world experience will grow in innumerable ways? By no means. Interpreter educators instinctively know

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that engaging in the act of interpreting is necessary for developing critical skills of rapid language transfer, lexical retrieval, memory retention, self-monitoring, and maintaining composure, inter alia. Nor is the interpreting profession alone in recognizing the importance of experience in the learning process. Situated learning theory has been adapted to training in numerous other practice professions that recognize that “experience is an arch to build upon.”3 We look to other human service professions, notably counseling, nursing, and social work, that incorporate experiential learning into their training programs. As with these professions, interpreter educators acknowledge that students must develop both a theoretical foundation of the profession and specific performance skills in order to be successful practitioners. That said, we do suggest that training individuals to become interpreters brings challenges that may not be found in other human service fields. First, counseling, nursing, and social work programs typically have no profession-specific prerequisites for admission.4 The assumption of many human service programs is that individuals can enter into the training tabula rasa, that is, without prior knowledge with the assumption that students can acquire the necessary theoretical and practice skills for professional practice. By contrast, in interpreter education, linguistic fluency in two or more working languages would seem to be a logical prerequisite prior to being accepted into a program. However, to date, many interpreting programs, specifically in signed language interpreting, hold no language requirements prior to enrollment. As a result, interpreting students may enter interpreting programs as monolinguals or bring very limited bilingual proficiency to the classroom. Under these conditions, interpreter educators must scramble to create assignments to accommodate the students’ language gaps. A second challenge is that interpreting is a much smaller discipline than other human service programs, a factor that results in limited resources for educators. For example, over 10,000 degrees in counseling psychology are awarded in the United States in a single year.5 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, social work is one of the fastest growing professions in the United States, with more than 680,000 social workers in employment.6 Finally, the profession of nursing has more than 3.1 million registered nurses currently practicing in the United States.7 In comparison, spoken language interpreting offers a handful of bachelor’s degrees in the United States and signed language interpreting has approximately

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40 BA-level programs. Taken together, perhaps only 350–500 baccalaureate students graduate from spoken and signed language interpreting programs annually, a miniscule number compared to the number of graduates in other human service professions. To compound the issue, no statistics exist for the attrition of these graduates following graduation. The large number of programs and graduates in counseling, nursing, and social work results in social and financial incentives at the state and federal level to develop curricula, revise textbooks, and manage professional organizations. Publishing houses, research teams, and other specialists in these fields support the creation of academic materials. Conversely, the small numbers associated with interpreter education are evidenced in its limited educational resources. Another challenge is that interpreter educators may not have specialized teaching credentials. As a result, interpreter educators frequently report cobbling together their lessons by grasping at a variety of instructional tools and methods. With uncertainty, they may draw from a scattered collection of source texts and rely on their own and others’ anecdotal reports of what it means to be an interpreter. The outcome is that interpreter educators report feeling trepidation and uncertainty of their ability to produce graduates who are ready to enter the interpreting profession. We reiterate that interpreting is similar to other human service professions in that it requires practitioners to demonstrate mastery of complex knowledge and skills, including cognitive flexibility, interpersonal sensitivity, and problem-solving capabilities. Also, as with other practice professions, interpreters work directly with people and must adhere to a professional code of ethics as well as be adept in interpersonal skills. Practice professionals need both theoretical foundation and the ability to apply theory to real-world problems in their work. Critically, interpreters must possess a high degree of fluency in at least two working languages and cognitive capabilities far beyond those required of engaging in everyday conversation. To rapidly co-construct meaning between two languages along with managing a host of other issues is no small feat. In fact, interpreting has been referred to as the most challenging linguistic task imaginable.8 Of course, the challenge of interpreting is a part of its appeal. For one, becoming a professional interpreter is a path for lifelong learning. As with musicians whose artistic expression can mature over time, interpreters also can continue to grow throughout their careers if they engage in reflection

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about their performance and work to develop their linguistic prowess. As interpreter educators, our challenge lies in how to create meaningful experiences that will guide students into a lifetime of growth and professional practice. As authors, our particular orientation is that of being signed language interpreter educators who work in the United States. However, we believe that whatever background or languages an individual brings to interpreter education, the application of situated learning theory can be highly beneficial. Indeed, we contend that situated learning can be useful in spoken and signed language interpreter education, mentoring programs, or in any program whose goal is to create more authentic experiences for students. We also recognize that in the pursuit of offering quality education to students, interpreter educators may feel more at a loss than in other training programs. The following scenario is an illustration of how we— and perhaps you—may have felt at one time or another in the role of interpreter educators or mentors.

“Am I a Fraud?” It’s Sunday night. You are preparing for the upcoming week of teaching your interpreting skills classes. Unfortunately, all-too-familiar sensations of anxiousness are mounting. Once again, you feel uncertain about what you can do to guide your students into the skills they need to succeed as professional practitioners. Over the past several weeks, you’ve assigned various texts for the students to interpret, collected the assignments, and dedicated long evenings to writing detailed feedback about their work. To your dismay, however, your students continue to show the same patterns of errors week after week. You wonder if the students have even read your carefully constructed comments, much less tried to incorporate them into their interpretations. Perhaps the students don’t understand how to apply the feedback to their work? Occasionally, a student makes a remark such as, “That video didn’t give me the chance to show you how I would interpret in a real situation,” or “If actual consumers had been present, I would have interpreted it differently.” Privately you admit to yourself, “They have a point. I want to guide the students into the challenges of professional practice, but my assignments seem so artificial! Can interpreting even be taught in a classroom setting? Sometimes I feel like such a fraud as an interpreter educator.”

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If you’ve ever had similar thoughts about your teaching practice, you’re not alone. Many of us have felt the pain of “imposter syndrome,” the psychological pattern in which one doubts one’s accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. Despite external markers of success, individuals who experience imposter syndrome remain convinced that they are incompetent; that they do not deserve all they have achieved. Studies have now shown that university faculty are among the groups that frequently experience imposter syndrome.9 For individuals who didn’t train nor expect to be interpreter educators, the feelings of being an imposter may be even more pronounced. After years of working as a professional interpreter, perhaps you were encouraged to become an interpreter educator. A colleague may have observed that you had skills that would serve you well as a teacher. Or perhaps you had been a mentor to novice interpreters and began to wonder if you could extend those skills in a classroom setting. Or it may be that giving back to the community is a strong value for you, which could be accomplished by teaching the next generation of interpreters. If you were a signed language interpreter, you probably had earned an advanced degree, but with little or no formal training on how to teach interpreting. Once in that educator role, you may instinctively sense that interpreting can only be fully learned by doing it. You recall moments of your own learning during work experiences that shaped you into a professional interpreter. How can those valuable real-life interpreting experiences be integrated into a postsecondary institution with so many required structures—tests, projects, rubrics—not to mention the albatross of grades? You soon learn that, as much as higher education holds lofty mission statements about “expanding minds” and “building tomorrow’s citizens,” these institutions also depend on the commodification of learning10 through the production of measurable assignments and grades. In the higher education environment, learning is typically restricted to fixed times in classrooms and language labs, with few opportunities to apply theory to the actual interpreting work that is happening outside the institution. You’ve tried a variety of teaching techniques in your classroom. You give well-prepared lectures. You assign group work to the students. You provide compelling case studies for examination. You assign interesting and authentic pre-recorded material for the students to practice interpreting. But many of your lessons feel stilted or artificial; in fact, you can see the students trudging their way through them. Without clear

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assessment measures, you give passing grades to students each semester, while feeling that their skills are still inadequate. Year after year, the situation continues and the answer of how to effectively teach interpreting continues to elude you. Whatever you try to implement in the classroom, your students constantly want more hands-on practice, hungering to do the actual work that brought them to the program. How can you provide your students with authentic experiences of interpreting that you know they need to succeed? What steps can you take to guide students into increasingly challenging experiences that are embedded in the community? In this book, we attempt to address these important questions by advocating for the type of learning that draws students into guided, real-world, contextualized experiences, both inside and outside the classroom, while establishing critical foundations using other valid learning approaches. In this book, we offer a practical, user-friendly guide to an educational theory known as situated learning. We believe that both doing (practice interpreting in authentic settings) and receiving immediate feedback (from teachers, mentors, and community members) are critical for opening doors for student interpreters. Over a number of years, research findings have also come to support the notion of “learning by doing.” With the lens of situated learning, interpreting is best regarded as an applied activity that must engage students in real-world contexts. Put another way, learning that is situated is as close as you can get to real work, but it is work that is done with training wheels. You will find that situated learning isn’t easy for all students. Not every student will get a gold star when faced with grappling with the complex work of interpreting. When placed in authentic interpreting environments, some students will thrive by facing their mistakes and will acquire the skills necessary for professional practice. Other students will find that they aren’t cut out for the demands of interpreting or that they simply aren’t interested in interpreting work. As Oscar Wilde stated, “Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes”11 and those experiences may lead students down the road of growing into a professional or may point them to a different, more suitable path. We suggest that situated learning both supports student learning and provides an avenue for teachers to have more rewarding instructional experiences. Another critical part of situated learning is to engage local communities in interpreter education in a meaningful, but natural way. Through such partnerships, community members can engage with

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students and consider their potential to serve as interpreters in the community, rather than meeting an unprepared graduate for the first time at their doctor’s appointment. But before we dive into the virtues of situated learning, we offer one small caveat. That is, we make no claims that situated learning will immediately rappel you to the top of the mountain known as interpreter education. We would be thrilled if you got to an educational summit where you could plant your flag and shout, “I’ve arrived!” Although we strongly believe in the merits of situated learning theory, we recognize that it is but one approach that interpreter educators can draw upon in their work. Further, by definition, situated learning theory must necessarily be tailored to instructors’ personal teaching style, community, institution, and students. We would love to claim that situated learning is the ultimate solution to the problems in interpreter education; however, that would be a blatant overstatement. Rather, the premise of this book is to provide readers with a theoretical and practical backdrop for how situated learning theory can be facilitated to enhance the learning of interpreting students. We contend that most students learn by experiencing the joys—and anxieties—that come with actively engaging in real-world interpreting. If we are excited about the power of situated learning leading to positive learning outcomes, it is not only because the research supports it, but also because we’ve lived this approach in our own teaching. Our hope is that guiding students toward greater competency in authentic learning settings may result in your own “I’ve arrived!” moment and help abandon any feelings of being a fraud. To begin, we share some observations about the current state of ASLEnglish interpreter education in the United States. The points offered here specifically address ASL-English interpreters, but we believe that educators in other language pairs may find comparisons with professional issues in their work. One study examined the characteristics of signed language interpreting programs and graduates by analyzing existing data from a 2009 needs assessment collected by the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC).12 The study verified the readiness-to-work gap that exists for graduates of interpreting programs, dubbing the gap a “systemic crisis.” At present, many states in the United States require some type of signed language interpreting certification (state, national, or specific to K-12 settings) or license prior to employment.13 This requirement can create a confounding dilemma for graduates from an interpreter education

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program. On the one hand, individuals are prohibited from interpreting until they obtain certification but, lacking work, the same people have no structured avenue for improving their language fluency and interpreting skills. The number of individuals who leave the field after graduation from interpreting programs has not been documented; however, anecdotal reports indicate that graduates who are unable to find post-graduation support may move on to work in other employment settings or remain at their current job. Given these circumstances, it is no surprise that postgraduate mentoring programs for interpreters are on the rise, but again, statistics verifying their efficacy are not available. In ASL-English interpreting, successful transition of graduates into professional practice is often the result of experiences within the Deaf community. In the 2009 study, one faculty member reported, “Students who willingly make friends with members of the Deaf community and interact more than the required amount of time tend to do much (emphasis by the faculty member) better on their state certification exam.”14 The study recommends that educators in interpreting programs should “foster more opportunities for out of the class learning” by incorporating real-world interpreting experience so students can interact with communities through practicum and service learning. Other studies that point to the importance of learning from experience come from research on language brokering.15 Some successful interpreters were born into families with Deaf members who used American Sign Language in the home, and thus, acquire ASL at a young age. As a result of their language experiences, these individuals often function as language brokers and interpreters for their family members, accumulating years of ad hoc experience among the Deaf community in the work of interpreting.16 These early occurrences of language brokering may contribute to their later success as interpreters. Importantly, studies on language brokering suggest the common denominator in developing successful interpreting skills is experience in real-world interpreting.17 In addition to problems with admission policies, curriculum, and language modality discussed earlier in this chapter, another long-standing issue affects interpreter educators. That is, few graduate programs are available to prepare individuals to become interpreter educators.18 The number of graduates from such programs is still small, and the pedagogical programs also may not have faculty who have specialized training

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in interpreter education. As touched on earlier, the instructors in interpreting programs historically have been professional ASL-English interpreters who were then recruited to teach in a program.19 Many of these instructors have had no training in curriculum design, classroom management, educational policies, and pedagogical principles; rather, they based their teaching on their personal experiences as interpreters.20 This situation is confounded by limited curriculum materials and students with inadequate fluency in ASL. Finally, the body of research on signed language interpretation is increasing and covers a wide range of topics. However, there remains a particular lack of studies of teaching practices and curriculum in interpretation.21 Empirical research on Translation and Interpreting Studies is increasingly being embraced in the field, and the infusion of evidencebased research findings into pedagogical practice is on the increase22 ; however, it is still unknown if research on interpreter education is incorporated into classroom teaching practice. With this book, we are aiming to provide a user-friendly guide that may counteract these issues and assist interpreter educators with a teaching approach that has proven fruitful in apprenticeships and human service programs. We admire the example of other interpreter training guides, notably the Interpreting in the Community and Workplace: A Practical Teaching Guide by Mette Rudvin and Elena Tomassini.23 As with their work, we position this book within the interpreting domain we are most familiar with, but with the hope that a wide audience can benefit from its content. We support Franz Pöchhacker’s perspective that, in interpreting, there is unity in diversity,24 that is, our commonalities as educators and practitioners are greater than any differences we may have. As a starting point, we believe that all interpreter educators cherish language, culture, and community—values that we all wish to impart to our students. With this book, we offer an approach that can address those shared values in our profession. In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of interpreter education and introduce the theory of situated learning. We open Chapter 2 with a story of two students whose interpreting experience has been scaffolded through a series of situated learning activities. We then describe the theoretical grounding of situated learning, including principles of learning transfer, cognitive apprenticeships, authentic learning activities, and communities of practice. We trace the development of situated

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learning across a variety of disciplines and argue that this approach is especially well suited for interpreter education. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of the four cornerstones of situated learning. In Chapter 3, the staircase model for interpreter education is introduced. The model illustrates how situated learning can include a range of scaffolded activities to provide learning experiences that increase in their level of authenticity. The nuts and bolts of implementing situated learning in an interpreting program begin in Chapter 4 where we step out of the classroom to promote the engagement of interpreting students within the larger community where interpreters work. In Chapter 5, we examine ways to promote opportunities for students to practice interpreting in simulated environments. In Chapter 6, we provide step-by-step instructions, examples, and materials that can be used to facilitate authentic interpreting experiences for students. We feel that Chapter 7 may be one of the most useful aspects of the book as it contains 21 sample scenarios that interpreter educators can use in their own teaching. We close the book in Chapter 8 with a discussion of community partnerships and post-graduate activities within a community of practice. We note that the quoted narratives in this book are authentic accounts collected from instructors and students as they shared reflections on their situated learning experiences. If you are seeking to provide highly meaningful learning experiences for your students, without the risky training of having them “grab a cat by the tail,” we believe this book can serve as a useful guide for you. We contend that through the use of situated learning principles, you can supplement your classroom instruction with authentic interpreting contexts, create simulated, but natural interpreting experiences for your students, and involve language communities in your efforts to cultivate new interpreters. Our hope is that it will serve as a useful guide for interpreter educators and mentors who are interested in the benefits of moving students’ learning out of the classroom and into the community. We seek to provide useful and practical steps toward the endeavor of preparing students for the challenges of interpreting that they will encounter in their professional lives. Welcome to this shared journey. We hope this path serves you well.

Notes 1. We borrowed the phrase “learning by doing” from the title of Graham Gibbs’ 1998 book on experiential learning and learner reflection.

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2. Wenger argues that learning is an inherently social process that cannot be separated from the social context in which it happens. For a comprehensive look at his view of situated cognition, we suggest Wenger, 1998. 3. This quote is taken from the Henry Brook Adams’ memoir titled The Education of Henry Adams (1918). 4. Students who pursue counseling, nursing, and social work may be able to enter training programs without knowledge-based prerequisites; however, we note that, increasingly, human service programs require pre-entry evaluations of students’ dispositions to work with people. This pre-requisite may be useful to interpreting programs as well. 5. Retrieved from DataUSA website: https://datausa.io/profile/cip/counse ling-psychology#institutions. 6. Retrieved from the website of the National Association of Social Workers. https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Facts/Social-Workers. 7. Retrieved from the website of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Students/Your-Nursing-Car eer-A-Look-at-the-Facts. 8. In 2004, Ingrid Christoffels produced her dissertation research that examined the cognitive aspects of simultaneous interpreting. 9. For more information on imposter syndrome at the university level, we can recommend Parkman (2019), Breeze (2018), Nedegaard (2016), and Brems, Baldwin, Davis, and Namyniuk (1994). 10. Brookfield (2013) argues that teachers can diffuse the power differential in their classrooms and cultivate a more democratic environment with students by openly acknowledging that educational systems must report learning outcomes through the commodification of learning (e.g., assignments, grades, and other measures). 11. Quote taken from Wilde’s 1892 comedic play, Lady Windermere’s Fan. 12. Godfrey, 2010. 13. Swartz, n.d. 14. Godfrey, 2010. 15. Cirillo & Torresi, 2013. 16. Adams, 2008; Napier, 2012. 17. Jemina Napier is a professional British Sign Language-English interpreter with Deaf parents who has examined the role of language brokering in her own and others’ development. 18. The lack of training for signed language interpreter educators is slowly being addressed in the field. At this writing, one doctoral program and two master’s degree programs are available in the U.S. for individuals who are interested in interpreting pedagogy: Gallaudet University (PhD), Western Oregon University (MA), and the University of North Florida (MA).

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19. Ball (2013) provides a rich account of the history of signed language interpreter education in the United States. 20. Winston, 2005. 21. In his examination of interpreter education, Sawyer (2004) points to the gaps that are present in interpreter education. 22. Bontempo, 2015. 23. Rudvin & Tomassini, 2011. 24. Interpreter researcher and educator Franz Pöchhacker (2016) provides an insightful discussion about how the various approaches and models of interpreting studies can be unified.

References Adams, S. (2008). Characteristics of the Coda experience in 21st century contemporary culture. In M. Bishop & S. Hicks (Eds.), Hearing, mother father Deaf: Hearing people in Deaf families (pp. 261–292). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Ball, C. (2013). Legacies and legends: History of interpreter education from 1800 to the 21st century. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Interpreting Consolidated. Bontempo, K. (2015). Signed language interpreting. In H. Mikkelson & R. Jourdenais (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of interpreting (pp. 112–128). New York: Routledge. Breeze, M. (2018). Imposter syndrome as a public feeling. In Y. Taylor & K. Ladad (Eds.), Feeling academic in the neoliberal university (pp. 191– 219). Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64224-6_9. Brems, C., Baldwin, M. R., Davis, L., & Namyniuk, L. (1994). The imposter syndrome as related to teaching evaluations and advising relationships of university faculty members. The Journal of Higher Education, 65(2), 183–193. Brookfield, S. D. (2013). Powerful techniques for teaching adults. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. Cirillo, L., & Torresi, I. (2013). Exploring institutional perceptions of child language brokering. In C. Schäffner, K. Kredens, & Y. Fowler (Eds.), Interpreting in a changing landscape: Selected papers from Critical Link 6. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Gibbs, G. (1998). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford, UK: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. Godfrey, L. (2010). Characteristics of effective interpreter education programs in the United States (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholar.utc. edu/theses/275.

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Napier, J. (2012). Sign language brokering: A survey of hearing and deaf Codas — Summary of survey findings. Unpublished manuscript, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Nedegaard, R. (2016). Overcoming imposter syndrome: How my students trained me to teach them. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 22(4), 52–59. Parkman, A. (2019). The imposter phenomenon in higher education: Incidence and impact. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 16(1). https:// doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v16i1.1936. Pöchhacker, F. (2016). Introducing interpreting studies (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. Rudvin, M., & Tomassini, E. (2011). Interpreting in the community and workplace: A practical teaching guide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Sawyer, D. (2004). Fundamental aspects of interpreter education: Curriculum and assessment. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Winston, E. A. (2005). Designing a curriculum for American Sign Language/English interpreter educators. In M. Marschark, R. Peterson, & E. A. Winston (Eds.), Sign language interpreting and interpreter education (pp. 208–234). New York: Oxford University Press.

CHAPTER 2

What Is Situated Learning?

We open this chapter with a scenario of two interpreting students, Carolina and Jalen, as they prepare to interpret a conference presentation as a course assignment in their program. A mock conference has been organized by interpreting instructor, Professor Kenya Williams, in collaboration with several faculty members who will be giving presentations at a national conference later that month. The faculty members agreed to participate in a practice session to deliver their talks and have them interpreted by the students. The mock conference reflects a winwin arrangement—the students will gain valuable practice interpreting the presentations and the faculty members benefit from the opportunity to do a dry run of their talks in advance of the actual conference. To increase the authenticity of the mock event, Professor Williams also made arrangements with members of the community to attend the mock conference as audience members. Fortunately, several community members had already developed a good relationship with Professor Williams, and they were happy to assist the student interpreters. It didn’t hurt that they got free access to the conference presentations and refreshments! This situated learning experience had been carefully orchestrated by Professor Williams with the aim of giving the students an authentic experience of interpreting for a high-profile conference. She regarded this situated learning experience as particularly valuable because it scaffolded her students from the in-class lessons and into real-world interpreting. In © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_2

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this way, the mock conference provided the students with an opportunity to try out their skills in a safe, pre-arranged, but authentic, situation. Over the years, the instructor had witnessed how these in situ experiences helped students grapple with the real-world challenges they would soon face as professional interpreters. Her students, including Carolina and Jalen, now had to draw on skills gained in numerous other in-class interpreting exercises they had experienced their program. We pick up with Carolina and Jalen immediately after they finish an in-class interpreting role play.1

“It Was a Challenge!” Carolina and Jalen, fourth-year interpreting students, had just finished interpreting a 20-minute class presentation by one of their classmates and were taking a break with the rest of their peers. Carolina, still feeling a bit buzzed from the mock interpreting experience, caught up to Jalen. “Hey, we did pretty good job with that interpretation, don’t you think?” she said with a touch of pride. Jalen, also feeling the high that comes after a successful interpretation, responded using Carolina’s nickname, “We rocked it, C!” Catching himself, Jalen humbly added, “Of course, it helped that we prepared with the speaker before class. I mean, I know a little bit about anatomy and physiology, but preparing in advance made all the difference.” He added quickly, “But overall, I thought we crushed it.” After hearing his words, Carolina nearly skipped down the hall with pleasure as the two continued to dissect the details of their in-class interpretation before returning from their break. After class was over, Jalen caught up to Carolina, “Hey C, we did good today, but that conference next week is going to be a whole different animal. Since Professor Williams gave us contact information for the presenter, how about if I text him and see if we can set a time to meet up before his talk? I really want to review his presentation, so we’re ready to go.” Carolina nodded while thinking to herself, “Jalen is always on top of things. I’ve got to get more organized.” She responded, “That’d be great, Jalen.” However, as she spoke, Carolina also noticed that her throat was feeling scratchy. She added, “Unfortunately, I think I’m coming down with something, so I’d better get some rest this weekend. But it’d be great if you’d get in touch with the speaker. Hey, can you remind me of the topic again? And his presentation is on Wednesday, right?”

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Jalen contained a smile, knowing that sometimes Carolina was a bit scattered. “Sure…the presentation is titled ‘Reducing attrition among first-year university students.’ Dr. Romanoff, a dean from the university, is the speaker. I think his goal is to give the audience specific strategies for making it through that tough freshman year, but it might also be more about national statistics of universities. I don’t know for sure.” Jalen quickly followed with, “But I’ll text him this weekend and see if we can meet him early next week before his presentation on Wednesday.” Carolina nodded in agreement and, as the two parted, her hand nervously went up her sore throat. The week-long mock conference was underway on Monday morning, but Jalen still hadn’t heard back from Dr. Romanoff about scheduling a time to meet. On a break, Jalen shot a follow-up text to Dr. Romanoff and, fortunately, received a prompt reply: Hi Jalen. Dr. Romanoff here. Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I was camping all weekend and didn't have an internet connection in the woods. But I am here now. I'm attaching my PPT for the talk, which only needs a few more tweaks, but it should help you prepare.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jalen replied: Hi Dr. Romanoff. Thanks a ton for the PPT. It will be a huge help on Wednesday. Carolina (my team interpreter) and I also would like to meet with you before the talk. Possible?

Dr. Romanoff sent another text: You bet! How about Tuesday at noon? Meet you by the registration table?

With the arrangements in place, Jalen thought, “Alright! I’d better forward these presentation slides to Carolina now, before I forget!” On Monday, the first day of the conference, Carolina was feeling under the weather and her sore throat was worse. In spite of not feeling well, Carolina showed up for the first day of the mock conference with a scarf wrapped around her neck. She quickly became absorbed in watching her classmates interpret for various speakers. Professor Williams had assigned the students to work in the same teams that had worked together in class

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and she was looking forward to working with Jalen again on Wednesday. However, later that night, Jalen and Carolina got an email from Professor Williams with the information that one of the presenters had canceled due to a family emergency and the schedule had changed. Jalen and Carolina’s scheduled presentation had been moved from Wednesday afternoon to Tuesday morning. Jalen texted Carolina immediately: Did you see the email?! What are we going to do? We haven't had a chance to talk to Dr. Romanoff at all!

Carolina was a bit panicked too. I don't know! I was expecting to have time to sit down with him so we could get familiar with his topic and his style. We have his PPT but it's only eight slides long. What's he going to talk about for an hour?

Given the last-minute change in the assignment, Jalen and Carolina decided to meet by phone. Without much information in hand, they did some hasty searching on the Internet about freshman college attrition and found a few related sites. Carolina suggested that they also discuss how they would support each other as a team. They talked over how to communicate while they were interpreting, brainstormed various challenges that might arise, and planned what they could do if the problems came up. Carolina shared, “I always hate being the first one to interpret. Is there any chance you’d be willing to take the lead tomorrow?” Jalen felt the same way about going first, but acquiesced, saying. “O.K., but you really have to be there for me.” The students hung up and tried to get a good night’s sleep, without Carolina mentioning how bad her sore throat had gotten. On Tuesday, Jalen and Carolina rushed to meet Dr. Romanoff in front of the platform in the room where he would be presenting. When he showed up, the team had less than five minutes before his talk was to begin. This was the first time the students had met Dr. Romanoff and he suddenly seemed very imposing with his scholarly demeanor and a shock of white hair. Carolina asked Dr. Romanoff where he thought she

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and Jalen should sit so as to have better eye contact during his talk. The professor suggested sitting in the first row so they could see one another without any obstructions. Just as they were settling into their seats, Professor Williams appeared with the microphone they would be using during their interpretation. Both Jalen and Carolina were grateful that they had practiced with mics in class the previous week. As Jalen began interpreting for the presentation, he suddenly became very self-conscious about the potential impact of his interpretation. He realized that the audience would be making a judgment about Dr. Romanoff based on his interpretation. The topic was not familiar to Jalen and he wasn’t sure his word choices were conveying the professor’s intelligence. At his side, Carolina was having similar thoughts. She was intimidated by both the formal register and knowing that she would be representing Dr. Romanoff’s ideas to others. The pressure the pair felt was more than they had anticipated. They also became aware that their audience was comprised of parents of incoming freshmen, high school guidance counselors, and other community members who were quite interested in Dr. Romanoff’s lecture. Jalen and Carolina had no background on academic retention yet, they knew they had no choice but to support each other in getting through the talk. About 20 minutes into the presentation, when Carolina was interpreting, she missed a point that Dr. Romanoff had made. She leaned toward Jalen for a feed. Unfortunately, Jalen had also missed the information and could only shake his head. Flustered, Carolina did her best to recover and keep going. Jalen was mortified that he couldn’t give Carolina the support she needed. Doubts began creeping in whether he was an effective team interpreter. His inner thoughts grew increasingly negative, “Shoot! I’m not only missing information she needs, but I’m also feeding her information at times when she doesn’t need it. I’m actually throwing her off rather than helping!” At that moment, Carolina began to cough. She couldn’t suppress the deep hacking that seemed to come from nowhere. In a panic, she thrust the microphone in Jalen’s direction. He fumbled with it and, in a panic, tried to pick up the interpretation where Carolina had left off. After tossing out a few jumbled sentences, he was able to get the interpretation back on course. For a full minute, Carolina tried to suppress her coughing, but she gave up and gestured to Jalen that she was going to find some water. Jalen thought, “I’m glad she is going to go take care of that cough, but now I’m on my own!”

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Feeling as if all eyes were on her, Carolina slunk out of her seat and hurried up the aisle of the auditorium. She rushed into the hall searching for a water fountain, thinking, “Why didn’t I bring bottled water with me? Or some lozenges! I’m always so unprepared!” She continued to berate herself, thinking, “I really should have made time to go to the doctor. Why did I think I would be well enough to do this conference? Not taking care of myself is a recipe for disaster! Now I have to go back in there and just hope I don’t start coughing again.” After getting a long drink of water, Carolina mustered up her courage and re-entered the meeting room, scurried down to the front, and sliding into the seat next to Jalen. She focused all her attention on the presentation, so that she would be ready to support Jalen if he needed it. Fortunately, Jalen had found his stride and was once again in sync with Dr. Romanoff. Then, just as suddenly, no words were coming out of Jalen’s mouth. Dr. Romanoff was explaining the socioeconomic factors that drive retention at elite universities compared to the attrition rates of small rural colleges. Jalen got off track and sat there wide eyed, as if in a trance. Carolina began whispering full sentences for Jalen to use. Jalen mechanically repeated verbatim what he heard; he was totally dependent on her feed. He seemed frozen, incapable of re-gaining control of the interpretation. Finally, he abandoned the microphone altogether and Carolina took over. After what seemed an indeterminable time to the students, Dr. Romanoff wrapped up his presentation. Fortunately, the presentation ended on a high note as Carolina was hitting all of the professor’s key points. When the applause started, Jalen looked at Carolina. They smiled, relieved that the talk was over, but they cringed a bit too. They felt they made it through one of the toughest interpreting assignments in their entire student experience. After thanking Dr. Romanoff, they headed out of the room with mixed emotions. Carolina said, “Okay, so it wasn’t perfect, but I feel that I learned a ton!” Jalen, still feeling bruised from his freeze-up, concurred, “That was totally terrifying! But we survived it. I’m already feeling inspired, like we took a big leap forward today!” Carolina laughed, “Me too. Y’know, I feel positive that we will be ready for what to do next time!” Later, as Professor Williams advised them to do, Carolina and Jalen took more time to reflect on their shared experience. Jalen especially wanted to debrief about how they managed the teaming. He said, “I realized I only thought I knew what I needed from a team interpreter.

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After that assignment, I have a much better idea of what would really suit me. I also learned that your needs are very different from mine. I didn’t support you very well.” Carolina quickly reassured Jalen, “You were fine! I didn’t know what I would need either, until I needed it. And then we couldn’t really talk about it because we were interpreting…it was tough!”. After getting clarity on what they each needed from a team interpreter and discussing the best way to ask for the support they needed, Carolina said, “What about that coughing fit I had? How embarrassing! Sorry I just dumped the work all on you! I had to get some water!” Jalen reassured her, “At least it happened during this mock situation and not at an actual conference!” Carolina said, “Boy, it didn’t feel like a mock conference. I was stressed out the whole time. It felt totally real.” Jalen agreed saying, “I know! But I appreciated that Professor Williams didn’t micromanage us. She let us use our experiences from class to figure things out on our own. I’m glad we contacted the presenter beforehand and taking things into our own hands. It was a bit painful, but cool too.” “Yeah…” Carolina reflected, “It was awesome having that environment that we could learn in. It was a safe situation, but also a huge challenge.”

Introducing Situated Learning Through Jalen and Carolina’s experience, we offer one example of the use of situated learning in interpreter education. The two students were interpreting for a mock conference that had been pre-arranged by their instructor. The situation gave an opportunity for the presenters to practice the talks they would be delivering in an upcoming national conference, which was a benefit to them. In addition, the instructor arranged to have audience members present at the conference so the students would have actual consumers who relied on their interpretation. In the next chapter, we will dissect the features that comprised this situated learning experience. We begin with a more thorough explanation of the use of situated learning theory in education. Simply stated, situated learning is a theory that holds as its foundational tenet that individuals learn by engaging in experiences in authentic environments. In situated learning, learners are expected to grapple with real-world problems and the social interactions that unfold in natural contexts. Situated learning theory stands in direct contrast to cognitive learning theory, which emphasizes cognition and learning that take place in the mind of a learner, and then is assumed to transfer to real-world applications.

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Let’s examine the differences between the educational perspectives of situated learning theory versus the cognitive learning theory. Cognitive learning theory, possibly the most common approach found in all educational institutions, was developed in response to the behavioral theory of learning, which focused on observable behavior and outcomes. Behaviorism was the dominant school of thought in psychology from about 1920 through the mid-1950s and proposes that learning is shaped by the delivery of consequences, such as incentives and reinforcements that increase the desired behavior. In this way, learning is said to occur when a target learned behavior is seen. For example, if interpreting students are given a vocabulary test that assigns points for each correct response, proponents of behavior learning theory would argue that the students have learned only the words they interpreted correctly. Psychologists and educators became increasingly dissatisfied with behavioral learning theory in the late 1950s because it did not examine the cognitive processes underlying the learning process. In reaction, a cognitive theory of learning emerged among psychologists and educators. Cognitivism focuses on the processing of information that occurs in the mind of the learner. The conceptual framework is that learners process information by observing, categorizing, and forming generalizations. Thus, learning is regarded as not merely being the demonstration of a behavior, but rather, stemming from a multitude of factors, including an individual’s thoughts, feelings, ideas, knowledge, and understanding about oneself and the environment. As an example of this theory, after interpreting students complete a reading on cross-cultural communication and engage in a class discussion on the reading, attention is paid to how they are cognitively processing that information. As often happens in the development of theories or models, the pendulum of learning theories swung in the 1960s and 1970s toward a new concept that was developed to bridge behaviorist and cognitivist learning theories. The new concept became known as social learning theory, which gave rise to constructivism, situated cognition theory, and eventually, situated learning theory. Social learning theory is associated with leading psychologists and educators such as Albert Bandura2 ; Lev Vygotsky3 ; and John Seely Brown, Allan Collins, and Paul Duguid.4 Social learning theory emerged as educators, psychologists, and anthropologists came to reject the concept of automatic learning transfer, that is, the assumption that learning that occurred in one environment would automatically transfer to its application in another environment.

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Indeed, cognitivists purport that the more generalized the learning is, the more easily it will transfer to other situations. Over time, social learning theorists began to challenge that assumption. The problem with learning transfer. In 1984, a researcher, Denis Newman challenged the idea of learning transfer.5 Newman and his colleagues conducted research in an elementary school classroom to observe how students would transfer learning from an instructional session to its application to another activity. In an instructional session, Newman worked with the students individually using cards that had photos of famous actors on them. He asked the students to create pairs of cards so that at some point each actor was paired with each of the other actors. This cognitive process, known as intersection procedure, can be applied across many different tasks. The mental schema for the procedure is illustrated in the following matrix in which the Xs indicate all possible pairs: Actor #1 Actor Actor Actor Actor

#1 #2 #3 #4

X X X

Actor #2

Actor #3

Actor #4

X

X X

X X X

X X

X

If the students did not apply the mental intersecting schema on their own, or only did it partially, Newman prompted them or explained the schema outright, depending on each child’s progress. At the end of the teaching session, he found that 63% of the children were able to apply the intersection procedure. Later, Newman tested the children’s ability to apply the intersection procedure to activities in a science class. The children worked in groups to learn and understand the composition of different chemicals. Newman gave them the same type of instructions they had received in the task with the actor cards; that is, he instructed the children to create combinations of chemicals so each chemical was combined with one of the other chemicals, for which they were to record the results of each combination. In this application activity, the mental task was the same but the social environment, the materials, and the activity (mixing chemicals) were different than in the original teaching session. In the application session

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with the chemicals, Newman found that only 15% of the children applied the intersection matrix schema to the science task. Researchers who have studied learning transfer share similar findings in which both adults and children were much more accurate when solving problems situated in the real world compared to solving the same problems on abstracted, paper and pencil tasks, even when the paper and pencil tasks were derived from the real-world problems they had previously solved. In the 1980s, Jean Lave6 and her colleagues conducted an experiment similar to that of Newman. Lave and her colleagues accompanied a group of adult women participants (“shoppers”) to the supermarket to buy groceries. The research group observed shoppers comparing products of differing sizes and differing prices to determine which one was the best buy. For example, the shoppers were told to determine if a 20.5 oz. can of refried beans for 57¢ was cheaper than buying a 17 oz. can for 49¢. In another task, the shoppers had to determine which was a better buy: a 16 oz. bag of brown sugar for 59¢ or a 32 oz. bag for $1.16. At times, the shoppers used the product labels to determine the answer, but most often, they performed fairly complicated arithmetic to make their purchasing decisions. Lave found that 93% of these arithmetic calculations done by the shoppers were done correctly. Later, however, in their homes, when the shoppers were presented with cards that contained prices and quantities of items to be compared (the same type of calculations used in the store), they reported feelings of inadequacy at performing the task and only calculated 59% of the problems correctly. The most striking illustration of the learning transfer problem may be that of a research project conducted outside of the classroom, on the streets of Brazil.7 Carraher and colleagues, the researchers in this story, met adolescent Brazilian street vendors who were selling coconuts in open markets or on street corners. One of the researchers-turned-customer asked a series of questions related to the purchase of the merchandise. For example, the researcher asked Pedro,8 “How much is one coconut?” Pedro replied, “35.” The researcher then stated, “I’d like ten. How much is that?” Pedro paused, then thought out loud, “Three will be 105; with three more, that will be 210.” He paused again and added, “I need four more. That will be….wait…315….” Pedro looked at the researcher and said, “I think it is 350.” The researcher continued to pose a series of other questions regarding the purchase of coconuts. Amidst all of the questions, the researcher found that Pedro had correctly calculated 98% of inquiries.

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Later, the researcher met Pedro again, this time at his home. The researcher presented Pedro with paper and pencil representations of the types of math problems he had previously solved on the street selling coconuts. Some of the representations were word problems, such as, “Antonio bought 10 coconuts. Each coconut cost 35. How much did Antonio pay altogether?” Others were numerical operations problems, such as “35 x 10.” Although Pedro had demonstrated a 98% mastery of these problems when selling his coconuts, he correctly calculated only 74% of the word problems and only 37% of the de-contextualized mathematical operations problems. In the grocery shopping and street vendor scenarios, the participants were not informed that the paper and pencil problems were the same as they had solved in their familiar environments. They viewed the tasks as simply being math problems chosen by the researcher. As a result, there was no benefit to solving the problems, except to complete the assignment, doing the problems either correctly or incorrectly. The strategies used by the shoppers and vendors in their familiar environments were not available during the paper and pencil tasks. For example, the shoppers sometimes used labels to help them determine which of two products was the best buy. Other contextual factors affected their decision making, such as whether the larger size of an item would go bad. The street vendors often manipulated the actual items they were selling to help them in their calculations. Learning transfer from the classroom to real-world contexts in interpreter education. Given the experiments described earlier, it is likely that interpreting students experience a similar dilemma faced by the grocery shoppers and street vendors when they do paper and pencil problems. In other words, the decontextualized interpreting practice that happens with recorded source texts is outside of a real-world environment and may not help students learn and transfer the skills to interpreting in a real-world environment. Similar to the grocery shoppers and street vendors, when interpreting students are situated in the real world, they have the opportunity to learn and utilize relevant skills that lead to successful interpreting. Just as the research participants used contextual cues to guide them to successful solutions, interpreting practice that is situated in real-world contexts can lead interpreting students to learn successful solutions. Consider the resources that professional interpreters use daily to create successful interpretations, but that are not available in the classroom when interpreting pre-recorded material:

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The interlocutors’ shared understanding. Even if an interpreter’s interpretation of a conversation between two or more interlocutors is not wholly accurate, the interlocutors’ shared context and understanding may nonetheless contribute to a successful conversational exchange. Clearly, depending on conversants’ shared understanding should not be the default approach for interpreters; however, shared understanding is a real-world linguistic resource that contributes to successful interpretations. This natural communication resource is difficult to replicate in a classroom or lab environment. Situational context. The context of any setting (i.e., the environment, the characteristics of the participants, the topic of discussion, the goals of the setting and participants) contributes to the way in which interpreters co-construct9 meaning. Such contextual cues are only available to interpreters when they are situated in the real world. New vocabulary. If an interpreting student is unaware of a specific vocabulary term, the participants in a real-world environment may be able to clarify its meaning. For example, if interpreters are interpreting in an audiology course, the student who is taking the course may have the vocabulary knowledge gleaned from previous courses that can be shared with the interpreters. This resource is only available when interpreting in real-world contexts. The following resources available to interpreters in authentic interpreting environments are specific to signed language interpreting; however, teachers of spoken language interpreting may apply linguistic features that are specific to spoken language pairs to these examples. Non-manual markers. If a student’s cognitive load is reduced because of the aforementioned real-world resources, students may have more cognitive resources to allocate to the production of more effective non-manual markers than would otherwise be available. Classifier predicates. The objects depicted by classifier predicates in signed languages may be expressed more frequently or more authentically in a real-world setting than on video; therefore, it may be easier for students to select and formulate the correct handshapes by using the surrounding objects as a guide. Again, using an audiology course as an example, interpreters who are unfamiliar with the vestibular system may refer to PowerPoint images and instructor drawings to depict structures in a way that contributes to an effective interpretation.

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We use these examples of available resources used by working interpreters to strengthen the argument that interpreting students who practice in labs or classrooms with pre-recorded source material do not have access to the same resources as professionals who are working in realworld settings. In labs or classrooms, students have virtually no resources they can rely upon when creating their interpretation. Thus, interpreting should be framed and offered as an activity that is situated in realworld settings.10 When students practice interpreting from video or audio recordings, they are far removed from real-world situations and many resources are unavailable, a potential setup for failure. To add salt to their wounds, instructors who are bound by collegiate expectations must subsequently evaluate and grade the work their students produce under these artificial conditions. Much like the paper and pencil math problems presented to the grocery shoppers and the coconut vendors, the recordings that students interpret are usually selected by the instructors. Since their interpretations are done in a lab or classroom, students can have low motivation for “solving the problem,” other than the goal of completing the assignment. Indeed, in this type of de-contextualized interpreting task, the only audience and receiver of the interpretation is the instructor. Compounding the problem is evidence11 that instructors have no paradigm for the videos they choose for their students to interpret, making the work that students do even less relevant. An additional challenge that interpreting students may face beyond what the grocery shoppers and street vendors faced with their mathematical problems is that their responses to the problem do not have a simple right or wrong answer. Instead, interpretations can and do vary greatly and can still be considered correct. The assessment of the accuracy of an interpretation may also vary depending on the subjective viewpoint of the instructor. If the instructor is not a native user of the language in the interpretation, she may differ in opinion about the effectiveness of the interpretation in comparison with the evaluation of a native user of the language. Finally, since instructors select the video recorded material for their students, which may have been used with prior students, it is possible that instructors’ familiarity with the source text influences the accuracy of their evaluations. This is not to say that interpreter educators don’t use any contextbased activities in interpreter education; in fact, they engage in many educational activities that are grounded in situated learning theory.

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Instructional practices of interpreter educators are based on all three types of situated learning activities: cognitive apprenticeships,12 authentic activity,13 and communities of practice,14 including how interpreters develop their professional identities through a community of practice.15 What are these three types of situated learning activities? According to the research, they are the spaces in which authentic learning in a variety of subjects, from biodiversity and banking to map reading skills and mentoring, may be situated. Cognitive apprenticeship.16 Cognitive apprenticeship is an approach to learning that embeds learning within activity and makes use of social and physical context. Learning occurs with the guidance of a master mentor or teacher who models behaviors and coaches the apprentice while performing a real-world task. In cognitive apprenticeship, methods are used that acculturate students into real-world practices through activities and social interactions much like the apprenticeships of electricians and plumbers. Apprenticeships typically occur in real-world settings through participation in communities of practice, but cognitive apprenticeships can also be created in a classroom setting. We note that cognitive apprenticeships incorporate three critical features.17 First, they must involve authentic tasks. For example, papers should be written for a real audience or actual purpose, rather than merely for the teacher to grade. Second, tasks should be located in an authentic context, in contrast to drill and practice exercises of component tasks. Finally, learners should have the opportunity to observe experts in action. If the action is a mental process, the experts should make that process overt by thinking aloud. Authentic learning activities.18 Authentic learning activities are the heart of situated learning. Assuming that learning is not easily transferred from the classroom to the real world and that learning must take place within authentic, context-based activity, these activities take place in a real-world or simulated environment, such as a practicum or internship.19 Jerome Bruner, a respected psychologist and researcher, sums up the importance of authentic learning activities in The Culture of Education, in which he writes, “Learning and thinking are always situated in a cultural setting and always dependent upon the utilization of cultural resources.”20 In essence, the goal of situated learning is that the activity, here, the activity of interpreting and associated practices, becomes embodied through authentic practice as opposed to relying on the transfer of

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learning from the educational environment to the real-world environment. The learned activities become habits that underlie successful work. In other words, the ability to perform an authentic task is the objective, rather than the ability to transfer learned knowledge and skills to a novel situation. Habits have power. Experience makes decision making more intuitive. Bruner has claimed that knowledge helps only when it descends into habits.21 For example, when children first learn to tie their shoes, they have to think about each step in the process, but after tying their shoes every day over time, they can do it automatically, without thought. Or consider a more advanced skill, such as karate. The more one practices the basic kicks, the easier the moves become. As a result, less energy is needed for the correct execution of those kicks during a sparring match. When executions of the kicks are embodied as habits, more energy can be devoted to the novel challenges presented by a sparring partner. The story of Eugene Pauly22 illustrates how automated thinking happens within the brain. Upon contracting viral encephalitis that caused inflammation of his brain, Pauly lost his ability to remember any new information. His faculties were so limited that he could not draw a simple map of his own house, even while sitting in the living room. When he went out for walks with his wife, he was unable to tell her how to get back home. In other ways, however, Pauly functioned amazingly well. He could get around the house, fix himself breakfast, and do other tasks, even if he couldn’t draw a map of his own home. He began leaving the house and going for walks by himself, always finding his way back. Luckily for Pauly, the viral encephalitis had contracted left intact his basal ganglia, a primitive area of the brain that takes over once a routine has been developed. This area allows people to do things without thinking so that their cognitive processes can be focused on bigger challenges. Another example of how developing habits can support the execution of more advanced skills comes from the story of Buccaneers football coach Tony Dungy,23 the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl. He has argued that football champions don’t necessarily do extraordinary things, but that they do ordinary things without thinking, and too quickly for the other team to react. Coach Dungy trained his players to practice the same moves repeatedly until they became habitual and could be executed in seconds. The players could perform them without conscious thought, that is, until they got into the pressures of the game. When the players began thinking too much about the plays in action,

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wasting precious seconds, Dungy found that their well-rehearsed moves fell apart. It wasn’t until Dungy was able to convince the players to rely on the automatic responses they had trained their bodies to make that the team started winning games. In fact, the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2002, even after Coach Dungy had moved on, by relying on his training approach of relying on habitual actions. Of course, overreliance on habits can be dangerous too, as it may lead to mindless practice or behavior. Habits have power only when, as they become embodied, they support the acquisition of other skills. The situated learning approach to interpreter education aims to incorporate mind, body, and activity in a multifaceted social experience. Learning is constructed, and eventually embodied, by engaging in authentic activity and interacting with others in authentic contexts. These are the features for creating situated learning activities in which performing the task of interpreting becomes the objective, rather than merely the transfer of knowledge or skill. Communities of practice. A community of practice is a social learning system that binds members together by their collective understanding of the activity and social interactions that typically take place in their community. Members are bound together by mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire.24 Further, members develop an understanding of their mutual function, and they hold each other accountable to one another. Members of a community of practice also interact with each other to establish norms and relationships within the group. Finally, members share resources, such as a common language, tools, routines, artifacts, and stories.25 Newcomers to a profession often participate in a community of practice that is comprised of members in their field. The experts within the community of practice exchange their resources, information, and experiences as a means of assisting the newcomer develop needed expertise. The interpreting community of practice includes novices to the field, expert interpreters, all the member interpreters in between, as well as those who use their interpreting services. Graduates of interpreting programs often come to rely on the interpreting community of practice for their subsequent success as professionals. Legitimate peripheral participation. Learners enter a community of practice as newcomers. They observe and interact within the sociocultural context of the community, thereby shaping their identity and role within the community. As learners increase their knowledge and skills, they

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Fig. 2.1 Legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice

become members of the community of practice. The process by which a newcomer acquires the knowledge and skills to become a full participant within a community of practice is known as legitimate peripheral participation.26 It is the journey one takes from being a beginner/newcomer to becoming an expert within a practice. Figure 2.1 provides a visual graphic that illustrates the process of moving deeper within a community.

The Four Cornerstones of Situated Learning In situated learning, it is argued that meaningful learning occurs when people interact with each other in tool-dependent environments.27 Thus, a full situated learning experience will consist of four cornerstones that contribute to its authenticity: (1) real-world context where the students will apply what they have learned,28 (2) authentic activity, (3) social interactions, and (2) use of tools. Real-world context. The environment or setting in which the interpreted event (along with its associated social interactions, tools, and activity) is referred to as the real-world context. In situated learning, “real-world contexts” are necessarily not actual interpreting situations; rather, these contexts consist of more situational cues that scaffold the students one step higher in the staircase and toward actual interpreting

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experiences. For example, “real-world contexts” may be simulating such situations as a medical exam room, classroom, auditorium, or interpreting “dummy” booth, among others. Importantly, context is more than simply the stage29 where interpreting occurs. Rather, context is the space where past experiences coalesce with the current setting and, over time, the habits of decision making are formed. Authentic activity. An activity that is authentic includes interpreting, but it may also include a myriad of other related activities, such as introducing oneself, managing turn-taking, asking for clarification, correcting misunderstandings or errors, promoting inclusion, interpersonal skills, and being helpful to others.30 Social interactions. Social interactions are the individual interactions and discourse that occurs between participants in an interpreted event. In authentic interpreting experiences, interactions can include relationships among any of the participants, other interpreters, and even individuals who may not be directly involved in the interpreted event. Use of tools. Tools are the devices, equipment, supplies, objects, or anything used in a learning activity. Tools that interpreters use are, most obviously, language, but also can include situation-specific information, documents (e.g., forms that may be filled out by participants or preparatory materials), people (e.g., expert participants in a situation or bystanders who provide contextual cues,) or experience (the continuity of an interpreting job), to name just a few. Tools include all the resources that interpreters have available in a setting, as well as the resources (i.e., personal characteristics, experience, education) they bring to the work that can be used to respond to the challenges in an interpreting situation. These resources have been referred to as the controls that an interpreter can exercise.31 These four cornerstones of situated learning are illustrated in Fig. 2.2.

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Fig. 2.2 The four cornerstones of situated learning

In the next chapter, we reexamine Jalen and Carolina’s situated conference interpreting experience in terms of the four cornerstones of situated learning. Furthermore, we introduce the staircase model for interpreter education that can be used to scaffold students toward increasingly more authentic learning experiences. Included is the incorporation of the three types of situated learning activities: (a) authentic learning experiences, (b) cognitive apprenticeship, and (c) communities of practice. Finally, we describe the role of educators in situated learning and discuss how to assess authentic learning experiences.

Notes 1. We note that this scenario is a composite of student experiences during an actual situated learning experience in a research study of an interpreting program. 2. Bandura, 1977. 3. Vygotsky, 1978. 4. Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989. 5. Narrative created from the research project in Newman, Griffin, and Cole (1984). Names of characters in the story are fictional. 6. Lave, 1988. 7. Narrative based on the research in Carraher, Carraher, and Schliemann (1985).

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8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

The name in this story is fictional. Wilcox & Shaffer, 2005. Angelleli, 2006. Winston & Swabey, 2010. Hetherington (2012) and Bown (2013) provide examples of how mentorship can be used as a form of cognitive apprenticeship. 13. Kennedy (2014) arranges authentic activity in a community-based interpreting experience for her students. 14. Godfrey, 2010, 2011; NCIEC, 2009; Pearce & Napier, 2010; Shaw, 2013; Shaw & Roberson, 2009; Monikowski & Peterson, 2005; Angelleli, 2006. 15. Using phenomenology as her research approach, Hunt (2015) examined the identity development of professional interpreters as it relates to their connection within a community of practice. 16. Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989. 17. Resnick & Klopfer, 1989. 18. Pfeiffer, Gemballa, Jarodzka, Scheiter, & Gerjets, 2009; Bjørkeng & Clegg, 2010; Huang, Liao, Huang, & Chen, 2014; Hossainy, Hormozi, Shaghaghi, & Hossain, 2012. 19. Hansman, 2001; Wilson, 1993. 20. Bruner, 1996, p. 4. 21. Bruner, 1996. 22. Duhigg, 2012. 23. Duhigg, 2012. 24. Wenger, 1998. 25. Wenger, 2000. 26. Lave & Wenger, 1991. 27. Hansman & Wilson, 1998. 28. Hansman & Wilson, 1998; Herrington & Oliver, 1995; Kim & Merriam, 2010. 29. Lave, 1988. 30. Smith, 2013. 31. Dean & Pollard, 2013.

References Angelleli, C. V. (2006). Designing curriculum for healthcare interpreting education: A principles approach. In C. B. Roy (Ed.), New approaches to interpreter education (pp. 23–45). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Bjørkeng, K., & Clegg, S. (2010). Becoming DragonBankers: Constructing practice through processes of socially situated learning. Society and Business Review, 5(1), 48–65. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465681011017255.

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Bown, S. (2013). Autopoiesis: Scaffolding the reflective practitioner toward employability. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 5(1), 51–63. Brown, J., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Carraher, T. N., Carraher, D. W., & Schliemann, A. D. (1985). Mathematics in the streets and in the schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 21–29. Dean, R. K., & Pollard, R. Q. (2013). The demand control schema: Interpreting as a practice profession. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random House Publishing. Godfrey, L. (2010). Characteristics of effective interpreter education programs in the United States (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholar.utc. edu/theses/275. Godfrey, L. (2011). Characteristics of effective interpreter education programs in the United States. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 3, 88–105. Hansman, C. A. (2001). Context-based adult learning. In S. B. Merriam (Ed.), New directions for adult and continuing education: The new update on adult learning theory (pp. 43–51). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hansman, C. A., & Wilson, A. L. (1998). Teaching writing in community colleges: A situated view of how adults learn to write in computer-based writing classrooms. Community College Review, 26(1), 21–41. Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (1995). Critical characteristics of situated learning: Implications for the instructional design of multimedia. In ASCILITE95 Conference. Melbourne, Vic, Australia: ASCILITE. Retrieved from http:// www.ascilite.org/conferences/melbourne95/smtu/papers/herrington.pdf. Hetherington, A. (2012). Supervision and the interpreting profession: Support and accountability through reflective practice. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 4(1), 46–57. Hossainy, F. N., Zare, H., Hormozi, M., Shaghaghi, F., & Hossain, M. (2012). Designing and implementing a situated learning program and determining its impact on the students’ learning and motivation. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 13(2), 36–47. Huang, Y., Liao, Y., Huang, S., & Chen, H. (2014). A jigsaw-based cooperative learning approach to improve learning outcomes for mobile situated learning. Educational Technology & Society, 17 (1), 128–140.

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Hunt, D. I. J. (2015). “The work is you”: Professional identity development of second-language learner American Sign Language-English interpreters (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com. proxyga.wrlc.org/docview/1860909024?accountid=27346. Kennedy, C. (2014). Partnerships: Promoting practise to practice. In Poster presentation given at the 20th biennial conference of the Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Portland, OR. Kim, Y. S., & Merriam, S. B. (2010). Situated learning and identity development in a Korean older adults’ computer classroom. Adult Education Quarterly, 60(5), 438–455. Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Monikowski, C., & Peterson, R. (2005). Service learning in interpreting education: Living and learning. In M. Marschark, R. Peterson, & E. A. Winston (Eds.), Sign language interpreting and interpreter education: Directions for research and practice (pp. 188–207). New York: Oxford University Press. National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers Mentoring Work Group. (2009). Towards effective practices in mentoring of ASL-English interpreters. Retrieved from http://www.interpretereducation.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2013/01/mentor_white_paper.pdf. Newman, D., Griffin, P., & Cole, M. (1984). Social constraints in laboratory and classroom tasks. In B. Rogoff & J. Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 172–193). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Pearce, T., & Napier, J. (2010). Mentoring: A vital learning tool for interpreter graduates. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 2, 58–75. Pfeiffer, V. D. I., Gemballa, S., Jarodzka, H., Scheiter, K., & Gerjets, P. (2009). Situated learning in the mobile age: Mobile devices on a field trip to the sea. Alt-J, Research in Learning Technology, 17 (3), 187–199. https://doi.org/10. 1080/09687760903247666. Resnick, L. B., & Klopfer, L. E. (1989). Toward the thinking curriculum: An overview. In L. B. Resnick & L. E. Klopfer (Eds.), Toward the thinking curriculum: Current cognitive research (pp. 1–18). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Shaw, S. (2013). Service learning in interpreter education: Strategies for extending student involvement in the Deaf community. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Shaw, S., & Roberson, L. (2009). Service-learning: Recentering the Deaf community in interpreter education. American Annals of the Deaf, 154(3), 277–284.

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Smith, M. (2013). More than meets the eye: Revealing the complexities of an interpreted education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization Articles, 7 (2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/135050 840072002. Wilcox, S., & Shaffer, B. (2005). Toward a cognitive model of interpreting. In T. Janzen (Ed.), Topics in signed language interpreting. Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins. Wilson, A. (1993). The promise of situated cognition. New Directions for Adults and Continuing Education, 57, 71–79. Winston, B., & Swabey, L. (2010). Garbage in = garbage out: The importance of source text selection in assessing interpretations and translations. In Synergy: Moving forward together. Glasgow: European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters.

CHAPTER 3

The Staircase Model for Interpreter Education

Life is a relentless learning process. Consciously or unconsciously, people are continually bombarded with stimuli that they absorb, process, and connect to what is already stored in their brains. Many scientists have pondered the evolution of organisms to acquire, consolidate, and retrieve the information that is pervasive in our environment. Some speculate that the ability to assimilate and learn from stimuli is related to context, internal states, social conditions, prior experiences, and highly developed mental processes. Critically, over millennia, organisms have developed mechanisms to learn from experience, a truly remarkable capacity of the brain’s neural tissue.1 Thus, humans are among the multitude of species that function as learning machines, engaging in an information-filtering process that has unfolded for millennia; notably, millions of people have processed vast amounts of information without the benefit of classroom instruction. In contemporary times, an individual can learn how to ride a mountain bike, prune a rose bush, repair a leaky faucet, or use the subway, all without specialized instruction. While formal training might accelerate the learning curve, most people simply live the experience of jumping on a bicycle, testing out garden shears, picking up a wrench, or venturing into a subway station. People also observe other people, mimic their behaviors, refine their own actions, pick up tips, assess their own progress, and evaluate their mistakes. To enhance their learning experience, people may rely © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_3

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on tools such as a cycling helmet, gardening gloves, a plumbing video, or the written instructions on a subway token machine. Learning often occurs in interaction with others and much has been written about the social aspects of learning2 as well as the power of experience.3 Learning experiences are most beneficial when they are authentic.4 But what does authentic mean? As discussed in Chapter 2, an authentic learning experience may be described by the presence of the four cornerstones of situated learning: (1) a real-world context, (2) an authentic activity, (3) social interactions, and (4) use of tools. Not all authentic learning experiences must contain each of the four cornerstones; however, the more cornerstones an experience has, the more authentic it is. Let’s take the case of David, a 50-year-old male who wants to learn to play golf so he can go on outings with his co-workers. His strategy has been to go to the driving range for a few hours each day and practice hitting balls with various clubs. He approached the club golf pro asking for pointers to improve his swing. He also invests time every weekend in watching golf tournaments on the sports channel. David believes he is actively working on developing his golf capabilities and is already dreaming of his first hole in one. Without question, David’s efforts have value; however, some components are absent that result in his activities being less than fully authentic. Since David is not on the green playing a round of golf with others, he isn’t experiencing how to select the best club to avoid obstacles such as trees, water hazards, hills, or sand traps. He isn’t embodying the experience of landing a ball on the green, nor is he learning how to keep score. Practicing in isolation means that he isn’t getting helpful tips from buddies as they move through the course. Thus, when David performs his daily ritual of practicing solo at the driving range, the activity contains only one cornerstone of situated learning, that is, learning through the use of tools (e.g., his clubs). David’s experience is lacking the three other cornerstones: the real-world activity and context of an actual round of golf, and learning through social interaction. Clearly, practicing one’s swing at a driving range is a valuable exercise, but it only contains one of the cornerstones needed to master golf. To develop the skill level he is seeking, David could increase the authenticity of his learning experiences by the addition of other cornerstone activities.

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Scaffolding Toward Authentic Learning: The Staircase Model for Interpreter Education In the construction trade, scaffolding refers to a piece of equipment used to provide temporary support for workers who are creating, maintaining, or repairing a structure. Scaffolding is necessary to “get access to heights that would be otherwise hard to get to.”5 Scaffolding provides workers with a safe and sturdy structure on which to do their work. In an educational setting, the term scaffolding is used to describe the process of providing needed structure and support that will safely guide learners to new heights that would be otherwise hard to access. The scaffolding offered by a teacher is designed to help students collaboratively construct their understanding of a concept or to build their skills. Scaffolding offers needed support to students in a learning process that psychologist Lev Vygotsky referred to as the zone of proximal development (ZPD). According to Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development is the distance between what a learner can do without help, and what they can do with support from someone with more knowledge or expertise.6 In our application of situated learning theory, scaffolding helps shape students’ current level of skills so they can engage in the most authentic experiences. Importantly, with scaffolded situated learning activities, students can feel the safety of learning in low risk interpreting settings (i.e., without actual consumers whose lives will be affected by the interpretation) as they build their knowledge and skills. In this chapter, we introduce a staircase model for interpreter education that scaffolds student learning. The staircase model is offered as an image for conceptualizing how to provide students with situated, real-world interpreting environments from which to learn beyond what is possible in the classroom. Importantly, the model can be used to scaffold learning across a single lesson or module, a full course, or throughout an entire program of learning. To demonstrate how to apply the staircase model, in this chapter we describe specific teaching and learning experiences that can be used at each step. Additionally, we provide examples of the staircase model applied to a lesson, a whole course and a complete program. The staircase model illustrates an upward progression of learning, with the bottom steps building students’ foundational knowledge that will guide them to the situated learning experiences at the top of the staircase. The staircase model is comprised of five steps described below.

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Step 1—Theoretical foundations. In this initial step, students develop theoretical foundations of interpreting through cognitive-based activities. Learning lacks real-world context and is based on cognitive-based activities that typically take place in a classroom. Step 2—Theoretical applications. During Step 2, students expand their theoretical foundations to in-class practice, ethical reasoning, and exploring community perspectives. They begin linking their conceptual learning (acquired during Step 1) to specific issues and problems within the interpreting profession. During this step, student learning centers around schema development by considering specific situations requiring ethical decision-making, considering community perspectives, and constructing meaning between languages. Step 3—Situated community engagement. In Step 3, students engage with community members in typical interpreting environments by observing and participating in real-world activities. They step out of the classroom in order to engage directly with the community (i.e., the language community, professional interpreters, people who are found in various interpreting environments). In Step 3, students are initiating and engaging in interactions in real-world settings where interpreters work. Situated community engagement may be especially important for signed language interpreters because students may not have had life experience with their target language community in an array of settings prior to entering an interpreting program. Step 4—Situated simulated interpreting. Activities become more authentic in Step 4. Students apply prior learning to interpreting in simulated or real-world contexts but do so without the presence of actual consumers. Students are able to practice the act of interpreting but without consumers who are relying on their work. The simulated performance can occur in either real-world or simulated contexts. Step 5—Situated authentic interpreting. Finally, in Step 5, students interpret in semi- or fully authentic contexts with the guidance of instructors, mentors, and community members with the presence of actual consumers. Students are guided to the top of the staircase, where they engage in guided authentic experiences. Students now interpret in authentic contexts but continue to have the backing and guidance of mentors, teachers, community members, and others. During Step 5, students must grapple with authentic challenges that are faced by professional interpreters in their practice.

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In Fig. 3.1 we provide an image that illustrates the five steps of the staircase model. We reiterate that the top step of the staircase represents the most authentic learning activities, which are crucial to prepare students to move into professional practice. The authentic learning experiences for student interpreters will consist of all of the four cornerstones of situated learning activity, that of real-world context, authentic activity, social interactions, and use of tools. The activities on Step 5 of the staircase will (a) take place in an authentic context (where a professional interpreter would work); (b) engage students in the activity of providing interpreting services (e.g., facilitating language exchange between two or more people); (c) contain authentic social interactions (interacting with at least two people who do not share the same language—and possibly with a team interpreter); and (d) require the use of both working languages as well as other tools. The authentic activities at Step 5 lead students into the real-world interpreting community of practice. In contrast to the top step (Step 5) of the staircase, the bottom step (Step 1) involves activities in which none of the cornerstones of situated learning are present. Figure 3.1 provides an illustration of the steps in scaffolding interpreting students into authentic learning experiences. As students progress in their learning and are ready to move up to the next step up on the

Fig. 3.1 Staircase model for interpreter education

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staircase, instructors can facilitate learning experiences by incorporating additional cornerstones; that is, each step on the staircase contains activities with more situated learning cornerstones than at the previous step. Over time, after students have established a solid conceptual foundation in their discipline, built up authentic experiences by increasing the situated learning cornerstones, and had authentic learning experiences in real-world contexts, they will arrive at the top of the staircase. Once there, where do students go? How do they transition into becoming professionals? The final transition is illustrated by the open door at the top of the staircase, which invites students into the community of practice in which they will be working as professional interpreters. Ultimately, situated learning is designed to guide learners into the authentic practice and the community in which they work as professionals. In Fig. 3.2 we provide an image of the cornerstones of situated learning (real-world context, authentic activity, social interactions, and use of tools) at each step of the staircase model. As seen in the image, Steps 1 and 2 contain none of the situated learning cornerstones. The cornerstones of situated learning are introduced at the third step on the staircase and increase as the student develops proficiency in their work. In this manner, students are consciously being scaffolded in authentic learning, rather than being overwhelmed by being instructed to manage

Fig. 3.2 The cornerstones of situated learning at each step of the staircase model

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too many tasks with varying levels of difficulty at the same time. Students also learn in a guided manner, rather than risk providing a substandard interpretation on actual consumers. The addition of cornerstones over time provides a means for instructors to know how and when to increase the students’ experiences with simulations and real-world experiences. In situated learning, the instructor’s role is to help students ascend the steps to greater and greater experiential heights by increasing the amount of authentic interpreting experiences in a scaffolded manner. We reiterate, however, that for students to succeed with interpreting experiences, they must first build on a foundation of theoretical and conceptual knowledge. As discussed earlier, the bottom step (Step 1—Theoretical Foundations) contains none of the four cornerstones of situated learning but, rather, is the point at which students are developing the conceptual and theoretical foundations for the authentic experiences that will come. Activities on Step 2 (Theoretical Applications) also do not contain any of the cornerstones, but students begin to expand the theoretical concepts they learned in Step 1 by engaging in interpreting activities using pre-recorded material, having limited interactions with community members, and exploring strategies for constructing equivalent messages. Moving upward, activities in Step 3 (Situated Community Engagement) now engage students with the language community and professional interpreters. Activities at Step 3 contain two cornerstones (real-world context and social interactions). Moving up one more level to Step 4 (Situated Simulated Interpreting), activities now contain three situated learning cornerstones (real-world context, interpreting activity, and use of tools) but the interpreting activities are still less than authentic since they do not include consumers relying on their work. In this way, Step 4 activities involve simulated interpreting experiences for students, while maintaining the necessary safeguards for making mistakes and learning from them. Finally, activities in Step 5 (Situated Authentic Interpreting), at the top of the staircase model, contain all four cornerstones of situated learning. During Step 5, students engage in interpreting activities in real-world contexts, using the tools they need (and may not have previously realized were available) and interacting with consumers. To illustrate the relationship between the staircase model and the four cornerstones, we offer the example of interpreting in a healthcare setting (a real-world context) in which a physician and a patient must communicate (social interactions), but do so in different languages (use of tools), and depend on the interpreter in order to communicate (authentic

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activity). This environment contains all four cornerstones, thus it would be located at Step 5, the top of the staircase. However, it is important to be aware that, for many reasons, variations can arise that render the activity less authentic. For example, a physician and a patient who do not speak the same language may be present and may depend on the interpreter to communicate, but the context may be in a context that is less authentic. For example, the activity may be simulated by being situated in a classroom that has been staged to resemble a physician’s office. Further, the participants may discuss an illness, but that the patient has not experienced, but only read about on the Internet. As a result of these variations, the learning experience is considered less authentic than the original description. Yet, the experience may maintain a degree of authenticity because a part of each of the four cornerstones was in place. This partial type of experience would be placed lower on the staircase model than an experience that contained all four cornerstones. A partial experience still serves as a scaffolding activity, moving the student toward the more authentic experiences at the top of the staircase. Activities in healthcare settings that fall on the lower steps in the staircase model may involve (a) in-class learning experiences in which students interpret a video recording of a simulated medical consultation, (b) viewing a model interpretation of an interaction between a healthcare provider and a patient, (c) analyzing and discussing a case study of medical interpreting, or (d) listening to a guest speaker sharing experiences with interpreting in the healthcare field. In each of these activities, one or more cornerstones are absent, which results in it being a less authentic learning experience. Rather, these activities serve to build the theoretical foundation for future situated learning activities. It is also possible that some learning activities contain none of the cornerstones of situated learning. Such activities include (a) engaging in class discussions, (b) reading relevant literature, (c) listening to lectures, (d) conducting research, (d) engaging in self-reflection, and (e) journaling. Such activities are valuable learning opportunities for students because they support the students’ acquisition of interpreting skills by developing their conceptual and factual knowledge. Although these activities could be present at each step of the staircase, for conceptual purposes, we present these activities as being on the bottom step of the staircase model. To summarize, learning activities can be categorized as being either more or less authentic depending on the number of situated learning

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cornerstones that are contained in the activity. You may recall the image from Chapter 2 (Fig. 2.1) that illustrates how novice interpreters follow a trajectory of legitimate peripheral participation as they move toward becoming experts in their community of practice. We extend that concept of inward movement to the activities and curriculum that comprise interpreter education. Figure 2.1 showed that as student interpreters become increasingly involved in a community of practice, they move from the outer perimeter of the community and toward the center position. Similarly, in Fig. 3.2, student interpreters begin at the bottom of the staircase model but, as they engage in increasingly authentic learning experiences, they are taking steps toward the top of the staircase. In Fig. 3.3 we provide examples of activities that reflect the various steps on the staircase model. Step 1 activities include instructor lectures, student readings, reflective journaling, and group discussions, either online or in person. Step 2 involves in-class interpreting practice, the engagement of guest speakers, and student self-analysis of their interpreting work. It can also include the provision of interpreting models

Fig. 3.3 Examples of situated learning activities at each step in staircase model

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or samples as well as case study analysis. The third step is where the focus of this book begins. Step 3 connects students with the community and includes activities such as student observation of professional interpreters, engaging in service learning, and providing community service. It may also include tours of places where interpreters often work. Step 4 may involve arranging for students to engage in both structured and spontaneous role plays and simulated workplace experiences, especially those in collaboration with other departments. Finally, Step 5 involves learning activities such as engaging in student internships or practicums, performing mock interpreting, interpreting with mentor support, and participating in volunteer interpreting opportunities. The staircase model shown in Fig. 3.3 is not intended to reflect only a one-way journey upward, but rather, can also represent a dynamic approach to planning for student learning. Experiences taking place during one step can inform the experiences that occur at different step. For example, the instructor of an interpreting course can create a role play for her students (Step 4) based on the experiences that other students had during their interpreting internships (Step 5). Or perhaps the instructor observed gaps in students’ behavior during a mock interpreting experience and uses those gaps to inform the lesson for the subsequent class session. Further, the instructor may create case studies based on service learning or practicum experiences of other students for the students to analyze. Incorporating the details or lessons learned into the experiences of at an earlier step increases their authenticity and provides students with an even stronger scaffold as they move up the staircase. Practice professionals can benefit from having knowledge of the theoretical aspects of their discipline as well as the ability to perform the activity in real-world contexts. The staircase model provides a paradigm for interpreter instructors and mentors who are seeking to provide theoretical activities with the aim of scaffolding students toward increasingly authentic learning experiences. It is possible that instructors and students perceive the activities at the bottom of the staircase as being inferior learning experiences. That is a faulty perception. Activities and assignments performed at the bottom of the staircase (Steps 1 and 2) are critical for developing the theoretical and foundational knowledge in a learner’s journey toward mastery of interpreting skill. These foundational activities are the necessary early stages of scaffolding learners into increasingly authentic learning experiences, which begin with Step 3 on the staircase.

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As instructors provide their students with the foundational learning experiences of the staircase model, they are scaffolding students into the most authentic experience of all, performing the actual work of professional interpreters within a community of practice. The staircase model in Fig. 3.3 is provided as a guide for developing a scaffolded curriculum that supports students’ trajectory toward authentic learning. Activities from the Steps 1 and 2 provide the foundational knowledge for students to build upon. Steps 3 and 4 facilitate student involvement in a real-world context and include increasingly more situated learning experiences, and more cornerstones. Step 5 culminates in applying the learning that began at the first step of the staircase model. In essence, facilitating activities for students to climb the staircase is a means to scaffold the development of students’ interpreting skills. The systematic climb of the steps upward provides the necessary support for students as they ascend to the top. A more complete list of activities at each step of the staircase model can be found toward the end of this chapter in Table 3.1.

Scaffolding Across the Curriculum Recall the experiences of Carolina and Jalen in Chapter 2. Their experience of interpreting at a mock conference was scaffolded by preparatory activities assigned by the instructor. To build their foundational knowledge, Carolina and Jalen’s instructor provided a structured lecture on various aspects of conference interpreting, such as how to use microphones, work in interpreting booths, and the need for formal register in both source and target languages. The instructor then assigned the students to practice interpreting pre-recorded conference-level presentations. Afterward, the students attended a local conference where they observed professional interpreters at work and discussed their observations in a class session that was moderated by the instructor. As described in Chapter 2, the students then prepared and gave presentations in their classroom, which they delivered to an audience of their peers and a few community members. The instructor placed the students in teams of two, in which they prepared for and then interpreted the presentations of their peers. To experience all aspects of conferences, students rotated between presenting, team interpreting, and participating as an audience member.

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Each of these experiences scaffolded the students into their ultimate learning experience—preparing for and interpreting presentations given at a local mock conference. The students began as newcomers to the experience of conference interpreting, but through legitimate (but peripheral) participation in a variety of steps, they moved closer and closer toward having the requisite skills needed to become part of the community of practice that forms at conferences. Through a series of steps and by increasing the number of situated learning cornerstones, the instructor scaffolded the students’ learning journey toward the authentic center of the interpreting community of practice. Figure 3.4 illustrates the scaffolding provided by Jalen and Carolina’s instructor to scaffold them toward an authentic conference interpreting experience. What is the timeline for moving students up the staircase model? Just as learning can’t happen on demand, the process of scaffolding doesn’t have a fixed format or a specific length of time. The scaffolding process can be conducted within a single module, an individual course, or with coordination among faculty, across an entire interpreting program curriculum. To illustrate its multi-functionality, we provide examples of each of these three possibilities—module, course, curriculum—for how scaffolding can unfold. Scaffolding across a single module. In their planning, instructors often begin with the learning goal in mind and work backward.7 That is, an instructor asks, “What are the objectives that students should achieve by the end of the course?” and “How can I create and scaffold authentic learning experiences for the students to achieve those objectives?” For example, one interpreter educator, Maria, teaches an educational interpreting course in which the course objective is for students to learn effective interpreting methods for working in educational settings with Deaf children. Two specific learning objectives that Maria establishes for the course are: 1. Interpreting students will learn and demonstrate strategies for optimizing visual and environment access for mainstreamed Deaf students in the K-12 classroom. 2. Interpreting students will learn and demonstrate methods for promoting inclusion of mainstreamed Deaf students within the K-12 classroom.

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Fig. 3.4 Application of the staircase model for facilitating a mock conference

Maria elects to focus on one module that spans several class sessions as a means of preparing her interpreting students to meet the objectives. First, she delivers two informational lectures to the students. The first lecture centers on the critical importance of visual access for Deaf students who are mainstreamed in a public school. She introduces the concept of visual access in the classroom, discusses how visual access

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is critical for Deaf students learning, and provides various strategies for how interpreters can optimize visual access in the classroom. Maria’s second lecture centers on how interpreters can promote inclusion for mainstreamed Deaf students. Maria discusses the psychosocial importance of group interaction to learning, presents findings of research studies regarding the isolation experienced by mainstreamed Deaf students, and suggests methods for promoting student inclusion in the classroom within the boundaries of an interpreter’s role. During a subsequent class session, Maria shows the students prerecorded videos of K-12 classroom instruction (without interpreters present). Using the videos as a stimulus, the interpreting students are instructed to observe the events that typically comprise a classroom lesson, giving special attention to material that is presented visually. The instructor then puts the students in pairs or small groups, instructing them to identify points in the video in which visual access for a Deaf student may be challenging. Drawing on the strategies provided during Maria’s lecture, the students work together to create a specific action plan for steps they could take to optimize visual access for the student. Following this exercise, students use the same videos to consider methods could be used to promote the inclusion of the Deaf student with the other members of the class. As the students engage in their discussion, Maria adds comments that cultivate their consideration of potential boundary or ethical issues. Following these discussions, Maria then scaffolds the students to the next level of learning by assigning the students to observe actual classrooms that have an interpreter present (if observations cannot be arranged, Maria utilizes recorded videos of authentic interpreted classroom instruction). For their observation assignment, Maria asks the students to connect the concepts from the lectures as well as ideas from their pair/group work on visual access strategies and inclusion methods. Following their observation experience, students participate in a simulated activity during class in which, taking turns, they role play being a teacher giving a lesson, being a student in the class, and being the interpreter for the lesson. The role play experience is one more readiness step for students to practice the skills they have studied, discussed, and observed on video, but do so in a safe, low-risk environment, that is, a situation in which no participants are dependent upon their interpretations. Finally, Maria culminates the scaffolding experiences into a situated interpreting experience. Earlier in the semester, she made arrangements

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with a local high school for her interpreting students to practice their newly acquired skills in an authentic environment. Through her partnerships with the school and local community, Maria arranged for several Deaf youth to play the role of students in several high school classes, which will be interpreted by the interpreting students. In her careful scaffolding of activities and by partnering with the local community, Maria provides students with the opportunity to practice newfound interpreting skills within a real-world environment that contains all four cornerstones of situated learning. To conclude this series of lessons, Maria facilitates a session in which the student interpreters reflect on and discuss their experiences. Figure 3.5 illustrates the scaffolded experiences utilized by Maria. In each class session, more situated learning cornerstones are added, increasing the lesson’s authenticity until it concludes in a highly authentic interpreting experience within a community of practice. Although this example reflects how situated learning can be facilitated in an educational interpreting course for American Sign Language-English interpreters, the process can be used for a variety of situated learning objectives in other signed or spoken language interpreting courses Scaffolding across a course. Situated learning activities can also be scaffolded across an entire course, rather than just a single lesson. For example, Claudia is teaching a beginning Spanish-English interpreting course with the following objective: 1. Interpreting students will successfully interpret the museum tour provided in English by a docent for a group of Spanish-speaking visitors to the museum. Through a prior partnership Claudia fostered with a local museum, she has arrangements in place for her students to engage in activities throughout the coming weeks as they prepare to interpret a museum tour into Spanish at the end of the semester.8 As the students move forward with their preparation, the museum simultaneously will promote the event to the Spanish-speaking community in their area. Claudia has the students prepare for the situated interpreting experience through a series of guided experiences during the semester, each with an increasing level of authenticity.

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Fig. 3.5 Application of the staircase model for teaching a module: Scaffolding student learning for interpreting for Deaf students in an educational setting

First, Claudia introduces the objective of the course by assigning the students to work in small groups in which they will research the content of the museum tour and share information with each other. Next, the students are instructed to visit the museum and take the tour as participants. Claudia has made arrangements with the museum for the students

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to attend the tour as frequently as they wish in preparation for the tour date. Over the years, Claudia has found that many students are motivated to attend the tour more than one time. After experiencing the tour themselves, students are instructed to make an appointment to meet with the museum docents in order to get clarification about the information presented during the tour. Claudia then shows the students a video recording of a professional interpreter interpreting the tour. As the weeks progress, Claudia creates a situation in which the students rotate between acting as tour guides for one another, providing an opportunity to practice interpreting in a low-risk and safe situation. The students also are given an opportunity to deliver their interpretation to other students during one of the actual tours at the museum, but with no Spanish-speaking participants present. Finally, the activities culminate in scheduling the students to interpret the tour for Spanish-speaking visitors on scheduled days. As the semester draws to a close, Claudia engages the students in reflection and discussion of their experiences. Figure 3.6 summarizes the scaffolding that Claudia arranges in her course. We see that Claudia begins the semester with activities that contain none of the situated learning cornerstones but that cultivate important knowledge that will guide students in their subsequent authentic experiences. Following the steps in the staircase model, Claudia adds situated learning cornerstones one by one, increasing the authenticity of each experience. As authenticity is increased, the interpreting challenges are magnified, and students have the opportunity to grapple with and resolve the challenges in safe and structured learning environment. Scaffolding across an entire program of study. Just as the staircase can be used to scaffold students toward an authentic experience at the end of a lesson or through a full course, the staircase can be also scaffold student experiences across an entire program of study. Assuming an interpreting program is two years of interpreting study with a prerequisite year of language study, as is common in signed language interpreting programs in the United States, early semesters can be front-loaded with foundational knowledge that supports increasingly more authentic learning activities in later semesters. An example of such a program is depicted in Fig. 3.7. We have provided examples of how to use the staircase model as a guide for scaffolding student learning toward increasingly more authentic activities across a module, a course, and a program. Once the ultimate learning objective has been determined, the staircase model can assist

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Fig. 3.6 Application of the staircase model for teaching a course: Scaffolding student learning for interpreting a museum tour between Spanish and English

in deciding which activities to include and when. We now offer a more complete list of activities for each step of the staircase. We do not claim to have included every possible teaching and learning activity, but we offer a list that exemplifies typical activities in interpreter education. In Table 3.1

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Fig. 3.7 Application of the staircase model across a two-year interpreter education program

we provide a summary of the key ideas of the staircase model of interpreter education, which includes the name, definition, and list of activities for each step in the staircase model. Working backward with the end in mind. When scaffolding a curriculum toward more authentic learning activities, regardless of whether you are considering a single lesson, a whole course, or an entire program, we recommend starting with the end in mind. Instructors can begin by exploring the possibilities that may be available for students to interpret in the real-world context of their particular interpreting program and community. For example, can an objective for students be to interpret in a healthcare setting? Interpret a variety of interactive conversations? Interpret in a variety of community interpreting assignments? In classroom settings? Can students interpret a museum tour, theatrical production, or special local event? Once the context is in mind, the instructor can work backward to determine what the students will need

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Table 3.1 Expanded list of situated learning activities at each step in the staircase model Step 1—Theoretical foundations Students develop theoretical foundations of interpreting through cognitive-based activities • Class discussions • Reflection activities • Collaborative small group work • Research papers • Games • Research to prepare for interpreting • Journaling • Student presentations • Lectures • Text analysis of discourse or language • Online discussion boards • Vocabulary choices • Readings • Workbook assignments Step 2—Theoretical applications Students expand theoretical foundations to in-class practice, ethical reasoning, and exploring community perspectives • Case studies • Interviews with interpreters or community members • Coaching students during in-class practice • Modeling • Guest speakers • Panel discussions • In-class interpreting practice and • Student self-analysis assignments • Translation activities Step 3—Situated community engagement Students engage with community members in typical interpreting environments by observing and participating in real-world activities • Community contact • Interpreter observations • Community service • Service learning • Field trips • Workplace tours Step 4—Situated simulated interpreting Students apply prior learning to interpreting in simulated or real-world contexts but without the presence of actual consumers • Structured role plays • Simulated workplace experiences • Spontaneous role plays • Collaboration with instructors in other disciplines Step 5—Situated authentic interpreting Students interpret in semi- or fully authentic contexts with the support of instructors, mentors, and community members with the presence of actual consumers • Internships • Mock interpreting • Practicum • Interpreting with mentor support • Volunteer interpreting

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to be prepared to interpret in that setting. When planning the course, one should consider: • • • • • • • • •

Preparation information or research that students will need Potential observations for students Specific language skills and vocabulary Content information particular to the context Opportunities to rehearse Skills and experiences that each student brings Individuals who will be present in the context Available supports in the context Needed partnerships in the context.

Following these considerations, the instructor can review the expanded activities list in Table 3.1 and determine which activities would be most appropriate at each step to scaffold students to real-world interpreting experiences. What is the final context in which students will be interpreting? Instructors can work backward to plan learning experiences that support the final interpreting experience. In this preparation, instructors need to consider how to facilitate students’ opportunities to practice interpreting similar content in a similar but safe context, such as in a role play in the classroom with no individuals present who are relying on the interpretation. Prior to that, the instructor arranges opportunities for students to observe the context in which they will be interpreting, and to see professional interpreters at work in a similar context. Instructors may decide to provide opportunities for students to practice interpreting the content from a recorded source as well as provide modeling and coaching to the students as they practice. At the very first scaffolding step, instructors may decide to provide a lecture on the content or principle, assign readings or preparatory research, or engage in a class discussion on the topic.

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Characteristics of a Situated Learning Curriculum Regardless of whether an instructor is arranging an authentic interpreting experience at the end of a scaffolded lesson, at the end of a course, or over a program of study, a situated learning curriculum has specific characteristics to keep in mind during the design of the situated learning environment. Most importantly, instructors should be certain they are providing an authentic context that simulates how students will apply their knowledge and skills in real life. A situated learning environment will9 : • • • • • • • •

Contain authentic activities; Offer access to expert performances and the modeling of processes; Include multiple roles and perspectives; Support collaborative construction of knowledge; Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times; Foster reflection projects to enable abstractions to be formed; Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit; Include integrated assessment of learning within the tasks.

A curriculum designed with situated learning principles in mind includes the specific characteristics listed above. Instructors involved in designing situated learning course or program not only must keep certain characteristics of the curriculum in mind, but they also have a distinct role with specific characteristics that support the development of the curriculum. These distinct characteristics of the instructor’s role are an important feature of designing a successful situated learning journey for students.

Characteristics of the Instructor’s Role in a Situated Learning Curriculum Instructors who approach interpreter education from a situated learning perspective aim for students to participate in the interpreting community of practice as often as possible. The purpose of their work as educators is to arrange conditions in complex social situations that help students practice the kinds of participation they desire. Upon observing students’

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Table 3.2 The role of educators in situated learning Educator’s purpose

Educator’s roles

Activities, designs, occasions for learning

• Arrange conditions in complex social situations that help learners best practice the kinds of participation they desire • Intervene through coaching or cognitive apprenticeship

• Studying effective participation • Designing environments • Enabling opportunities • Coaching participation

• Service learning • Designing situated learning environments • Cognitive apprenticeship • Facilitating action learning • Direct and indirect guidance

performance, instructors may intervene through coaching or cognitive apprenticeship as necessary. Their roles are less focused on lecturing, explaining, and describing, and more focused on studying what effective participation may look like in their particular educational and community context, designing environments to promote situated learning, enabling opportunities for students to participate in situated learning activities, and coaching students as they participate. Common activities that instructors who support a situated learning curriculum are engaged in include arranging service learning, designing situated learning environments, cognitive apprenticeships, facilitating action learning and providing direct and indirect guidance. Table 3.2 summarizes the role of an educator involved in a situated learning curriculum.10

Assessing Situated Learning As discussed, one of the characteristics of a situated learning curriculum is including integrated assessment of learning within the tasks. Just as the learning experiences are authentic, so must the assessment of learning be authentic. In subsequent chapters where specific authentic learning activities are presented, ways to assess student learning within the context of those activities will be included. We provide some context for the assessment strategies in the upcoming chapters by contrasting authentic assessment practices with more traditional ways of assessing student learning and progress. Instructors may be familiar with the traditional assessment characteristics of validity, generalizability, reliability, and objectivity. Validity

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indicates that an assessment is measuring what it is intended to measure. Generalizability means that the test results can be applied consistently across situations or people. Reliability refers to the assessment’s ability to get similar results across a variety of evaluators or across time. Finally, objectivity means that the evaluator’s personal opinions do not have an effect on the assessment’s results. Instructors strive to use assessments that measure the interpreting skill they are trying to evaluate, produce results that could be generalized to understand a student’s abilities in other interpreting situations, are reliable enough that another evaluator would get the same results, while also being free of bias. Rubrics are often used to ensure validity, generalizability, reliability, and objectivity. However, many interpreting instructors agree that assessing interpretations is challenging, as there is often not one correct way to interpret something, but rather, a range of possibilities that exist when rendering a message between languages. When situated learning activities are included in the curriculum, the challenges multiply. In situated learning, instead of assessing students’ interpretations of a source text that remains constant, instructors must assess students’ interpretations of source material that is ever changing, inconsistent, and unpredictable. What’s an instructor to do? Traditional characteristics of assessment are based on a set of assumptions that may not directly apply to authentic learning activities. Traditional assessment assumes that knowledge and skills can be accurately measured when it is separated from the context in which they are used, that students’ skills can be measured by a snapshot of those skills at a specific moment in time, and that the results of such an assessment are generalizable to other situations, times, and contexts. However, these assumptions do not necessarily carry over to situated learning activities. In an authentic learning environment, the authenticity of an assessment depends on the context in which the learning occurs, and is focused on the process of learning, rather than the product. In situated learning then, rubrics are regarded as being too rigid and cannot measure authentic learning. Does this mean that valuable and informative assessments are not possible in a situated learning environment? Not at all. Instead, assessment must be approached from a different perspective. A snapshot of a student’s de-contextualized work at an arbitrary point in time must be converted to a holistic, personal, and relevant collection of data gathered from multiple perspectives with implications for continued development. Some scholars11 have suggested a more authentic approach to assessment,

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Table 3.3 Parallel components of objectivist and constructivist assessment Traditional, objectivist assessment

Trustworthy, constructivist assessment

• • • •

• • • •

Validity Generalizability Reliability Objectivity

Credibility Transferability Dependability Confirmability

which includes components that are parallel to traditional assessment. Instead of validity, generalizability, reliability, and objectivity, an authentic approach to assessment considers similar components of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. These four components of authentic assessment contribute to its trustworthiness. Table 3.3 illustrates the parallels between traditional, objectivist assessment and trustworthy, constructivist assessment. A description of each component of constructivist assessment is warranted to identify the parallels with traditional assessment. Credibility. The first component of a trustworthy, constructivist assessment is credibility, a measure that parallels the objectivist component of validity (the indication that an assessment is measuring what it is intended to measure). In constructivist assessment, the way an instructor ensures that assessment is measuring what it is intended to measure is to engage students in prolonged and repeated assessment over time, rather than through a single snapshot of a student’s skill at one moment in time. Assessments also gain credibility when they are discussed with other instructors. In addition, evaluators must constantly check their own biases and make sure they are remaining objective. Finally, assessments are more credible when they are checked with students to get their perspectives on the accuracy of the assessment. Transferability. The second component of trustworthiness is transferability. This component parallels the objectivist component of generalizability. Transferability includes thick descriptions of a student’s skills, rather than assigning a mere score to their performance. Judgments about skills are applicable to other situations where the student performs. Dependability. The third component of trustworthiness, parallel to reliability, is dependability. The component occurs when the assessment process is open to others for review and discussion about accuracy. When the process is transparent and available for others to verify, the results are

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seen to be more dependable and likely to produce the same results over time. Confirmability. Finally, confirmability, the fourth component of trustworthiness, is closely parallel to the notion of objectivity. In this component, assessments are documented, and other instructors, students, and even future employers, agree the assessment is accurate. An assessment is most authentic when students use the feedback they get during situated learning experiences to apply to the next situated learning experience. Importantly, feedback should come from the participants in the setting in which the interpretation occurs. Ideally, authentic assessment will include the perspectives of the educator, the student, community members, and employers, creating credibility in its value as a predictor of how students will perform on the job. Finally, instructors should be able to use assessment results to inform their teaching. This chapter introduced the staircase model for interpreter education. The four cornerstones of situated learning—real-world context, authentic activity, social interactions, and use of tools—were presented as a framework for scaffolding student activities toward authentic learning experiences. Examples of activities at each step in the staircase were provided and examples were given to demonstrate the use of the authentic activities to scaffold students toward authentic experiences across a single module, an entire course, or a full program of study. Practical suggestions were offered to instructors to use the practice of working backward to develop scaffolding activities. Important features of a situated learning curriculum were identified, followed by a discussion of the role of instructors. Finally, the traditional, objectivist approach to assessment was briefly compared to an authentic, constructivist approach to assessment of situated learning activities. With the explanation theoretical foundation of situated learning now concluded, the next three chapters build upon this foundation to demonstrate a variety of ways that situated learning can be implemented in a program. In Chapters 4 and 5 we offer descriptions and examples of activities, which ultimately lead to Chapter 6, where we explain how to extend situated learning activities to the most authentic experiences, guiding the student’s journey into the interpreting community of practice.

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Notes 1. Papini, 2012. 2. For information on Vygotsky’s social learning theory, we offer two excellent references by, arguably, the most influential social learning theorists: John-Steiner and Mahn (1996) and Wertsch (1985). 3. For more on the role of experience, see Kolb (1984), Knowles (1980), Lindeman (1961), and Dewey (1938). 4. Lave & Wenger, 1991. 5. Retrieved from https://boilersinfo.com/scaffolding-instruction-learningeducation/. 6. Vygotsky, 1978. 7. We highly recommend a useful guide published by Wiggins and McTighe (2005), which addresses backward design in curriculum planning. 8. Example taken from Kennedy, 2014. 9. Herrington and Oliver (1995), offer further discussion on the characteristics of a situated learning curriculum. 10. For readers interested in teaching approaches, Fenwick (2003) provides an excellent and concise comparison. 11. Kiraly, 2000.

References Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & education. New York: Collier Books. Fenwick, T. J. (2003). Learning through experience: Troubling orthodoxies and intersecting questions. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company. Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (1995). Critical characteristics of situated learning: Implications for the instructional design of multimedia. In ASCILITE95 Conference. Melbourne, Australia: ASCILITE. Retrieved from http://www. ascilite.org/conferences/melbourne95/smtu/papers/herrington.pdf. John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Education Psychologist, 31(3–4), 191– 206. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.1996.9653266. Kennedy, C. (2014). Partnerships: Promoting practise to practice. In Poster presentation given at the 20th biennial conference of the Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Portland, OR. Kiraly, D. (2000). A social constructivist approach to translator education: Empowerment from theory to practice. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome Press. Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge Books. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lindeman, E. C. (1961). The meaning of adult education in the United States. New York: Harvest House. Papini, M. R. (2012). Evolution of learning. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning. Boston, MA: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-1-4419-1428-6_302. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Incorporated.

CHAPTER 4

Situated Community Engagement

This chapter focuses on Step 3 of the staircase model of interpreter education, the step we call situated community engagement. In this step, we offer ideas to promote the engagement of interpreting students with the community in which they will be working. Step 3 is an important turning point in which students begin to move out of the classroom and into the community in order to interact with various members of the public. Community members include several groups and individuals—the people for whom interpreting services are provided, professional working interpreters, and assorted others who inhabit the environment where interpreters work. In Step 3, students also begin the process of becoming more aware of the complex institutional and social systems in which they will be working. Society is constructed of a multitude of institutional systems comprised of individuals who interact within a context of interconnected collective-action problem solving.1 Systems exist to foster social advancement and to ensure the quality of needed service to its users. Examples of institutional systems include education, government, health care, or legal settings. Other types of societal sectors include influential and established social organizations such as family, the economy, and religion, each of which is shaped by historical, political, and cultural norms. Undoubtedly, interpreting students have had personal experiences in a variety of institutions throughout their lives, but they may not have considered how they © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_4

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will navigate these systems as collaborative partners when they become interpreters. Student interpreters will need to recognize the power structures in institutions, which are realized both through informal and formal governance and organizational structures. In many institutional systems, hierarchical structure is a critical aspect of the establishment and maintenance of position, and can be demonstrated in how people engage in small talk,2 use terms of address (e.g., Dr., Professor, Mrs.),3 and even in how people argue.4 To successfully interpret institutional discourse, students must become accustomed to the abbreviations, acronyms, terminology, euphemisms, jargon, and slang across various workplaces, notably in healthcare institutions that are laden with medical terms. Institutional policies are typically codified in manuals and handbooks as a way to facilitate the day-to-day operations of the system. Interpreters need to be become cognizant of institutional protocols and how their presence may be regarded within individual systems. Thus, for interpreters to successfully traverse the structures in the various institutions in which they will work, they will need to become amateur anthropologists of sorts, that is, they must observe, take notes, read documents, and reflect on how individuals operate within the system. They must become sensitive to how to position themselves within an institution, develop alliances with the individuals in departments, and cultivate relationships with consumers. To illustrate how an interpreter educator can guide students in reflecting on the complex layers of institutional structures, we offer a short case study of one educator, Kira, who is drawing her interpreting students into the community through situated learning principles. Kira’s students have been eagerly anticipating the upcoming experience they will be having outside of their usual classroom setting. For this situated learning experience, Kira and her students will be observing at a local call center for video relay service (VRS) interpreters. Months before the students meet at the call center, the interpreting program director worked with her institution to establish a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the VRS company in order to create an arrangement that would be mutually beneficial for both parties. Under the agreement in the MOU, students are provided the opportunity to observe interpreting in the center and, in turn, the visit serves as a first step for the call center manager to recruit upcoming graduates. In advance of arriving at the center, Kira has prepared her students with information to assist the students in contextualizing and visualizing VRS interpreting. The students understand that VRS work entails answering

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phone calls, connecting the callers to their desired parties, and interpreting the phone calls between the two parties, but their knowledge of the specifics is limited. To prepare the students for the visit, Kira first gave a lecture on the history and development of VRS interpreting along with a description of the call center environment that they would be visiting. The students learned that the local VRS center employs approximately 50 interpreters as independent contractors who work at scheduled intervals around the clock. The physical layout of the center consists of 15 VRS interpreter cubicles; thus, the students will see approximately onethird of the contract interpreters at work during their visit. The individual VRS cubicles contain the telecommunications software necessary to facilitate telecommunications between Deaf and hearing individuals. Since VRS interpreters in the United States work between ASL and English (and at some locations, Spanish), the technology allows for both visual and oral language transmissions, which includes a videophone, a software application that can transmit streamed video, a television monitor, and a telephone. Kira explained the federal mandates, corporate guidelines, and teaming protocols that govern VRS work. She alluded to the unpredictable nature of VRS calls, which may include emergency assistance, scammers trying to trick unsuspecting individuals, and conversations of a highly intimate nature. Kira wanted the students to see firsthand a sample of the varied interactions that VRS interpreters face and observe the constraints under which the interpreters operate. Critically, Kira prepares the students to sign a non-disclosure agreement for their observations at the VRS center. The non-disclosure agreement drives home the confidential nature of VRS work, including any information about the callers, the call content, and proprietary information about the call delivery system. In preparation for the visit, Kira also invited a local interpreter to her class to share his experiences and perspectives about working in the VRS setting. Then, with the help of a few friends who were willing to act as VRS callers, Kira modeled how to interpret VRS calls. She followed these foundational lessons by guiding students through a practice session using pre-recorded videos of VRS calls. During this simulation activity, Kira observed and individually coached her students on how to manage video calls, pointing out potential tactics for managing turn-taking strategies, holding the floor, requesting clarification, and other discourse events. With this as background, Kira felt that the students were sufficiently prepared to observe professional interpreters at work in the actual VRS setting. On the afternoon of the field trip, Kira’s class gathers in the lobby

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Fig. 4.1 The process of a video relay call

of the call center building and they enter together. There they meet Phil, the center director. Phil ushers in the students, directing them to a small conference room where he describes various aspects of VRS work that the students will be observing during the next two hours. Reiterating the lessons that Kira provided in class, Phil describes a typical VRS call in which a person who uses American Sign Language connects to the call center via their home videophone. Using a mock setup in the call center, Phil walks the students through the components of a videophone, which resembles a web camera similarly used for a video chat or videoconferencing. He explains that the caller’s videophone is connected to a television, a computer screen, or an app, so the caller and interpreter can visually connect in ASL. Phil reminds the students that the Deaf caller first makes a visual connection with the interpreter and provides the telephone number of the English-speaking person. Using that number, the interpreter then uses a telephone to connect to the English-speaking person via a headset and microphone. Once the two parties are connected, the interpreter begins to interpret the call. Phil shows the students a graphic of the process5 (see Fig. 4.1) to reinforce the mechanics of VRS interpreting to the students. Noticing that the students are getting fidgety, Phil assigns each to a working VRS interpreter, and the students enter the cubicles with anticipation. They gingerly position their chairs near the professional interpreter and silently begin observing them at work. As instructed by Kira, the students make notes about the VRS interpreters’ lexical choices, use of grammatical structures, and call management strategies, as well

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as any other observations they have. After an hour, Phil and Kira call the students back to the conference room to share their impressions, thoughts, and questions. For many students, this experience is the first time they have observed what an actual video relay call entails and what a VRS interpreter does in that role. Some students are quite animated and say that they wish they could have had more time to observe and dialogue with their assigned interpreter. Other students admit to feeling intimidated by the skill level exhibited by the VRS interpreters. As the students leave the call center and spill out into the parking lot, they excitedly chatter about their experience. Kira thanks Phil for the opportunity he created for her students and Phil, in turn, thanks her for teaching his future employees. Kira and Phil agree that the visit is a win-win situation for everyone. The situated learning experience described above illustrates the value of community engagement for interpreting students. First, moving out of the classroom and into the work environment takes away the mystery of the setting. Students can begin to imagine themselves within the environment and can get a feel for whether or not it is the right placement for them. The community experience also gives students a chance to observe and interact with individuals who are typically involved in interpreted interactions in a specific environment. Further, the students observe the communities of language users they will be working with upon graduation. Visits such as the one described here can also lead students into a community of practice with the working interpreters. Developing a community is an important strategy for ongoing professional learning, because communities of practice provide the group a means to share existing knowledge, identify solutions to common problems, and offer a process to collect and evaluate best practices. Interpreter educators can facilitate community engagement opportunities for their students in an infinite number of ways. In the next section, we describe six approaches in which interpreter educators can engage students in communities, including field trips, observations, volunteer or community service activities, service learning projects, involvement with local professional organizations, and serving as ambassadors or volunteers at conferences where professional interpreters are working. We hope that these ideas can be implemented within the context of your own interpreting program or, at the very least, that they spark ideas for successful student engagement in your local community. Below we describe these activities in greater detail.

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Field Trips In the scenario described above, Kira arranged a field trip to a VRS call center for her students to observe interpreters at work; however, field trips may also be arranged in settings without interpreters being present. For example, to familiarize students with the healthcare institutions, arranging a field trip to a hospital, urgent care clinic, or a physician’s office can be enlightening for student interpreters. Simply by viewing an environment with the lens of becoming a professional interpreter, students can begin to build their general knowledge of the healthcare system and consider what patients and workers at the facility may experience on a daily basis. The students’ reflections can lead to discussions about the impact—both positive and negative—that interpreters may have in the healthcare environment. The students can also conceptualize, discuss, or write about the potential challenges or decisions that interpreters face when patients are in the vulnerable position of needing health care. These types of field trips can be incorporated into various courses across the curricula. One experienced interpreter educator, Fatima, facilitates several field trips for students in her semester-long class that is a prerequisite for the subsequent practicum course. In Fatima’s course, students are assigned to make observations in wide range of institutional environments in the community. For example, to develop a deeper understanding of specific types of health care, students may arrange to visit a hospital emergency room, taking observational notes on types of injuries and illnesses, issues regarding insurance coverage, the people who represent varied socioeconomic backgrounds, the role of specialized medical providers, intake procedures, patients’ wait time, universal precautions, the presence of a security guard, and other aspects of the emergency room micro-culture. The students may write about the interpreter’s role with vulnerable individuals, how to express empathy while maintaining professional distance, or how to manage the multi-syllabic medical terms they encounter. Students in Fatima’s class are required to do observations across a variety of settings. They are first given lessons in how to carefully, but unobtrusively, observe the linguistic and social structures that unfold in institutional settings such as courtrooms, classrooms, professional seminars, artistic performances, and religious ceremonies. The students may observe such varied events as a local Little League practice, a polka class, an AA meeting, or a masonic lodge gathering. Even when no interpreters are present, observational field trips can be highly beneficial, especially

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for students who have limited world knowledge or life experience. For students with more life experience or greater world knowledge, new insights can still be gained by doing a focused analysis of the institutional systems in the community. Field trips can lead students to another activity, that of observing interpreters in different settings.

Interpreter Observations Through their own professional experience as practitioners, interpreter educators are familiar with the broad array of settings and locations in which interpreters work. Building partnerships with individuals in these settings is critical to paving the way for students to observe interpreters at work. Indeed, the opportunities for observation of professional interpreters may be limited only by the connections that educators develop in their local communities. For example, one interpreter educator, Anita, holds high expectations for her students to observe interpreters in a variety of settings. One semester, Anita’s class consisted of about 12 students and because she had built long-standing relationships in the local community, she was able to easily identify several settings where a team of interpreters work on a daily basis. Anita has a strong professional relationship with the interpreter coordinators at each setting, so she reached out to each one, asking for their support of the students. In her request, she emphasized that her students might become future employees. All three coordinators agreed to work with Anita, and they developed a schedule for student observations over the course of the semester. By establishing a rotation, each student was able to observe interpreters in a variety of settings. Such preparation required several meetings, follow-up emails, and phone calls, as well as devising a schedule that would meet everyone’s needs. With the collaboration of her community partners, Anita facilitated her students’ engagement with professional interpreters in the community, the community of language users with whom they work, and with future potential employers. For interpreter educators who would like to facilitate observations of interpreters in healthcare environments, it may be useful to consider requiring student training specific to healthcare settings. Countries often have regulations about administration of its public services. In the United States, one such legislation in healthcare services is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. Thus, for arranging observations of interpreters in healthcare settings, the instructor

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may consider making HIPAA compliance training a required part of the program. Students can take self-paced, reasonably-priced trainings online and earn a certificate as proof of attendance. Alternatively, the training may be provided through the campus nursing program or health services center. We suggest that you incorporate necessary training, such as HIPAA training so that students may observe interpreters in healthcare settings, a place they may find themselves working upon graduation. The same type of considerations should apply to other settings where students may be observing interpreters and have a need for some preparatory training prior to going to the site.

Volunteering and Community Service Volunteer work and community service are activities that focus on both the people who are served and the specific service being offered. Community service opportunities may be arranged by students’ college or university and in partnership with community-based organizations. Community service is designed to improve the quality of life for community members and to support community needs for childcare, literacy training, social services, transportation, housing and neighborhood improvement, public safety, crime prevention and control, recreation, and community improvement, among others. Unlike service learning, which will be discussed in the next section, community service is typically unilateral in that students engage with helping a community member or group who is in need, which in some situations may create a potential covert power differential between the giver and the receiver of services.6 Interpreting students can engage with their local interpreting and language communities by providing community service in a number of ways. For example, students may volunteer to work at booths for businesses at local fairs, to serve refreshments at a community center, or to collect tickets at sporting events. Often, once local organizations realize students are available to provide support through volunteer activities, they may create a liaison with interpreter educators in advance and come to rely on the student support every year.

Service Learning Another community-based experience for students is that of service learning. Service learning is differentiated from community service in several ways. First, service learning is grounded in a course curriculum

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as either the primary objective of a course or a required component of a course. Students enroll in service learning classes to connect, engage, serve, and become allies in the community. Service learning involves both in-class instruction coupled with an off-campus experience that involves a reflective component to meet the objectives of the course. Second, although community service is similar to service learning in the transformative learning that can occur in students, connections between classroom theory and the community are more explicit and purposeful in service learning projects. Thus, service learning activities are embedded within academic theory and are intended to help students achieve specific learning goals. Finally, an important feature of service learning is the emphasis on critical reflection of the conditions that have led to the need for various types of community service. Through service learning projects, students develop relational strength while honoring ethical boundaries between themselves and the language community they serve.7 In ASL-English interpreting, service learning is especially critical, since many interpreting students are not yet established members of the Deaf community. ASL-English interpreting students are often members of the dominant language community and may be regarded as a threat to the autonomy of the Deaf community. Service learning can be an effective way to align students with the goals and values of the Deaf community through a reciprocal, respectful, and mutually rewarding partnership, resulting in progress toward community goals and enhanced learning of the responsibilities associated with alliances between future practitioners and the communities in which they work.8 We offer an example below to illustrate the distinction between community service and service learning. A community service activity might occur at a local festival with members of the language community who students will be working has set up a booth to sell goods and inform the public about their community. Students might assist at the booth, perhaps selling goods to raise funds for the community. In comparison, students in a service learning course may study intercultural competence as it relates to the particular language community with whom they will be working. They may examine the meaning of effective citizenship and discuss issues of social justice. Students then meet with members of the minority community to brainstorm opportunities to educate the larger community about their needs as a language minority. In this collaboration, the group decides to have a booth at the local community festival. Working as a team, they

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produce items for sale and create informational materials for distribution. Throughout the process, the students report back to their class and keep a reflection journal about their experiences, especially as it relates to their theoretical learning. On the day of the festival, students and members of the community are present and work together at the booth to sell their items and educate the larger community.

Local Professional Interpreter Organizations If your community has a local professional organization for interpreters, students can become involved as members or serve on the organization board. Most organizations are seeking assistance with the many services they provide. Students may serve on nominations committees, conference planning teams, or professional development committees. Such organizations may also have student representative positions, which allow students to become involved in a less-demanding career endeavor as they learn the organizational history and functions. Students may also volunteer for events hosted by the local interpreting organization. Through such activities, students take a step into engaging with other interpreting professionals who will become their colleagues.

Conference Ambassadors Another avenue for getting students engaged in the local community is by arranging for them to serve as conference ambassadors for various types of interpreting-related conferences. In this position, they volunteer at conferences to support interpreters, interpreter educators, or members of the language community with whom they work. In the role of conference ambassador, students can assist in a variety of capacities at events, from serving on planning committees, to working at the registration table, to folding chairs during the final clean up, and everything between. When interpreter educators learn of national interpreting conferences that call for student volunteers, they can urge their students to apply in order to begin their engagement with the community at a national level. Conferences that incorporate student ambassadors or volunteers provide students with the opportunity to meet working professionals beyond their local community.

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Tips and Considerations By this point, you may have noticed the common thread running through each of the community engagement activities described in this chapter. Each activity requires a partnership between the interpreting program and the community. Partnerships with the local interpreting community as well as the language community are vital to an instructor’s role of facilitating community engagement for students. Partnerships are developed over time and require an investment from the program and instructors. However, once the partnerships are formed, they can continue to be mutually beneficial for the students and the larger communities. To summarize, the community engagement activities described in this chapter represent Step 3 of the staircase model for interpreter education. Such activities are designed to move students out of the classroom and into the community. Through such experiences, students have realworld interactions with professional interpreters and members of their language communities. Community engagement activities extend the students’ conceptual learning gained during Steps 1 and 2 to real-world issues and interactions. Although their engagement with the community at Step 3 does not yet involve interpreting, the students are observing and experiencing authentic interactions with members of the community. By becoming more familiar with individuals and the community, students are then prepared for the next step on the staircase model, Step 4, situated simulated interpreting. Gaining a deeper understanding of the community, language use, and systems and institutions provides support that students need to successfully participate in the simulated interpreting performance activities that are discussed in the next chapter.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Lubbell, 2015. Bristoll & Dickinson, 2015. Formentelli, 2009. Argaman, 2009. Retrieved from https://www.sorensonvrs.com/svrs. Shaw, 2013. Shaw, 2014. Many articles and books are available on the topic of service learning; however, we note Sherry Shaw’s 2013 book Service Learning in Interpreter Education.

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References Argaman, E. (2009). Arguing within an institutional hierarchy: How argumentative talk and interlocutors’ embodied practices preserve a superior-subordinate relationship. Discourse Studies, 11(5), 515–541. Bristoll, S., & Dickinson, J. (2015). Small talk, big results. Newsli, 92, 6–13. Formentelli, M. (2009). Address strategies in a British academic setting. Pragmatics, 19(2), 179–196. Lubbell, M. (2015). Collaborative partnerships in complex institutional systems. Environmental Stability, 12, 41–47. Shaw, S. (2013). Service learning in interpreter education: Strategies for extending student involvement in the Deaf community. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Shaw, S. (2014). Preparing interpreting students to be allies in the Deaf community. Interpreters Newsletter, 19, 1–11.

CHAPTER 5

Situated Simulated Interpreting

In this chapter we suggest types of activities from Step 4 in the staircase model that allow students the opportunity to practice interpreting in simulated environments. In Step 4, students apply their theoretical learning to the act of interpreting, but without consumers who are relying on their work. This simulated interpreting is situated in real-world or simulated contexts. There are two categories of simulated interpreting activities. The first category consists of role plays that are conducted within the classroom in which each participant acts out an assigned role. The second is comprised of events that are conducted outside the classroom within an authentic setting, but with no participants present who are relying on the students’ interpretation. Both of these categories, with examples, are discussed in this chapter.

Role Plays Role plays give students the opportunity to practice interpreting various interactions that involve two or more speakers in a low-risk situation. Role plays are typically enacted in the classroom or in a lab environment. In the staircase model, the key aspect of role-play activities is that no participants who rely on the students’ interpretations to understand the interaction are engaged in the activity. This aspect—not including participants who would rely on the interpretation—is what defines the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_5

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use of role-play activities on Step 4 of the staircase model. You may recall from Chapter 3 that intentional scaffolding of student activities provides structure and support for students to safely achieve new levels in their work. Activities in Step 4 provide opportunities for students to practice the activity of interpreting in a simulated interpreting environment, while also maintaining safety since no one is relying on the student interpretations. Role-play activities allow students to take risks and practice different techniques without negative consequences on consumers. For role-play activities, students or the instructor assume various roles in order to simulate a certain environment in which interactions typically occur. Frequently, role plays are arranged to be enacted in the students’ classroom, rather than in a real-world setting. In a typical role-play scenario, (a) one or more students will be assigned to use a designated language in the situation, (b) one or more other students will use a different language, and (c) one or more other students will serve in the role of the interpreter between the two language groups. Since students are taking on the roles, some preparation may be useful for them to enact each role with a degree of authenticity. For example, if a student is assigned to the role of teaching a class that other students will interpret, the student in the teacher role should prepare a lesson. One outcome of role plays is that students will practice conversation management strategies beyond the linguistic skills used in interpreting. For example, a role play may be focused on managing turn taking between the interlocutors, determining how and when to interrupt a consumer if clarification is necessary, or expressing the occurrence of overlapping conversations. Role plays also give students the experience of controlling a variety of demands1 or challenges that may arise during interactions. For example, an interpreter may face interpersonal demands in an interpreted environment, such as how to introduce oneself to consumers. Challenges may be related to managing environmental factors, such as determining where to be position oneself in order to provide an effective interpretation or determining whether lighting is adequate. We offer but a few examples here; more information specific to the demands of interpreting can be found in the work of Dean and Pollard.2 Importantly, we emphasize that role plays can be used at any time during a program of studies. For newer students, simple challenges can be arranged to help students understand the agency they have in an interpreted environment. As students develop more confidence, the instructor should provide role plays that

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are increasingly challenging to guide students in learning how to navigate more complex decisions that must be made in authentic interpreting settings. In Chapter 3, we provided an example to illustrate how an interpreter educator, Maria, applied the staircase model to scaffold activities for her students that culminated in a real-world experience of interpreting for Deaf students in actual high school classrooms (see Fig. 3.5). At Step 4, Maria arranged an in-class role play of the anticipated event. Here we expand on this specific activity to illustrate how role-play activities can be arranged in a classroom. This example applies specifically to ASL-English interpreting, but as with other examples in this book, the principles can be applied to any language pair and the activities can be altered to fit typical interpreting environments within various communities. Maria is teaching a class on educational interpreting in which the students learn more about interpreting for Deaf students who use American Sign Language in a classroom setting. You may recall from Chapter 3 that one of Maria’s objectives for the course is for students to acquire techniques for interpreting that promotes the ability of Deaf students to have access to the multiple sources of visual input that occur in the classroom setting. For example, classroom teachers may instruct students to turn to a certain page in their textbooks while simultaneously providing instruction on a topic. This seemingly innocuous request can become challenging for Deaf students, who must locate the page while also keeping an eye on the interpreter during the teacher’s instructions. Using this and other examples, Maria develops a module to scaffold students to acquire the skills of recognizing and mitigating the multiple demands on Deaf students’ visual attention as well as promoting Deaf students’ participation and inclusion in educational settings. Earlier in the semester, Maria conducted activities for Steps 1, 2, and 3 on the staircase model, as described in Chapter 3. For Step 1, the students were assigned to read an article that described the issue of visual access for Deaf children in the classroom setting. She then gave a lecture on this topic to reiterate the main points in the articles. This activity was followed by bringing Deaf individuals into the classroom in order to share some of their educational experiences, specifically related to the challenges of accessing all of the information given in a highly visual environment with an interpreter. Maria showed videos of professional interpreters demonstrating the skills she wanted the students to learn. Only after this theoretical foundation was laid was Maria then ready to

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have the students try out the skills and strategies they had studied in a simulated role-play activity. For Step 3, Maria began preparing the students for the role play by describing the activity a week prior to the day when the role play would be conducted. In this way, she was preparing the students to visualize the upcoming events. See Table 5.1 for the assignment description Maria reproduced and shared with her students. Maria explained that they would be simulating a classroom situation and that each student would be taking on a different role found in a typical classroom. She told the students that they would be playing the part of each role for ten minutes, then, in a rotation pattern, switch to the next role. She emphasized the importance of aiming for authenticity and asked all students imagine themselves to be in a public school classroom and play their role to the best of their ability. She assigned the following roles, noting that the teacher role required the most preparation. • Teacher: You are to present 10-minute prepared lesson, which includes visual aids. (The lesson can be on any topic you know something about.) You have a good relationship with the interpreter and want to meet Deaf student’s needs. • Deaf student: You are a good student who behaves well in class, enjoys doing the work, wants to learn, and likes to be involved. (Bring earplugs or a headset. If possible, bring a source of white noise that you can use to further block out the sound of the others in the classroom. This will force you to rely on the interpreter.) • Interpreter: As the interpreter, you want to maintain classroom and student momentum, so you try not to interrupt the teacher if you don’t need to. You want to make sure the Deaf student gets all the information from the presentation. • Other student(s): You are eager to participate and answer questions posed by the teacher. On the day of the role play, students came to class with a variety of lessons to share during their role as the teacher. One student chose the role of a football coach and taught a lesson on how to hold and throw a football. Another student role played a preschool teacher and taught the students how to wash their hands thoroughly. Yet another student demonstrated a unique method for solving math problems by visually

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Table 5.1 Role play assignment description Learning objectives • Students will recognize discourse strategies common to educational settings and produce an equivalent interpretation • Students will practice effective decision-making strategies to optimize the visual access of Deaf students We will simulate a classroom situation. Each of you will take on a different role in a typical classroom. You will play the part of each role for five minutes, then switch, in a rotating fashion, to the next role. For this experience to be as authentic as possible, it is important that all participants imagine themselves to be in a public school classroom and play their role to the best of their ability. This will give us as authentic an experience as possible Roles • Teacher: Present 10-minute prepared lesson which includes lots of visuals. You have a good relationship with interpreter and want to meet Deaf student’s needs • Deaf student: Bring earplugs or a headset! And if possible, bring a source of white noise that you can use to further block out the sound of the others in the classroom. This will force your reliance on the interpreter. You are a good student who behaves well in class, enjoys doing the work, wants to learn, and likes to be involved • Hearing interpreter: You want to maintain classroom and student momentum, so you try not to interrupt the teacher if you don’t need to • Hearing student(s): You are eager to participate and answer questions from the teacher • Observer(s), if needed: Record observations as an outside person Process • 10 rotations – Five minutes each – Everyone will play every role at least once – When I give the signal, rotate directly to next role Four strategies you can use to optimize visual access: • Adjusting physical position • Directing students’ attention • Adjusting the timing of the interpretation • Modifying the interpretation Other considerations: • Not interrupting flow of classroom discourse • Letting Deaf student maintain momentum • Avoiding imposing on personal space Common Sources of Competing Visual Input: • Locating materials—such as a particular page of text, paper, pencil, or handouts • Looking at visual aids—such as maps, charts, number lines, bulletin boards, props, computer-based graphics or presentations, video (without captions) overhead transparencies, facial expressions, and/or gestures • Reading printed information—such as in handouts, textbooks, captioned video, computer-based text, or PowerPoint presentations • Generating written information—such as completing a worksheet, correcting written responses, and/or taking notes • Participating in a hands-on activity—either individually or in groups

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representing it on the white board. The students took turns rotating through all roles, until everyone had played each role. Afterward, Maria led the students in a discussion about their experience. The students realized that discussing strategies for optimizing visual access and observing professional interpreters use them was much easier than actually doing it themselves. The students agreed they needed and wanted more practice in applying the strategies. Other benefits arose related to the role play. One student, Jose, had a newfound appreciation for the role of the teacher. When he was in the role of the teacher, the interpreter he was working with asked him to speak more slowly so she could keep up. He wanted to support the interpreter, and did slow down for a few sentences, but he had so many other things to think about while he was teaching that he soon reverted back to his regular speaking speed. He realized how hard it was for speakers to change their speech patterns! Another student, Johanna, was shocked at her experience of role playing the Deaf student. She was dismayed when she found out how difficult it was to learn through an interpreter. It was challenging for her to follow what the teacher was saying while he was also pointing to the board and demonstrating the quick science experiment. She wanted to participate in the lesson, but because of the delay inherent in an interpreted message, she was always just a little late in her responses. Billie, another student, was surprised at how hard it was for her to interact with the others in the class who were role playing additional students since the conversations were mediated by an interpreter. Overall, the students agreed that they learned a lot, not only about how to optimize visual access for Deaf students, but how it felt to be in the shoes of others in a classroom. Karina, an ASL-English interpreting instructor, shared her perspective and experience on conducting role plays during her classes: I did not (initially) like the idea of a student playing a Deaf person, but…now we do it. I have scripts, which we have created, and I hand them out. I tell them which role they’re going to be, or they choose which role they’re going to play, but depending on the script, everybody is something. Everybody has to play the Deaf person at least once and the interpreter at least once and the hearing person at least once. If there’s any other parts, we fill that in. We set it up in our labs as if it’s actually happening, so if it’s they are going to someone’s home, then they have to go outside and knock on the door and come in and do all of the activities.

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We have the table set up. Of course, it’s not exactly the same, but we have it set up as it would be, like a kitchen table or at a bank or something like that. We try to do the setting the same and they go through it. They practice their…scripts first. They don’t carry them with them. They don’t have them unless it’s…I mean sometimes, if it’s like a job interview, they they’re allowed to have the paper there, but if they wouldn’t normally have a paper in front of them, we don’t do that. They practice their interpreting, and then when…at a certain time, I cut them off, …and we talk about what just happened. The interpreter speaks first about what it was like to be in that situation, and then the other people talk about what it was like to be in their roles.

Collaboration with Departments on Campus Another way to provide safe, simulated interpreting experiences is through collaboration with other departments on campus, such as a nursing program, or an allied health department, such as physical therapy. A partnership with a nursing program can provide practical experiences for both interpreting students and nursing students. Individuals from both programs can meet together using the nursing lab and work together to role-play various healthcare scenarios. It is mutually beneficial because nursing students learn how to work with interpreters, while the interpreting students learn how to navigate a typical healthcare appointment. Nursing programs typically have simulation mannequins, which can be initially used to represent patients. Later, students can play the role of the patient who speaks a language other than that of the healthcare professional. In other scenarios, one student can role play a child who is accompanied by a parent. The objectives of this type of role play can vary. The focus can be on appropriate positioning for the interpreter, interpreting medical concepts, or the discourse of medical appointments. Instructors in the interpreting program can develop scenarios to share with the nursing program and vice versa. As described earlier, partnerships with a physical therapy program offer potential for role-play opportunities. A collaboration might entail physical therapy students practicing therapy with a patient that is role played by another student, while the interpreting students interpret the session. The interpreting students can practice this type of assignment from start to finish, from the time they walk in the door, check in with a receptionist, meet the patient, and introduce themselves to positioning during the therapy session, wrap-up of the session, and leave-taking.

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Collaborations can be extended to other programs on campus. Agreements can be arranged with drama departments, in which acting students participate in the healthcare scenarios along with nursing and interpreting students. Students from the drama department can contribute to other role-play scenarios as well. They can be recruited to play various roles in any type of scenario developed by the interpreting instructor. Another potential for developing partnerships is to collaborate with a social work program. Scenarios for this type of partnership can include role playing a protective services investigation, a social worker’s visit to a foster care home, or talking to a patient at a hospital about moving to a rehabilitation center. The possibilities are limited only by the availability of and partnerships with programs on campus that have a practice component and the experience and creativity of the respective programs’ instructors.

Spontaneous in-Class Practice Role plays can also occur on the spot during a class session. If the class is discussing a specific interpreting skill or behavior, such as maintaining eye contact, role plays are a hands-on activity that can be used to observe and practice the skill. The interpreting instructor may ask students to assume various roles in an interpreted interaction. The instructor may act as the interpreter initially to demonstrate, then ask students to rotate through each role to practice the skill. Spontaneous role plays can also be an effective way for students to try handling challenges that can arise or have come up for them in a practicum experience. Enacting spontaneous role plays can help students identify demands or challenges that arise and then consider what tools they have available to address the demands. Further, spontaneity can lead to conversations about other options that might be available to address the challenges and discussions about ethical codes of conduct and decision making.

Simulated Interpreting Simulated interpreting differs from role play in that the interpretations that students render take place in real-world settings rather than in a classroom or lab. Simulated interpreting involves real-world participants, but no one is present who is relying on the interpretation. This situation gives

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students the freedom to take risks, practice different strategies, and make mistakes without causing harm to anyone. College classes. Karina, an interpreting instructor whom we read about earlier, requires her students to interpret in teams in a class at their college. Karina only uses courses in which no student actually requires interpretation. The students meet with the instructor of the course before the semester begins and obtain the textbooks and other materials for the class. They may be invited to the learning management platform (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas) in order to keep up on the course activities and prepare for their interpreting work. During the semester, the students attend one class period of the course each week and practice interpreting the content. As the semester progresses, students are required to switch teams at specified times so they can experience working with a variety of their fellow student interpreters. Each student must team with every other member in the class. Through this team rotation approach, the interpreting students acquire skills in working with a team interpreter, learn how to meet the needs of each individual team interpreter, begin to understand what kind of support they personally need from a team interpreter, and practice communicating their needs and preferences. In Karina’s curriculum, students can select the class they are interested in interpreting. She has found that students usually choose classes on topics that they will enjoy, but that will also be a challenge to interpret. Her students are required to keep journals about their experiences in which they discuss their goals, the skills they are working on, and the results of their learning. In group discussion during class with Karina, the students bring up the challenges they faced during their interpreting experience. For example, students may say that the instructor of the class spoke to them directly and they did not know how to react. Or they may say that the instructor wanted them to teach the class an ASL sign and they were unsure how to respond. Students also may bring questions based on the activities in the course, such as how to manage interpreting issues when the students are assigned to work in a group. For example, no chair may be available when the students gather in groups. In class, they discuss how to handle seating and other logistical situations. During their interpreting class session, Karina encourages all of the students to draw on their reflective journal to highlight real-world challenges and discuss possible tools and strategies for responding to them.

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Karina is fortunate to have funding to hire a professional interpreter to observe the students in their classes once a semester. In that way students get feedback on their ability to interpret the meaning being conveyed in the class. At times, Karina conducts the observations herself or hires a Deaf individual to attend the class and provide the students with comments and feedback on their work. Community presentations. Another way to provide simulated interpreting practice is to invite professionals who are members of the language community that the students are working with to give a presentation in class. Teams of two or three students can work together to interpret the community presentations. Since the students in the class already know the language of the presenter, they are not dependent on the interpretation, but it allows students to engage in near-authentic interpreting practice. Students benefit from this activity, but community members may also find it useful. For example, if an invited presenter has a job in which she regularly delivers presentations or trainings, she gains an opportunity to practice her talks. If the community member delivers presentations to the class multiple times during the semester, each student will have an opportunity to work in a team and practice interpreting. The students can prepare with the presenter in advance. Upon request, the presenter can send any presentation slides to the students who will be interpreting in advance of giving the talk. In that way, the students gain experience both in how to professionally request materials and how to prepare for interpreting. When the presenter arrives to the classroom, the students may be given up to ten minutes to ask the presenter any specific questions about the presentation content including the overarching goal of the talk. It is also possible for the instructor to make arrangements for students to practice interpreting in the booth or with a microphone. The instructor may record the presentations and interpretations for individual or group analysis following the presentation. The point is that interpreting presentations from community members provides the students with authentic, real-world, yet safe interpreting experience that simulates conference or platform interpreting. Student presentations. Similar to the community presentations described above, students can interpret presentations delivered by other members of the interpreting class. Presentations can be on any topic of interest to the presenting student. If students must prepare a presentation for another class, they may use the same presentation for their interpreting

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class, which gives them a chance to practice their talk. Students may select any topic on which they are familiar. For example, a student who works in a lingerie store may present on the importance of getting fitted for bras. Someone who has had Crohn’s disease may choose to talk about the journey of diagnosis and treatment of the illness. A student from a Mexican family may want to give a presentation on the history and activities surrounding the Day of the Dead. Someone may present on wine and cheese pairings. The possible topics are limitless, but also subject to the instructor’s approval. While the students are presenting, other interpreting students from the class practice providing an interpretation of the lecture. This activity may be scheduled over the course of a week in the semester in which students take turns presenting, interpreting, and listening as audience members. As in the community presentation activity described above, interpreters can work with the student presenters as part of their advance preparation. The students who are providing the interpretation will encounter a variety of presenting strategies and styles. Some presenters will be well prepared in advance with a script to accompany their talk. Others may not have presentation slides and present more spontaneously. Others may make changes at the last minute that are not communicated to the student interpreters. This simulation creates an authentic experience of interpreting for presentations, yet it is in a safe environment because there is no one relying on the interpretations. Student presentations have been a traditional training method in both conference and community interpreting for decades, perhaps from the very beginning of interpreter training. However, Gile (personal communication, 2020) notes drawbacks in the use of student presentations. First, he suggests, students tend to use the same variety of language, which doesn’t recreate the diversity of speakers that will be encountered in realworld interpreting. In addition, students may create speeches to make them easily understood by their classmates, perhaps with the secret hope that when other students enact speakers, they will return the favor. This again can deter preparation for real-life interpreting with actual speakers, who may not be skilled speakers or who may be indifferent about being understood by interpreters. Gile suggests that a similar and more effective approach may be the use of audio and video recordings of authentic speeches for practice along with student presentations. Recordings do not place students in the physical presence of speakers, which would be more

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authentic, but practicing with recordings can scaffold students to a higher degree of authenticity in future steps.3 Campus events and workshops. Another avenue for students to gain simulated interpreting practice is to take advantage of campus events and workshops. Many college campuses have speakers who address a variety of topics that are open to the campus community. The events are often advertised on flyers posted about campus or promoted electronically to instructors and students. During a college interpreting fieldwork course, Malika, the instructor, requires her students to complete 30 hours of simulated interpreting specifically for campus events and workshops. Any of the events or workshops offered on campus are open for their practice, as long as the events are open to the college community at large. Students choose an event and select a fellow student to work with as a team interpreter. Next, the team is required to contact the presenter (or the person who advertised the activity) and explain that they are interpreting fieldwork students who are seeking opportunities to practice their craft in live settings. They explain that they would be taking turns interpreting at the event. Malika also requires the students to clearly state that if interpretation is requested in advance of the event by one of the participants, a professional must be hired and that the students are not to be used to provide interpreting services. Malika also requires her students to complete a form to ensure that they understand the limitations of their role as practicing interpreters at college events. Over the years Malika’s students have interpreted a wide variety of events, including a financial seminar, cooking demonstration, and an “astronomy night” in which presenters taught the participants to use large telescopes for identifying constellations in the night sky. After each event, the interpreting students were required to complete a reflection form and bring questions about their experience to the fieldwork class session for discussion with their classmates. The students in Malika’s class consistently report that the simulated interpreting experiences are highly beneficial to their learning. Not only do they gain experience with how to handle interactions, they also learn how they will react to various situations that occur. Interestingly, interpreting in the classroom may heighten anxiety in students who are nervous about performing in front of their peers. Thus, real-life interpreting can often be a relief because it gives students a modicum of independence and control over the process. One student, Pamela, reported,

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I’m learning more and more during these real-life experiences that all the scary ‘what if’ situations can be resolved quite naturally. Looking back, there were quite a few sticky ‘what would you do if…’ situations that I feel I resolved really naturally and without much angst.

Another student, Jason, remarked, “What I learn from being ‘on’ is more related to calming my nerves, feeling comfortable in front of a large group, planting my feet and avoiding the jitters, etc.” At other times, the most important thing students learn is how it feels to get to a location they haven’t been to before, locate parking, and interpret with individuals who are new to them, possibly on a topic they know nothing about. Navigating the nuts and bolts faced by professional interpreters everyday prepares students for their future lives as practitioners. Conferences. On-campus conferences hosted by various organizations provide an opportunity for students to go beyond the actual work of interpreting into related activities such as scheduling interpreters for a large event. In these types of simulations, interpreting students may engage in sending out a call to their classmates requesting interpreters for different sessions of the conference. Their peers learn to respond to a request by either accepting or declining the assignment and are scheduled to interpret various sessions in teams. For students with little administrative experience, managing such logistics can be an overwhelming, but again, no consumers are present who are relying on their interpretation. This gives the students the chance to make mistakes without serious consequences. After the conference is completed, the interpreting students are required to submit mock invoices for the hours that they worked, another real-world experience of how to bill for assignments. Finally, the entire class discusses the experience, sharing challenges and solutions with each other.

Assessment Assessing student work during simulated interpreting experiences can be challenging in several ways. First, traditional rubrics cannot easily be used, since the source text will vary with every simulation. Second, the objectives for role plays are not usually interpreting skills per se, but rather, focus on skills other than interpreting, such as managing turn taking, matching the intent of and handling emotional participants, or appropriate leave taking. The spontaneous nature of role plays does not

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guarantee that what you want to assess will emerge. As mentioned in Chapter 3, a constructive approach to assessment may be more effective at times. A more informative assessment may be one that reveals what the students learned from their experience, their assessment of their own work, what they learned about decisions they made, and how they managed challenges, along with a plan for handling similar situations in the future. A framework that helps students analyze and discuss their experiences is known as Gibbs’ reflective cycle.4 It is a well-known model of reflection that leads students through the stages in the cycle to help them analyze their experience. In 1998 Graham Gibbs developed a reflective cycle to give structure to learning from experiences. Gibbs provides a framework that helps students examine their experiences, and because it is cyclic, it lends itself particularly well to experiences that are repeated, such as regular role play opportunities. Gibbs’ reflective cycle allows students to learn from experiences and make future plans based on things that either went well or didn’t go well. Gibbs’ reflective cycle consists of six stages: • • • • •

Description of the experience Feelings and thoughts about the experience Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad Analysis to make sense of the situation Conclusion about what was learned and what could have been done differently • Action plan for how to deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes that might be appropriate. Gibbs’ six stages are illustrated in Fig. 5.1. Instructors may instruct students to write a reflective paper on their experience, using this reflective cycle as a framework for their own experience. The Gibbs’ reflective cycle can be used for a one-time experience or for experiences that students will have several times, such as repeated role play or mock interpreting (discussed in Chapter 6) experiences throughout a course. If the cycle is used with a stand-alone experience, the action plan will be less specific and apply only generally to future experiences. For each stage of the model, students can be guided by asking themselves the questions below. Students don’t have to answer all of the

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Fig. 5.1 Gibbs’ reflective cycle

questions; however, they provide a structure for what students should think about at each stage. There may be other prompts that are more applicable to your role play or mock interpreting experience. Each stage of the cycle is described below, with questions provided that students can ask themselves. Description. In this section of their reflection paper, students should describe their experience. They should use specific details to describe the experience. The description should be concise and consist only of facts. Helpful questions for students to consider are: • What happened? • When and where did it happen?

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• • • • •

Who was present? What did you and the other people do? What was the outcome of the situation? Why were you there? What did you want to happen?

An example of what a student has written for the description stage is provided below: I interpreted at a church leadership meeting with four Deaf participants. My team was one other student from class. The event was three hours long and consisted of a general body meeting, a breakout session, and closing statements. The register at this event was formal during the general body meeting and informal during the breakout session. Some of the specialized vocabulary included: in-kind donations, leadership, volunteers, ‘stairway to leadership,’ and dry run.

Feelings. In this section students can explore any feelings or thoughts that they had before, during, and after during the experience and how their feelings may have impacted the experience. It should be written as concisely as possible with specific and relevant details. Helpful questions for students to consider are: • • • • • •

What What What What What What

were you feeling during the situation? were you feeling before and after the situation? do you think other people were feeling about the situation? do you think other people feel about the situation now? were you thinking during the situation? do you think about the situation now?

An example of what a student has written for the feelings stage is provided below: I arrived just on time because I’d gotten a little bit lost walking from my car. That was embarrassing. I came in a little flushed and flustered about that. These meetings are pretty casual, and I do them all the time, so it wasn’t a super big deal. But it still bothered me. Also, I was having a rough time. I had not gotten enough sleep or eaten enough breakfast before I arrived. There were no vegetarian options to snack on during the breaks.

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The coffee arrived late, so there was no caffeine at the beginning of the meeting. Not an ideal start to the day. Understandably, I felt a bit anxious and ‘off’ for the entire meeting.

Evaluation. In this section, students evaluate what worked and what didn’t work during the experience. They should try to be as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of the reflection, they should focus on both the positive and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other. They should answer the questions as concisely as possible while providing relevant and specific details. Helpful questions for students to consider are: • • • •

What was good and bad about the experience? What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?

An example of what a student might write for the evaluation stage is provided below: First, I will talk about what I think I did well. I think I did a good job supporting team when she was on the hot seat. What I saw as challenges were that I had a hard time when it was time for me to change hats between interpreter and participant and I struggled a bit with managing intrapersonal demands.

Analysis. During the analysis step, students work on making sense of what happened. Their analysis begins. Up until this point their focus has been on merely observing and describing events that unfolded in the situation. At the analysis stage, they now have the opportunity to extract meaning from the situation. Students should be instructed to target various aspects that went well or poorly and ask themselves why things took place as they did. Questions to prompt the students thinking include: • • • •

Why did things go well? Why didn’t things go well? What were the consequences? What sense can I make of the situation?

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• What knowledge—my own or others (e.g., from the literature)— helps me understand the situation? Below we provide a sample of one student’s analysis: I will now discuss the contributing factors to the successes and challenges I experienced in this simulated interpreting scenario. I’ll begin with the successes. I think I did a good job supporting my team members while they were in the “hot seat.” When we took a break between the general body meeting and the breakout session, several of my team members told me that they appreciated my support and that I was good at giving support. Now I will discuss the contributing factors in the challenges I faced. I had a hard time when it was time for me to change hats between interpreter and participant. Since I am a member of the church, when we did a breakout session, the others expected me to contribute. I was the first interpreter to be “on,” and when I was done being an interpreter, I had a hard time putting on the participant hat. I was not entirely successfully fighting the urge to monitor the message as I was talking. I forgot how to have an opinion and things to say for a minute. Perhaps if I was less tired this would have been a smoother transition (see below). As previously mentioned, I struggled a bit with managing intrapersonal demands. I was having a rough morning. I was underfed, had not slept enough. I did an effective job, but people could tell I was ‘off.’ I imagine I would have done a much better job (and drawn less attention to myself) if I wasn’t juggling all of that in the back of my mind.

Conclusions. In this section students sum up what they learned from the experience. In the Conclusions, they summarize their learning and highlight what changes to their actions could improve the outcome in the future. Their comments should be very specific without breeching confidentiality. Helpful questions for students to consider are: • What could I have done differently? • What did I learn about myself from this situation? • What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better in the future? • What else could I have done? • Did the experience help me achieve my learning goals?

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A sample of a student’s reflections on the conclusions stage is provided below: I think that self care is the resounding lesson from this assignment. If I don’t take care of my mind and body, my work will suffer because my mind and body are producing the work. I should have gotten enough sleep, eaten breakfast, and made sure I had taken my medication. I usually think I can power through anything, but this experience has made me realize that I need to be on my game to do it well. If I’m not, the consumers of my interpretations suffer, not me, and that is not acceptable. I will lay out my plans for taking better care of my mind and body in the action plan section of this paper.

Action plan. At this step students create a plan for what they would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future. It can be extremely helpful for the students to think about how they will act differently. In that way, not only will they plan what to do differently, but also how they will ensure that it happens. Sometimes the realization is sufficient to make a change, but at other time, reminders can be helpful. As with the conclusions, students should be specific in describing the actions they will take. Questions for students to consider include: • If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently? • How might I develop the required skills I need? • What will I do to be better prepared for this type of experience in the future? • If the experience was positive, what areas can I still improve in? • What steps do I need to take? • How can I make sure that I can act differently next time? A student’s writing regarding her action plan is provided below: My action plan contains a lot of basic maintenance and upkeep of my physical and emotional needs. For example, I need to be better rested, use the breaks I am given, and drink more water. I can also help my team prepare so I don’t have to do as much support in the moment. I have realized that I have more experience with interpreting and more language fluency than the other students in my class, so sometimes I need to find a way to lighten my load when I team with people from my class.

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The Gibbs’ reflective cycle can be an effective way to measure what students are learning from their simulated interpreting experiences. Afterward, the reflections can be used for class discussion so the students can learn from the experiences of their peers. In this chapter we described a variety of activities that can be used during Step 4 on the situated learning staircase model. The activities described include three of the four cornerstones of situated learning: (1) real-world or simulated context, (2) authentic activity, and (3) use of tools to manage challenges that arise. Notably, these activities do not include consumers who are relying on the interpretations that the students provide. We highlighted a variety of role play activities that can occur in a classroom or lab, either planned in advance or that happen spontaneously. We noted that interpreter educators can also seek collaborations with other departments on a college campus. We offered a number of ideas for simulated interpreting activities that occur in real-world settings, such as college classes, presentations, and on-campus workshops or conferences. Finally, we proposed Gibbs’ reflective cycle as a framework for assessing student experiences. The activities described in this chapter provide the scaffolding activities that elevate students to next step in the situated learning staircase. Through their experiences in Step 4, students are primed to advance to Step 5, where all four cornerstones of situated learning are present and where consumers will rely on their interpretations. The next chapter describes activities from Step 5, a vital step because it leads students into the interpreting community of practice.

Notes 1. Dean & Pollard, 2013. 2. Dean & Pollard, 2013. 3. For more information about creating authentic texts for students, see Bowen-Bailey (2006). 4. Gibbs, 1998.

References Bowen-Bailey, D. (2006). Putting theory into practice: Creating video resources for discourse-based approaches to interpreter education. In C. Roy (Ed.), New

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approaches to interpreter education (pp. 125–137). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. Dean, R. K., & Pollard, R. Q. (2013). The demand control schema: Interpreting as a practice profession. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Gibbs, G. (1998). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford, UK: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.

CHAPTER 6

Situated Authentic Interpreting

In this chapter, we provide descriptions of activities from Step 5, along with supporting documents, that interpreter educators can use to facilitate safe, yet authentic, interpreting experiences for students. In Step 5, students engage in interpreting in authentic contexts, but only with the guidance and support of mentors, teachers, community members, and others. The two categories of experiences described in this chapter are (a) mock interpreting events, and (b) volunteer interpreting. In these activities, students must grapple with authentic challenges that are faced by professional interpreters in their everyday practice. Let’s begin with a story about Amaya, a skilled Arabic–French interpreter as well as a dedicated interpreter educator.

Mock Interpreting Amaya sat at her desk, going over each item on her to do list. She was planning a mock interpreting experience for her students that was to take place next week, and she wanted to make sure she hadn’t forgotten any

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_6

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details. “Reserve rooms…done,” she muttered to herself. “Invite guests…done. Prepare scenarios…done. Develop rotation schedule…done. Send information to students…done. Email scenarios and rotation schedule to guests…Done. Pick up parking permits…Parking permits! Oh, no!” she groaned. “I forgot to get the parking permits. I’d better email parking services right now!” She opened her laptop and quickly shot off a request for parking permits that would be sent to her guests. After she hit the send button, she breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling prepared for next week’s class. Amaya was grateful for the pool of experienced actors, both French and Arabic speakers, that she had cultivated over the course of just a few years. She felt fortunate that her college recognized the value of authentic learning experiences and covered the costs of hiring local actors. Through the years, Amaya had developed an extensive collection of scenarios that suited the personalities and background of her actors. Most of her contacts drew from their own personal experiences when they acted out the scenarios, providing an authenticity that strengthened the practice experience for her students. Amaya’s most reliable actors were individuals who prepared in advance for the scenarios they received and who dug out useful props to add even more authenticity to the experience. Amaya recalled that her actors brought props as a lab coat, a stethoscope, a Snellen chart for eye exams, mortgage documents, a photo album, a job application, among other items, that added to the interpreting experiences. Mock interpreting event. On the day of the mock interpreting event, a small gathering came together in a classroom on campus. The group consisted of six Arabic-speaking guests, six French-speaking guests, Amaya’s 12 interpreting students, and a handful of motivated interpreters from the community who were willing to observe and debrief with the students afterward. Amaya took the guests aside for a few moments to remind them that the goal of the gathering was to provide authentic interpreting practice for her students. She also encouraged the actors to stay in character, to speak and act as naturally as possible, and to keep the conversation going throughout the entire interaction, even if they had to stray from the scenario or even if they felt unsure they were sharing correct information. She reminded the actors that the students were still beginners and to keep realistic expectations of their work. After answering any final questions, Amaya escorted the actors back to the classroom to join the rest of the group.

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Amaya began the practice session by welcoming the group and asking the actors to introduce themselves, but in the role of the character in their scenario. This introduction gave the student interpreters a chance to acclimate themselves to the consumers and also gave the actors the opportunity to connect with their conversational partner in the upcoming scenarios. The community interpreters assisted the group by interpreting the actors’ introductions. After the actors had identified themselves, Amaya distributed copies of the rotation schedules to students who had not yet printed them and passed out copies of the scenarios for actors who needed them. She reminded the group that the time schedule was firm and that she would warn each group when one minute was remaining in the scenario. The one-minute warning would be the cue to wrap up their conversations. Amaya advised the actors to end their conversation naturally with phrases such as, “Ok, we can discuss this more at a later time,” “I have another appointment, so I need to go,” “Sounds great. I’ll see you then,” or “Thanks for coming,” and to actually leave by standing up, possibly shaking hands, and walking out of the room. After Amaya’s introduction, she instructed the actors to go to the classrooms to which they were assigned. She reminded the students that they should meet and introduce themselves to their consumers outside the door of their assigned classroom. Amaya had prepared the students in an earlier class session, in which the students had practiced professional introductions as well as how to enter and exit an assignment. Amaya was looking forward to seeing how the students applied these skills in a more authentic experience. Amaya also reminded the teams of student interpreters that they should switch who took on the lead and support role each time they moved to another classroom. Each pair of actors, one Arabic speaker and one French speaker, stayed in their assigned classroom for the duration of the event, and the teams of student interpreters moved to various classrooms as they cycled through the scenarios. The professional interpreters from the community and also had a rotation schedule. Like the student interpreters, they also rotated through scenarios. In their role, they observed students and made notes for discussion at the conclusion of the event. As the overseer of the event, Amaya served as timekeeper, providing one-minute warnings to each group to wrap up conversations, and made sure that students moved on to the next classroom identified in their rotation schedule.

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Approximately two hours later, the students had rotated through all six scenarios with a few breaks in between, everyone returned to the classroom for a debriefing session with Amaya. In the debriefing, the students got to ask questions, the actors provided their perspectives about what worked or didn’t work, and the community interpreters offered a few observations. One student’s perspective. Hassan left the mock interpreting class feeling better than he expected. Prior to the class, he was experiencing anxiety and was full of negative thoughts about whether he could manage the practice interpretation. Since Amaya had given the students a brief summary of the scenarios, Hassan did some research on the topic and prepared as best as he could. Although nervous, he put on a good face and worked through every scenario as best as he could. Now that it was over and he was reflecting on his performance, he could see he had made several mistakes, but, for the most part, the actors also seemed to understand one another. When he faltered, the actors were understanding and patient and spoke more slowly to help him out. He also recognized that his team interpreter, Giselle, had given him amazing support. When Giselle was in the lead role, she struggled at times too, but again, they worked as a team to get through it. The debriefing session at the end of the event was probably the best part of the whole experience. Hassan learned so much from the actors and the community interpreters during the debriefing session and he realized that the other students had struggled as well. Further, he realized that practicing the introductions, entrances, and exits in class was extremely helpful in what otherwise could be an awkward time of transition in an interaction. Overall, he was more confident after the practice interpretation, realizing that he was actually looking forward to the next one. Take a leap of faith, but have a backup plan. When planning the practice scenarios, interpreter educators should expect at least one thing to go awry. Even with the most detailed preparation, a carefully planned mock interpreting event can have mishaps. If a student texts that she has strep throat or an actor has an unexpected family emergency, the carefully planned groupings can fall apart. When so many people are involved, instructors need to be prepared for the unexpected and always have a backup plan in mind. Instructors may think in advance, “If one of the actors cancels, what will I do? If a student is sick or if I have an uneven number of students to create equal pairs, what will I do?” Quick thinking on the fly is good but it’s even better to have considered

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the worst-case scenario in advance. For example, if a student is sick, the remaining students can work in teams of three instead of pairs, each taking a turn as an observer. Or the most highly skilled students can work alone, without the team support from a fellow student. Such events happen in the professional world as well, so students learn from the surprises that life can bring. If an actor is not able to make it and there is no time to arrange for a replacement, an instructor could reduce the number of scenarios and place three actors into one scenario. A group interaction provides a different type of challenge for the students and allows the event to continue. Such resolutions may not be ideal, but the event can still proceed with plenty of valuable learning experiences for the students. In this book, mock interpreting is defined as a simulated interpreting event in which a student interprets an interaction between two or more people who do not speak the same language. The critical aspect of the definition is that there must be at least two individuals in the interaction who do not share a language and who rely on the student interpreter for communication. In addition, the authenticity of the interaction may vary slightly in degrees. For example, a mock interpreting event may take place between an actual physician who is acting in that role and an actor who has had the malady in the scenario, or the actors may have not experienced the roles they are playing but have done some level of research. In the same vein, the mock interpreting event may take place in a classroom that has been arranged to simulate a physician’s office or could occur in a healthcare facility. Throughout her years of teaching, Amaya has arranged several variations of the mock interpreting events, but critical features are that (a) the actors do not use the same language and (b) that the actors rely on the student interpreter in order to communicate with each other. We now present several ideas for varieties of mock interpreting experiences that meet the critical criteria in the definition. These ideas have been gathered from interpreter educators across the United States who have facilitated the experiences within their interpreting programs. Our hope is that among the ideas, as an interpreter educator, you can find a perfect fit for your program, that you can modify an idea to suit your own teaching and learning context, or that an idea presented here sparks a novel variation that you can facilitate for your students. Spontaneous mock interpreting experiences. In-class mock interpreting sessions can take a slightly different form if you have faculty or staff who speak one of the languages the students are learning to interpret between. Those individuals can be invited to join the class during

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one or more sessions to enact a situation in spontaneous mock scenarios. The interpreting instructor and the faculty or staff member can take turns being the lead, or the expert, in a variety of interactive scenarios. In this type of mock interpreting, the interpreting instructor can decide to stop the interpretation, provide feedback or engage in a discussion of a decision that the interpreting student just made or an interpreting technique that was just tried. For example, the instructor may decide to discuss message management or turn-taking management. Then the scenario can begin again, allowing the student to immediately incorporate the feedback and learning points from the discussion. This type of monitoring, discussion, and immediate application can be highly beneficial for students in changing their interpreting behaviors. Collaboration with a college nursing program. In an example of a cross-disciplinary collaboration, the nursing program at one college made a commitment to collaborate with the interpreting program once a year. In a community outreach program, the nursing students offer free eye exams and blood pressure checks for members of the local community. Nursing students gain the experience of working alongside interpreting students to deliver this service to the minority language users in the community. To lay a theoretical foundation for the interpreting students (Step 1), prior to this event, the students are trained on the specifics of the US legislation known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). As the date of the community programs draws near, the students from the interpreting and nursing programs practice the scripts that will be used during the exams. Practicing the scripts prepares the interpreting students for the vocabulary and intent of the interaction; practicing also helps the nursing students think about how to effectively communicate with a wide variety of patients. In this way, the collaboration between programs is a mutually beneficial activity, with nursing program instructors reporting that this successful approach to teaching had not previously been considered. The nursing lab role play activity described in Chapter 5 can function as a way to scaffold students of both programs toward an authentic activity such as the eye exams and blood pressure screenings described here. Collaboration with a college physical therapy department. Similar to the scenario described above, this collaboration can also apply to any number of healthcare or related professions. In this variation, physical therapy students have a case involving a patient who does not speak

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their language, so they rely on the interpreting students to communicate during their physical therapy appointment. The patient is given the scenario of the case with the specific injury that they will act out. Such communication points occur when the patient checks in with a physical therapy assistant, completes an intake interview, and gets his vital signs checked. Ideally, the session will take place in a clinical room of the physical therapy department so that both physical therapy students and interpreting students experience how to navigate a small space and position themselves optimally when providing services. Community gatherings. Nothing brings people together as much as a good meal. By providing a gathering space, a delicious (and free) meal, and parking privileges, members of a community can come together for a political lecture, a dance event, or even a game night. If a gathering is hosted on a regular basis, perhaps once a month, members of the community begin to look forward to attending the event. Critically, members of the majority language community are invited to participate and engage in conversation or join in the activities while the students interpret for the two groups of language users. Interpreting students can be assigned to plan the activities for the community gatherings. For example, one student’s service learning project was to organize a panel of local police officers with the goal of creating a dialogue with community members. The community members learned what to expect when approached by a police officer, and the officers learned linguistic and cultural norms for communicating with the community members. Importantly, the interpreting students had the opportunity to interpret the conversations. Community gatherings are a variety of mock interpreting that provides an opportunity for students to interpret, while also meeting a need and supporting the community in which students will soon be members. Student-initiated mock interpreting. Interpreting students can also arrange their own mock interpreting events. The instructor can provide students with a template for creating scenarios (provided in Chapter 7), and they can proceed with developing their own simulated experience. Students may choose to draw on family members, friends, language lab staff, or faculty members to enact the scenario for the students to interpret. Ideally, the students will also record the interaction. Although the students have devised their own scenario and may know what to expect, the way that the interaction unfolds in real life will necessarily be unique and may surprise the students. In another variation of this

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activity, students can write scenarios for each other. Student-initiated mock interpreting provides not only interpreting practice, but also benefits the students in having them reflect on what typical discourse looks like in a number of settings. Online mock interpreting. Other mock interpreting sessions can be arranged in the same manner as the event Amaya arranged for her class in the earlier description, but it can also be done with an electronic twist through the use of videoconferencing technology. Planning the logistics— arranging for actors choosing scenarios—is similar in both types of mock interpreting situations but certain issues inherent to in-person scenarios, such as arranging for rooms or parking passes, are no longer necessary. One advantage of online mock interpreting is that the choice of actors is not confined to individuals from the local community. Literally anyone in the world can be called upon to act in the scenarios, and they can do so from the comfort of their own home. Another advantage is that many videoconferencing platforms allow for recording of sessions, which allows the students to easily have a video recording of their work for later analysis. In addition, the platforms often use breakout rooms, allowing for a number of separate interpreting sessions to take place simultaneously. Tips and considerations. While the benefits of simulated interpreting opportunities are invaluable, we emphasize again that creating scenarios entails a number of details that require an instructor’s attention. Below we offer a collection of tips and ideas to consider when planning mock interpreting events for students. Developing scenarios. When developing a scenario for a mock interpreting event, instructors will need to first select between two types of scenarios: generic or specific. The first type is that of a generic scenario, that is, a situation that will be familiar to most actors or that can easily become familiar by gathering additional information. For example, scenarios in which a parent meets with a child’s teacher, or a customer meets with a customer service representative, are generic types of interactions that many people have experienced themselves or can imagine. The second type of scenario is more specific in its content. These scenarios are created for specific actors based on their job, hobby, or experience. For example, a scenario in which a woodworking student meets with his teacher to discuss a project may be created specifically for a pair of actors whose hobby is woodworking. These specific scenarios are written

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to maximize authenticity by individualizing them to actors that are available for your mock interpreting event. In Chapter 7, we provide a blank template for customizing scenarios to actors. The template provides space for designating the topic or context, learning objectives, summary of the scenario, the actors and props needed, challenges that can be added to the scenario (if any), resources for actors, and dialogue cues for the actors. Recruiting actors. In a perfect world, instructors will be able to recruit actors who are physicians, teachers, patients, customers, travel agents, social workers, employers, or the specific role that fits the scenario. If actors are recruited who are already familiar with the role in your scenario, the level of authenticity for the scenario automatically increases. As the course instructor, you will develop a pool of actors over time who play roles they are familiar with (or who are simply good actors). Many of them enjoy enacting their roles because they are second nature, but a way to keep the actors coming back is to pay them for their time. If you can secure funding from your department, a grant, a foundation, or even by fundraising activities, paying your actors will increase their participation and reliability. Another way to recruit actors is through a partnership with the dramatic arts department on your campus. Students from the dramatic arts department can practice their acting skills in the mock interpreting scenarios you develop for your students. Alternatively, as described earlier, you can ask students to recruit their friends or family to serve as actors, although this approach can have uneven results as you have less chance to screen actors for potential effectiveness. If your department has a language lab that is staffed by native users of one of the languages your students are interpreting between, it may be possible to recruit those staff members to participate as part of their job. Finally, a community agency that supports members of the language minority your students work with may be willing to send some of their staff to support a mock interpreting event. Building a pool of actors. Although building a pool of actors is an investment of time up front, it is time well spent. You will become familiar with actors who have taken time before the event to read all the preparatory information and who understand the structure of the event. We again remind you to be mindful of securing actors that vary in age, education levels, socioeconomic status, ethnic backgrounds, vocations, and interests. Training your actors. If at all possible, it is worthwhile to set aside time to train new actors you have recruited. Training can take the form

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of a formal event for a group of actors or can be done 15–30 minutes before the mock interpreting event (provided that you have already shared pertinent information and scenarios with the actors). Examples and practice sessions are also useful. You will find that once actors have training and have participated in a few mock interpreting events, they grow accustomed to the scenarios and become skilled members of your acting pool. We further suggest that if you ask your actors to provide feedback during a debriefing session with the students, they should be trained in how to give effective feedback. Students, especially those who are already nervous, can easily be devastated by a direct comment from an actor that was well intentioned, but hit a nerve. Thus, reminding the actors of the developmental status of your students can avoid long reassurance sessions later. Recording mock interpreting scenarios. Whenever possible, the mock interpreting event should be video or audio-recorded for later analysis. Recordings give the students the opportunity to examine their actual work rather than their faulty memory or imagination about the event. In our experience, we find that students’ assessment of their own performance may be either overly positive or harshly negative. Students may be assigned to bring in their own recording devices or, if your institution has rooms with built-in cameras, the instructor may book those rooms for conducting the mock scenarios. Keep in mind that additional people may be needed to operate the cameras during the session. While recordings of mock interpreting events are invaluable for student learning, when students are responsible for setting up and turning on the camera, it can detract from the authenticity of the scenario.1 The decision about recording the session requires examining the goals of the activity. Is it more valuable to capture students’ work on a recording or is the higher goal to maintain the authenticity of the scenario? Factors you may consider in making this determination are (a) size of the room, (b) the addition of mentors to provide feedback, and (c) whether the actors will have the opportunity and the training to provide feedback. We provide more information about training below.

Assessment Given the multifaceted nature of interpreting and the requirement of issuing grades, the issue of assessment is both critical and challenging.

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We suggest several ways of assessing students’ mock interpreting experiences. First, if the interaction has been recorded, students can view and analyze their performance, reflect upon it and discuss with another student, mentor, or instructor. The instructor may have prompted each student to attend to a specific learning objective or create an individual mini-goal prior to engaging in the practice session. With a recording of their work now in hand, the students can examine their work to determine if they have successfully achieved their goals and provide a self-assessment with examples of successful and less-than-successful instances in their work. Using either a recording or their own recollection, students can be assigned to reflect on their interpreting experience and journal about the experience. Students can also write a reflection report based on Gibbs’ reflective cycle.2 A detailed account of Gibbs reflective cycle, including examples of student work, is found in Chapter 5. Here we note that Gibbs’ cycle is especially useful for students in reflecting upon their mock interpreting experiences. As you will recall, Gibbs developed a reflective cycle as a framework to reflect on and learn from experiences. Its approach to examining experiences in a cyclic manner lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences. Use of the cycle allows students to learn and plan from things that either went well or failed miserably. To reiterate, Gibbs’ cycle proposes a six-stage approach: • • • • •

Description of the experience Feelings and thoughts about the experience Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad Analysis to make sense of the situation Conclusion about what was learned and what could have been done differently • Action plan for how to deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes that might be appropriate. Self-reflection and self-analysis are both means of assessment, but students can also get feedback on their mock interpreting from other sources. If professional interpreters are present for the mock interpreting interaction, they can provide valuable feedback immediately after the event, while the experience is fresh in students’ minds. If interpreters

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cannot be present, students can use their recordings of the mock interpretation and forward it to a trusted mentor or interpreter who is willing to review the work. We suggest that the mentor and student separately view the recording in advance of a discussion, followed by a scheduled meeting to discuss their perspectives. Additionally, students can get feedback from the participants in the interpreted interaction, either immediately following the interpreted interaction or in the large group debriefing session. If the instructor requests that participants provide feedback after each interaction, time must be built into the rotation schedule. The benefit of immediate feedback is that the event is fresh in everyone’s minds so feedback is often more relevant; alternatively, if participants are asked to provide comments in a group debriefing session at the conclusion of the mock interpreting rotations, the instructor should again build it into the schedule. Among the benefits of group feedback are that (a) comments can be more global in nature, (b) students can practice how to gracefully accept feedback, and (c) comments can be incorporated in subsequent class discussions. Students should be encouraged to ask questions of the participants about their interpreting choices during the interactions. We reiterate again that participants should be trained in how to ask questions as well as how to provide feedback. Finally, since the participants in an interpreted interaction may not actually understand one another’s language, professional interpreters should be used for the debriefing sessions. Note that instructors may determine that immediately after a mock interpreting experience is not the most effective time for students to hear feedback from the actors they worked with. The students may benefit most from a safe space to debrief about their experience among their peers and instructor. In that case, recordings may be the most effective way for students to analyze and learn from their work.

Instructor Tools for Mock Interpreting We strongly believe that situated learning activities can be the most beneficial (and exciting) part of an interpreting curriculum. That said, we recognize that to successfully facilitate situated learning events requires a great deal of planning and organization. Numerous hours can be spent on designing and facilitating these educational opportunities. Developing the tools to make these events successful can be discouraging for even the most motivated instructors. To save you from reinventing the wheel, in

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Chapters 6 and 7 we offer tried-and-tested tools that can be modified for your own use. One bonus of this book is that you can access downloadable versions of these tools by using the link found on the opening pages of Chapters 6 and 7. You have our full permission to use these educational materials, but we ask that you retain the copyright information at the bottom of each page. In this chapter, we discuss three tools for planning mock interpreting events: (a) a sample email that can be sent to actors who are participating in your mock interpreting event (Fig. 6.1), (b) a rotation chart (Fig. 6.2), and (c) a checklist for planning the mock interpreting event (Fig. 6.3). Sample email to actors. After you have recruited actors for your mock interpreting event, it is important that they receive the information needed to successfully participate. In Fig. 6.1, we offer a sample email to be sent to the actors in advance of the mock interpreting session. This sample email is offered as a template for your use and can be modified for the actors to reflect your particular mock interpreting scenarios. When contacting the actors, we suggest including a rotation schedule for the mock scenarios (Fig. 6.2) and the mock scenario descriptions to be used by the actors (see Chapter 7 for samples). Rotation schedule. A rotation schedule is necessary for the smooth operation of the mock interpreting event. A rotation schedule should reflect the individual characteristics of your event and may include: (a) the students who are involved, (b) the length of time for the scenarios and the whole event, (c) scheduled time for refreshments (optional), and (d) time for a debriefing session (optional). This document should include the names of actors and students, room numbers, times, scenario topics, and the schedule the students will follow as they rotate through each scenario. A sample of a completed rotation document is provided in Fig. 6.2. Again, you can modify the rotation schedule based on your needs. Instructor’s checklist. Finally, we include a sample of a mock interpreting checklist for an instructor’s use in planning the event. The checklist may include such items as reserving rooms, securing parking passes for actors, planning refreshments (optional), selecting scenarios, and sending information to actors. See Fig. 6.3 for a sample checklist.

Volunteer Interpreting Another way instructors can help students learn from guided authentic experiences is to arrange for supported volunteer interpreting work.

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Hello (Name of Participant)! Thank you for agreeing to join us at (insert name of your institution) in a mock interpreting session for students in our program. I look forward to seeing you on (insert date) from (insert beginning and ending times) in the (insert building name) in (insert room number). Regarding parking, (insert specific parking instructions and attachments. Note that participants may not have a printer at home). We will serve light refreshments of (insert type of refreshments). Please arrive no later than (insert suggested arrival time). We will begin the practice session promptly at (insert start time). Our time together is very tight, so it is important to arrive early in order to keep our schedule. Thank you! For the mock interpreting session, you have been paired with a partner who does not use your language. You will be acting out a 10-15 minute prepared scenario/conversation with your partner while an interpreting student interprets the interaction. The conversation with your partner will be repeated five times, each with a different interpreting student. I have attached two documents for your review prior to coming to the session. The first document is a description of the specific scenario you will be enacting. Please prepare by carefully reading the attached scenario. It may be helpful to do some background reading on your particular scenario on the Internet. The scenario document provides suggested links for you to search for more information. The second document is the rotation schedule for the students, along with the room number where you will be meeting with your partner. Please note that at the conclusion of the rotation schedule, we will gather as a group for a de-briefing session. If you have any props to make this experience seem more real, please bring them along! In the past, participants have brought items such as clipboards, paperwork, forms, brochures, clothing, and art supplies. Whatever items that you think will the scenario more authentic would be very welcome! The students will be video recording the interaction between you, your partner, and themselves. The video recording will be used only for their learning and self-analysis. The students may share the video with me, and a professional interpreting mentor in our community. If you do not wish to be video recorded, please let me know and I will ensure that no recordings are done during your session. If you have any questions or need to reach me for any reason, please use my personal number (insert number). Thank you again for participating in this important activity in the development of our interpreting students. I hope you find it to be an enjoyable experience. Sincerely,

Fig. 6.1 Sample email to actors for mock interpreting event

Well-planned volunteer experiences can provide students with a safe and authentic learning opportunity for building their skills. We describe several ways that you may guide your students into authentic experiences that are faced by professional interpreters but as students, are done with support from others.

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Mock Interpreting Rotation Schedule Study Room #1 Job Interview: UBER Driver (Oscar and Paul)

6:00-6:15 6:15-6:20 6:20-6:35 6:35-6:40 6:40-6:55 6:55-7:00 7:00-7:15 7:15-7:25 7:25-7:30 7:30-7:45 7:45-7:50 7:50-8:05 8:05-8:10 8:10-8:25 8:30-9:00

Team 1 Team 5 Team 4

Team 3 Team 2 Team 1

Study Room #2 Renting a House (Miva and Sue)

Study Room #3 Travel Agent: Trip to Ecuador (Zane and Michael)

Study Room #4 Mission Trip to Africa (Alex and David)

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS: Lobby SWITCH ROOMS Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 SWITCH ROOMS Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 SWITCH ROOMS Team 5 Team 1 Team 2 BREAK SWITCH ROOMS Team 4 Team 5 Team 1 SWITCH ROOMS Team 3 Team 4 Team 5 SWITCH ROOMS Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 FULL GROUP DE-BRIEF: Room #1

Study Room #5 Medical Intake Interview: (Patrick and Tim)

Team 5 Team 4 Team 3

Team 2 Team 1 Team 5

Student Interpreting Teams Team 1 2 3 4 5

Student John Kristyna Danae Mariah Michael

Brianna Michael Pebbles Justin Maria

Fig. 6.2 Sample rotation schedule for mock interpreting event

Interpreting student presentations. In her interpreting program, Marta teaches a seminar course on interpreting research. In the class, students work in groups on a research project, which culminates in a presentation at the conclusion of the semester. The student groups are expected to develop a collective slideshow presentation and handouts to

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Sample Checklist for Mock InterpreƟng Event Date of event: ____________________________________ LocaƟon: ________________________________________

______ Determine student learning objecƟves. ______ Recruit actors for various scenarios. ______ Select or write mock interpreƟng scenarios for actors. ______ Reserve rooms for the event. ______ Develop rotaƟon schedule. ______ Obtain parking passes for actors. ______ Plan refreshments (opƟonal). ______ Send informaƟonal email to actors (include parking pass, rotaƟon schedule, and scenarios). ______ Send brief scenario informaƟon to students (opƟonal). ______ Print copies of scenarios and rotaƟon schedule.

Fig. 6.3 Sample checklist for mock interpreting event

share their findings. Classmates, friends, families, professional interpreters, and invited members of the communities that support the interpreting program are all invited to attend the semi-formal event. The audience is typically comprised of individuals who speak different languages. Rather than hiring professional interpreters to make the student presentations accessible to everyone, Marta arranges for interpreting students in the program’s practicum course to interpret the presentation. The students are encouraged to work together to prepare, share materials, and discuss the upcoming presentations.

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Over the course of several days, the practicum students interpret in front of an audience of approximately 40–50 people. Marta’s class has been delivering the presentations for several years and community members have come to look forward to the annual event. After each day’s presentations, the student interpreters meet with community members who were present for another 90 minutes to engage in feedback of their work. As with the conference interpreting experiences by Carolina and Jalen described in Chapter 2, the event can be stressful for student interpreters but, in the end, students report feeling exhilarated by their sense of accomplishment. Marta is careful to invite members of the community who are supportive of students, have a strong relationship with the interpreting program, and are vested in the success of the students. An alternative to holding a feedback session is to record the student interpretations for subsequent analysis and discussion. Volunteering in the community. Daniel is an instructor in his local interpreting program and frequently receives requests for students to volunteer their services as an interpreter at various events. The requests vary in nature—from religious classes offered by a local worship community, to presentations by independent entrepreneurs who are selling a product such as cosmetics, food storage containers, dietary supplements, or cleaning products. Occasionally Daniel receives requests for volunteers to interpret at a booth or table for a local community informational fair. Daniel aims to ensure that all volunteer opportunities will be challenging, yet safe, learning experiences. He asks many questions before accepting the request and only accepts the request if it is appropriate for students. He confirms the request on the condition that he can schedule a professional interpreter to supervise the students’ work. At that point, Daniel is ready to recruit volunteers from among his interpreting students. Campus activities. With support, students can provide volunteer interpreting services for the varied events that occur on campus. For example, Barb, an interpreter educator, teaches at a college that begins the academic year with a welcome back fair. Information booths representing different college departments, student clubs, and even other local colleges are arranged to spread information to the public. The fair is alive with people in booths selling tantalizing food, local vendors displaying their goods, and even booths that have carnival-style games. The interpreting program has its own booth, managed by Barb’s colleagues, including instructors who speak the minority language that the students are learning to interpret. Student interpreters volunteer to interpret between the

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instructors and visitors to the booth. This event provides a safe, low-risk environment for the volunteer student interpreters due to their familiarity with the faculty in the interpreting program. One of Barb’s colleagues is very gregarious, enjoys meeting new people, and likes to give student volunteers a rich opportunity to practice interpreting. He typically asks one of the student interpreters to accompany him as he visits other booths to ask questions in his native tongue. He strikes up conversations with other students along the way, asking them about their major, what year they are in the program, and their plans after graduation, with each encounter being interpreted by one of the student volunteers. For this volunteer interpreting experience, instructors run the booth or visit other booths at the fair while simultaneously supervising the students. In this way, the instructors can observe their interpreting students working in a real-world interpreting situation. Later, instructors and students create an opportunity to discuss the students’ experiences and interpreting work. Because the instructors are present, they can assess students’ performance on the spot and make note of the instruction or practice that is needed. For example, one of Barb’s volunteer interpreting students arrived wearing shorts and a midriff top. When asked about her attire, she responded that it is what she would wear to the welcome back fair as a student. Barb realized that although she had discussed attire with the students, they still needed more direction, which later led to a conversation with the students about appropriate clothing to wear while interpreting. Without this volunteer opportunity, a teachable moment would have been missed. Mock interpreting agency. During internship, practicum, or fieldwork courses, students typically observe professional, working interpreters or practice interpreting in assigned real-world settings. In a program run by Giulia, internship work is scheduled for her students in a way that simulates an interpreting agency. One year, she was even given permission to use the software used by the local interpreting agency to schedule and communicate interpreting assignments to the students. Giulia worked closely with the local agencies to learn their policies and she runs her mock interpreting agency according to the same policies. When Giulia receives a request for interpreting services, she first determines if the request is appropriate for her students, then sends out a call to the students. Depending on the specifics of the assignment, she may send the call to all of the students, or to only to those for whom the assignment

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would be appropriate. Sometimes Giulia sends the call to specific students who she knows have no experience in a particular setting. Once a student accepts the assignment, Giulia emails the student the details and the point of contact for the job. The point person is typically a supervisor from a program or agency that works closely with the interpreting program, or the professional interpreter who will be the student’s team member. Giulia worked hard over several years to develop a group of certified interpreters who are willing to work with her students, understand the goals of the program and are willing to give students the opportunity to practice with supervision. The interpreters have also received training in how to provide feedback to the students. Post-program elective course. A unique way to arrange guided authentic experiences for interpreting students can be conducted after the students complete the interpreting program. In the program in which Pierre teaches, students may opt to take an elective course after they have completed the program in order to gain more hands-on experience before leaving the university. The course is designed as a bridge to the world of professional work and places students in pre-arranged sites in order for them to develop their interpreting skills further. In Pierre’s program, graduates interpret in elementary and secondary school settings alongside a mentor interpreter, for parent education classes in the same school district, for a pastor, in college classes, and with interpreting agency interpreters. When Pierre and his colleagues first decided to offer the course, they weren’t certain whether any students would sign up. After all, the students had finished their course requirements and were on the cusp of graduation. However, the faculty was amazed at the number of students who took advantage of one last opportunity to get experience in the real world before they marched across the graduation stage. Once the students register for the course, Pierre and his colleagues from the department meet to discuss the strengths of each student as well as the areas in which they could improve. They match students up to the interpreting sites that they predict will be a good fit for each student. Dubbed as “The Final Hurrah” by students, the course has been a very beneficial offering and more popular than Pierre could have imagined. Tips and considerations. In the following sections, we provide a few ideas to keep in mind when arranging volunteer interpreting experiences for your students.

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Create a memorandum of understanding (MOU). We strongly advise that interpreting programs create MOUs with entities where students may be working, either as volunteers or as interns. Creating an MOU between the interpreting program and an outside entity (e.g., a local interpreting agency or public school) defines both the expectations and benefits of the collaboration. For example, interpreting agencies may be able to utilize student volunteers to provide low-cost interpreting services to a small business or non-profit organization that would otherwise be unable to afford the services. Conversely, the student will benefit by earning hours and experiences needed to advance in the program. The benefit to the interpreting program is the ability to facilitate real-world opportunities for interpreting students. We note that volunteer sites benefit by contributing to the professional growth of the interpreting students who may become their future employees. Offer continuing education units for partners. When possible, work with partner agencies and educational institutions to provide continuing education units for the professional interpreters who work with student interpreters. If you are unable to reimburse the professional interpreters who work with your students, providing them with opportunities to earn continuing education units can be an alternate and effective way to reward their efforts. Facilitate student supervision by professional interpreters. Best practice dictates that student interpreters always volunteer interpret under the supervision of a certified interpreter or a faculty member. Some occasions may arise in which supervision is not possible or desirable, but generally speaking, students should be supervised for their own protection and to protect the consumers they serve. In this chapter, we provided ideas, examples, resources, and tips for how to arrange guided authentic interpreting experiences, the activities in Step 5 of the staircase model of situated learning. The activities discussed here, mock interpreting experiences and volunteer interpreting, can provide opportunities for students to grapple with authentic challenges in a safe environment. In Chapter 7 we offer a collection of 21 scenarios that you can use in your own programs, either as written or modified to fit your needs. We feel there’s no need for any of us to start from scratch and we hope these scenarios will be of assistance as you incorporate situated learning scenarios into your classrooms and communities.

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Notes 1. Harrelson, Marks, & Chan, 2018. 2. Gibbs, 1998.

References Gibbs, G. (1998). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: UK, Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. Harrelson, P., Marks, A., & Chan, Y. (2018). Applying adult learning theory to ASL-English interpretation role play activities. In C. B. Roy & E. A. Winston (Eds.), The next generation of research in interpreter education: Pursuing evidence-based practices (pp. 1–18). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

CHAPTER 7

Mock Interpreting Scenarios

In the previous chapter, we described activities that support Step 5 of the staircase model for interpreter education. In this chapter, we are addressing probably the most daunting aspect of creating a rich situated learning experience for your students, that is, the time and creative effort it takes to produce effective scenarios for the students to interpret. To assist you with that hurdle, in this chapter, we provide you with 21 sample mock interpreting scenarios. The scenarios can be used exactly as written, be modified for your situation, or serve as inspiration for novel scenarios that you create on your own. Before diving into the scenarios, we describe their structure and offer suggestions for implementing the scenarios in your classroom or other settings. Arranging mock interpreting scenarios for your students involves a number of tasks, as discussed in Chapter 6. As an instructor, you will find it necessary to finish most tasks upfront; that is, they must be completed in advance of bringing students and actors together. One of the most critical tasks for creating successful scenarios is recruiting actors to enact the

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_7

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simulations. Recruiting dependable and creative individuals who understand the goal of the simulations is paramount to providing the students with guided interpreting practice. If you are like us, you will draw upon your own professional community of practice to seek out and secure the actors. Once you have recruited the actors, you will need to provide them with the mock interpreting scenarios in advance. As will be seen, the scenarios contain several sections that describe various aspects of the simulation. To help your actors to enact their roles with a high degree of comfort and authenticity, you may want to walk them through their mock scenarios in advance or, if not possible, encourage them to carefully review the information in their mock scenario. Giving the actors the scenarios in advance serves several purposes. First, the scenarios guide the actors to understand the context of the scenario. Knowing the scenario acquaints the actors with the role of the other actor(s) in the scenario, makes clear the learning objectives for the students, points the actors to the information to include in the scenario that will help students meet the learning objectives, and outlines resources that can assist them to play their role effectively. The second purpose of providing the actors with the scenarios in advance is that it serves as a reminder for you, as the instructor, to ensure that all parts of the scenario are in place. In addition to sending the scenarios in advance, you may find it helpful to have paper copies available on the day of the mock interpreting event to distribute to the actors. It is not uncommon for the actors to refer to the scenarios during the simulated interaction, so having copies of the scenarios in front of the actors can be helpful in creating the simulated encounter.

Mock Interpreting Scenario Template In addition to the 21 scenarios provided in this chapter, we offer a blank template form that can be used to develop your own scenarios. The template provides a structure that will help you to maintain uniformity among the scenarios but, more importantly, the template provides a skeleton model of what to include in a scenario—you merely need to add flesh to the bones! The blank template includes places to indicate (a) the type of situation, (b) the learning objectives, (c) a brief description of the situation, (d) the actors and props needed, (e) the challenges that the actors should include in the scenario in order for the students to meet the learning objectives, (f) resources for the actors to access prior to the mock interpreting session to prepare for their role and the interaction, and (g)

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dialogue cues the actors may use during the scenario. We describe each part of the template in greater detail in the next section. Learning Objectives The instructor should clearly identify the learning objectives of the mock learning experience. By considering and writing the objectives in advance, you can then shape the scenarios to meet those objectives. For example, in a class on healthcare interpreting the learning objective for a mock interpreting session may be “Interpreting students will interpret terminology used while collecting a patient’s medical history and health insurance.” With this objective in mind, you will need to ensure that the actors use the appropriate medical terminology so that the student interpreters can meet the objective. Additionally, working backward from this learning objective as suggested in Chapter 3, you will already have used several activities from the situated learning staircase to prepare the students in advance to meet the objective. For the medical objective, preparation activities for the students may include learning specialized vocabulary, conducting research on the meaning of various medical conditions the students will encounter in the mock interpreting session, participating in classroom interpreting practice of pre-recorded material, doing observations of medical interpreters (live or pre-recorded), and engaging in role plays. Situation The situation section contains an overview of the scenario structure. Each scenario provides the context for the scenario (in the title), indicates the needed participants, the goals, characteristics, and emotional states to be assumed by the actors, if relevant, along with other details. For example, the following situation is taken from one of the scenarios in this chapter. A woman is meeting with a divorce attorney. She has been married to her husband for 23 years, but he recently asked for a divorce. She has come to this meeting seeking advice about how to start the legal processes and to learn the steps that are involved. She and her husband are amicably parting, but she is obviously distraught and is unfamiliar with the divorce process.

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The situation sets the scene and the tone of the meeting so that actors can play their roles with as much authenticity as possible. The situations typically indicate the gender of the actors, but we note that most scenarios can easily be modified based on the gender or other characteristics of the particular actors you have available. When conducting a mock interpreting event for students in which students will interpret multiple scenarios, the situation descriptions can be given to the students to give them the opportunity to research and prepare for each scenario. The preparation document can be given to the students either well in advance of the role play (to experience advance preparation) or given to the students immediately prior to the event (to experience the situation of being placed on an assignment at the last minute). Actors The key to the success of any scenario is its actors. By actors, we are referring to the participants who play the roles in each scenario that the students will interpret. The actors you choose may be stretching their role-playing skills with a scenario that is not familiar to them, or they may be taking on a very familiar role that they experience every day at work. Actors may also have experienced the scenario only one time in their own lives but are familiar with the discourse and terminology used in that setting. Whatever their background with the scenario, it is important to instruct the actors to become familiar with each role, as well as the section that provides the dialogue cues. To reiterate, the most successful scenarios are performed with actors who either (a) can naturally enact various roles, or (b) who can enact a role because it is familiar because of the work they do, a hobby they have, or prior experience with the role. An actors’ experience gives them the fodder to be spontaneous and improvise in their role. We have found that the most successful scenarios are tailored to at least one of the actors in the interaction. As mentioned earlier, in this chapter we provide a blank template for creating your own mock interpreting scenario template. Because you will probably be familiar with the actors who will participate in the mock interpreting, you can use the template to tailor the scenarios to fit the individuals’ background and experiences. We suggest recruiting the actors well in advance in order to learn about their work, hobbies, and other aspects of their lives. In some

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scenarios, for example, it may be useful to know if the actor has young children, which could result in a scenario that takes place in an educational setting. Or you may find out that someone has dreamed of taking sky diving lessons, information that can result in a scenario surrounding that particular passion. If you are recruiting and interviewing multiple actors, you may find that the backgrounds or experiences of actors align, allowing you to create a scenario that suits both actors. For example, you may find that two of your recruits enjoy scrapbooking, which can lead you to create a scenario around creating memory books. Shared interests among your actors often result in the most authentic interactions in the scenarios. Another consideration in soliciting actors for your scenarios is to ensure that you include people that bring sociolinguistic diversity. Since mock interpreting scenarios are a way for students to gain exposure to a variety of consumers, it is important for students to work with actors who have varied demographic characteristics across age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational background, sexual orientation, and religion. To build the students’ theoretical foundation about interpreting for diverse populations you may provide a lecture about the development of cultural norms, bring in panelists who represent different demographics, assign relevant documentaries for later discussion, or other cognitive-based activities. Building this theoretical foundation will support the students’ readiness to interpret for diverse populations who may use lexical items, historical information, technical jargon, liturgical language, and slang, among other markers of sociolinguistic variation that are unfamiliar to the student. We also encourage you to be sensitive that the actors who use the minority language in your community be assigned to the role of expert in several scenarios. In the US Deaf community, for example, giving a Deaf actor in the role of an attorney, rather than in the role of a client, draws attention to the professional positions that many Deaf individuals hold in society. When the actors arrive for the mock interpreting event, we strongly suggest that you meet with them prior to beginning the session. Since the actors have been recruited because they do not know the language used by members of the other group, you may need to hold separate meetings, unless someone (other than a student) is available to interpret for you. You can use this pre-event meeting to instruct the actors about

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how to create as authentic a situation as possible. We offer a few talking points for the meeting with the actors: • Stay in character . Remind the actors that they should stay in their roles throughout the entire scenario. The actors may be tempted to slip back into their own personality or begin talking with the students. It is important to maintain their roles so the students can gain the full benefit of the mock interpreting session. • Keep the conversation going . Tell the actors that they should maintain the conversation throughout the session. The sessions typically last for 10–15 minutes (or whatever length of time you have determined). Ongoing conversation is important even if the actors have to improvise responses not given on the dialogue cues or they are saying things that they don’t know to be factual. We have found that after approximately 10–15 minutes, the actors start to run out of things to discuss, which makes this length a good time to wrap up the conversation. Alert the actors that a designated timekeeper will give them a one-minute warning as they near the end of their time. Upon this cue, they should begin to wrap up the conversation in a natural fashion. • Be natural. Remind the actors to behave and communicate as naturally as possible within their roles from beginning to end. Creating a natural scenario includes how the actors enter the situation. For example, if the scenario involves meeting with an architect, you may instruct the actor in the role of the architect to remain in the “office” while the actor in the role of “the client” initiates the meeting by knocking on the door and entering the office (rather than just sitting at the table together when the interpreter enters). For most scenarios, it is helpful to designate how to begin the scenario. Is the interpreter entering the room with one of the participants, or already in the room with the other participant? To create a natural setting, this decision may depend on which participant is most likely to have hired the interpreter. In addition, when the scenario has concluded, the client should get up, make appropriate farewells, and walk out of the room. If interpreters arrive with the actor, they may leave at the same time. • Foster authentic exchanges. Tell the actors that it is important for interpreting students to practice such behaviors as greetings, farewells, asking where to sit, introducing themselves as interpreters,

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and other exchanges that typically happen during interpreting assignments. As we know, introductions can leave a lasting impression and the students should consider how both beginning and ending conversations may reflect cultural norms and background of their clients. • Finally, be nice. The actors may think their job is to challenge the students and may take it upon themselves to increase the difficulty of the interaction. If so, they may intentionally try to trip up the students. Recognize this possibility in your actors and make it clear prior to the beginning of the session that challenging students is not the goal. Encourage the actors to show patience with the students and alert them that the students may need time to produce an interpretation. Remind your actors that the scenarios are being interpreted by students, so a bit of patience, especially if the student is struggling, is helpful. After the event is over, we recommend following up with a show of appreciation for the actors. If you have developed a strong connection with community members, a reciprocal relationship between the actors and the interpreting program may already be in place. A meal or refreshments on the day of the event demonstrates your appreciation. Other ideas to express your gratitude include: • Paying the actors a small stipend, if funds are available. • Debrief with actors who come from another department about their performance. • Provide a small token or gift for the participants. • Extend invitations to events on campus at no charge. • Have the students write thank you cards or emails. In some cases, you may decide to assign students the responsibility of developing community networks and recruiting actors. If you have asked students to recruit actors, they may wish to offer the actors a small gift or service (e.g., coffee gift card, babysitting) in exchange for the assistance of the actors.

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Props This section discusses the use of props to make the scenarios more authentic. The goal of arranging mock interpreting scenarios is to make each scenario as authentic as possible, and props can contribute to the authenticity. Props aren’t required but can be useful in adding authenticity to the scenarios. Certain props, such as a medical history form, can easily be provided by the instructor; however, you may encourage the actors to bring other props to the role-play event. For example, a popular prop (costume) is the use of medical scrubs, which may be readily available to your actors. If actors playing a medical role are actually healthcare professionals, they may also be able to bring equipment, such as an otoscope or blood pressure monitor. You may wish to purchase other props as part of personal or departmental collection. If certain scenarios are used time and time again, purchasing a few simple props, such as a Snellen Eye Chart may be a worthwhile investment. Such props can be relatively inexpensive and are useful to have on hand. Challenges The challenges section on the template outlines the specific challenges for students that should be included in the scenario. As discussed earlier, the challenges are linked to the learning objectives for the lesson. For example, if a learning objective states, “Interpreting students will practice accurately interpreting content with numbers,” the actors will need to incorporate numbers in their conversation to the extent possible. When the actors accept your invitation to participate in the role-play event, the challenges should be highlighted to ensure that they read and understand this crucial part of acting out their role. Resources When you provide a scenario document to your actors, we strongly suggest including resources for them to use in preparing for their role. Clearly, these resources are especially useful for actors who are playing a role unrelated to their actual work or avocation. As discussed in the Actors section, some actors won’t need the resources because they are playing a role from their actual lives; however, other actors may have been recruited for reasons such as their acting ability, demographic profile, or availability,

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rather than their familiarity with the role; this type of actor will need the resources to play their role with authenticity. After the individuals commit to participating as actors in the mock interpreting session, the instructor should emphasize the importance of preparing for their role by reading the scenario and doing some research based on the given resources. You may also choose to print or download the resource and send it to the actors in advance, along with the scenario description. Again, it is always wise to have printed copies available onsite on the day of the mock interpreting session for the actors to reference. The actors are typically volunteering and may not have had time to prepare, so providing information to them prior to the mock interpreting session allows them to quickly peruse the resources on the spot. We find that the actors are grateful for the support we provide every step of the way. Dialogue Cues The dialogue cues section of the template gets to the heart of the mock interpreting experience because it is directly tied to the interaction between the actors. The level of detail in this section may vary based on the scenario. In some of the scenarios we have provided, the questions and answers are broad in nature, providing only tentative questions for one actor and possible responses for the other (e.g., Scenarios 1, 10, and 17). If the questions and answers are general nature, the actors will need to improvise during this part. Other scenarios have highly detailed questions and responses, including specific questions and answers the actors should use for the students to achieve the learning objectives (e.g., Scenarios 3, 7, and 21). Other scenarios may be accompanied by a form for an actor to complete, from which dialogue cues are drawn, while the other actor may respond in a spontaneous manner (e.g., Scenarios 9, 14, and 18). We again encourage you to stress the importance of preparation upon the actors, so they know the questions and answers for both roles. The actors need to provide responses that follow the questions in the scenario. For example, if an “insurance agent” in a scenario asks a client for a phone number, the client should respond with a 10-digit number (United States) to follow the form of an actual telephone number. Another example is if a “seller” asks a customer for a credit card number. The customer should be prepared to provide a number that matches the standard form of a credit card. Similarly, providing personal information

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should contain be credible and common, rather than unusual or infrequent. For example, if asked for a city and state, an actor might respond saying “Oakland, California,” a more common answer than “Oakland, Florida.” A learning objective for the students may be to use prediction skills as an important tool for interpreting. Thus, if actors respond with answers that are outliers, it won’t support the learning objective related to relying on prediction skills. Even if the learning objective is not centered on prediction skills, the actors should be prepared with typical responses to common questions; however, at a later stage, atypical responses may provide opportunities for students to hone their skills in dealing with unexpected situations. Conversely, it is possible that you may create a learning objective for a scenario that entails managing incorrect information, in which case a nonsensical or erroneous answer is what you want for the actors to use. Overall, it is important to inform the actors that, in general, their responses to questions should be as authentic as possible. Further, while the actors may use the dialogue cues that are provided, you can encourage them to elaborate on them with each other. Urge the actors to draw on their research and life experiences, while still adhering to their role in the scenario. Give the actors a heads up that they should also be prepared to improvise if the conversation takes an unexpected turn. Real-world interactions are messy. In discourse, people frequently overlap and interrupt each other, mutter, use exclamations, questions, and commands, speak in fragmented way, or are highly redundant. Such typical speech patterns may occur (or even be encouraged) during scenarios because they contribute to the authenticity of the interactions. Natural speech patterns provide the students with the challenge of managing the discourse exchange, which ultimately prepares the students for actual interpreting. We note that actors should be prepared to engage in the interactions without dependence on the scenario instructions. If actors are continually referring to the scenario instructions during the exchange, it will diminish the authenticity of the scenario. Actors may refer to the scenarios with a glance or two but trying to conceal it from the students. On the other hand, if forms are used in the scenario, the actors should definitely refer to the forms and even write on them. In some cases, you may want to write a full script for the actors to follow (e.g., Scenario #21). The benefits of a scripted rather than suggested questions and answers are that the scenario will result in an

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equitable experience for every student in the rotation. Using scripted scenarios will also contain the exact dialogue and content that you want the actors to use. However, the risk is that actors may end up reading the script rather than creating a natural dialogue. You have now become familiarized with each section and the rationale behind creating the scenarios. Next, we provide a blank scenario template for your use, which is immediately followed by 21 previously prepared scenarios. Frankly, we feel the scenarios in this chapter may be the most valuable part of this book because they provide content to help you implement successful role-play situations. The scenarios can be used exactly as written or modified to meet your particular context or actors. As discussed above, the scenarios may need to be modified based on the gender or other characteristics of your actors. The blank template is provided if you wish to devise your own novel scenarios based on the recommended guidelines presented above. You can also access downloadable and editable versions of these scenarios by using the link found on the first page of this chapter. You have our full permission to use these educational materials, but we ask that you retain the copyright information at the bottom of each page. Our aim is to assist you in facilitating situated learning experiences in your own programs.

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Mock Interpreting Scenario Template

Learning objective(s):

Situation:

Actors:

Props needed:

Challenges or demands to be included:

Dialogue cues:

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Scenario 1: Automobile Repair Learning objective: • Interpreting students will accurately interpret descriptions using appropriate terminology in the target language. Situation: A woman has brought her car into the repair shop. The car needs an oil change, the brakes are making a grinding sound, and one tire is low on air. Actors: • Automobile owner • Auto mechanic Props needed: • None Challenges or demands to be included: • The auto mechanic should use specialized vocabulary related to car maintenance. Dialogue cues: Automobile owner: 1. Tell the mechanic your tire is almost flat, and you need an oil change. In addition, the brakes are making a grinding sound. 2. How much it will cost to do all the work? 3. How much each item costs separately (tire, oil change, brakes)? 4. Can the work be started today, or do you need to make an appointment and bring it back later? 5. How long will the work take? (Tell the mechanic you need your car by 3:00 pm so you can pick up your son from school.) 6. Are the brakes still under warranty? 7. Can you run a diagnostic test that will show if there is anything else to be repaired while my car is here? How much will the diagnostic cost? 8. What work would you recommend be completed first?

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Scenario 2: Cable Company Customer Service Learning Objective: • Students will interpret interactions between a customer service agent and an angry customer. Situation: A customer service agent arrived at work after a fight with her significant other. She was late and the boss yelled at her. It was also rainy, and her shoes and clothes are soaked. Her hair also got wet and is dripping. She is feeling very grumpy and impatient. The customer is also having a bad day, feeling angry about the additional charges that show up on her bill every month. The rates constantly seem to be going up too. She is going to the cable company in person to complain about the extra charges and demand they get removed. If she can’t get satisfaction, she had determined to take her business elsewhere. Actors: • A customer service agent • An angry and rude customer Props needed: • Counter or table that the customer service agent works behind • Cable bill Challenges to be included: • Customer should act angry • Customer service agent should act irritated Dialogue cues: Customer: 1. What are these additional charges? Agent: 1. Explain that the promotion the customer got for the first year has expired and that eventually promotions have to end in order for new ones to begin. 2. Explain that purchasing on-demand or pay per view movies, adding features or making other changes to your plan can alter fees and taxes on your bill. © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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3. Explain that fee or tax changes can increase the cost of the bill. 4. Offer a plan change: downgrading the service or removing features or services to keep costs low. 5. Offer to bundle cable, internet, and phone services to get a lower bill. 6. Offer a credit/adjustment and tell the customer to allow 1–2 billing cycles (current bill + 2 cycles) to see it on the bill.

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Scenario 3: Car Insurance Claim Learning Objective: • Interpreting students will navigate the challenges presented when a participant directs questions toward the interpreter. Situation: A man is meeting with his insurance agent because of a car accident he was involved with earlier that morning. The driver gives a description of the vehicle that hit him at an intersection. The other driver was a mom with two kids who ran a stop light and slammed into his car. The insurance agent collects the required information regarding the accident, such as where the accident occurred, the extent of the damage, injuries to the parties, among other questions. Actors: • Insurance agent • Driver filing a claim Props needed: • Computer for insurance agent Resources: • What to do after a car accident: http://www.central-insurance.com/ docs/tips-InAccident.htm Dialogue cues: Insurance agent: 1. Ask for the driver’s name and policy number (As the driver looks for policy number, says to the interpreter, “That’s so fascinating, how long did it take you to learn the language?”) 2. Ask if the driver has a driver’s license (Expresses some surprise that the driver can actually drive.) 3. Ask about specifics of the accident: (Sometimes speak to the interpreter, saying, “Ask her/him….”) • A basic description of the accident and the severity of the damage • Time • Date © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Location Injuries About the other driver’s insurance, etc. Which vehicle was involved? Who was driving? Names and contact information of others involved in the accident and witnesses

Driver: 1. Answer questions (look for policy number in wallet or purse) 2. Provide details about the accident. Describe it fully (for example, you were turning off the University Avenue exit ramp from I-15, when a car turned into your lane and hit you) 3. Ask questions about responsibility, who pays what, etc. Insurance agent: 1. Explain a $500 deductible (Says to the interpreter, “Am I talking too fast?”) Driver: 1. Ask about insurance company paying for a rental car. Insurance agent: 1. Explain that a rental car is an option, but unfortunately, the driver did not choose it in his insurance coverage. Suggest that maybe it is worth paying the extra amount per month for the coverage. 2. Explain that an adjuster will come out to see the car. (Ask the interpreter how the adjuster can reach the driver, if he/she can’t talk on the phone.) 3. Provide a claim number.

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Scenario 4: Designing a House Learning Objectives: • Interpreting students will accurately interpret content with numbers. • Interpreting students will interpret descriptions and spatial layouts. Situation: An individual is building a new home and is meeting with an architect to create a floorplan. Actors: • Home builder • Architect Props needed: • Paper • Pen/pencil • Pictures of sample houses (optional) Challenges to be included: • Ask questions that will require responses with numbers. • Describe spaces, designs, materials, and other lexical items associated with home building. Resources: • 26 Popular Architectural Home Styles: https://www.diynetwork. com/how-to/rooms-and-spaces/exterior/26-popular-architecturalhome-styles-pictures • 10 Most Popular House Styles Explained; https://www.bhg.com/ home-improvement/exteriors/curb-appeal/house-styles/ • 15 Must-Have Features for your Dream Kitchen: https://www.har risburgkitchenandbath.com/15-must-have-features-dream-kitchen/ • 14 Must-Haves for your Master Bathroom: https://blog.cooperdes ignbuilders.com/14-must-haves-for-your-master-bathroom Dialogue cues: Architect You can ask any of the following questions: • How many bedrooms do you want? • How many levels do you want? • How big a house do you want (square feet)? © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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What size is the lot? What are the “must-haves” for your new home? What are the luxuries you would like to include if possible? What general style of home do you like? (e.g., log home, cape cod, craftsman, colonial, modern) What features in a master bedroom/bathroom are important to you? What features in a kitchen are important to you? What features in a living room are important to you? What is your budget?

Home Builder Some questions you can ask: • Who from your firm would be involved in the project, and what level of contact would they provide to me? • Is what I’m describing feasible within my budget? • What obstacles could you see us facing in this project? • When can I request changes, and what might changes during construction mean for the project? • What specific drawings can I expect from the complete set of construction documents? • How do you charge, and what other fees are involved? • Do you have references for your prior work?

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Scenario 5: Disciplinary Meeting Student Learning Objective: • Interpreting students will use language to sensitively render a disciplinary meeting in which emotions are running high. Situation: A lab technician in a language lab at a college has been caught violating the policies for use of technology. The lab technician has downloaded large files, streamed videos, and printed large documents that are unrelated to work. In addition, the tech person has spent work time on social media and personal emails. Each of these actions violate college policy. Co-workers have reported the employee, and the information technology (IT) department has tracked the employee’s online activity. A representative from the college human resources (HR) department will meet with the lab technician to issue a written warning and to create a plan to resolve the issues. Actors: • Representative from the human resources department • Language lab technician Props needed: • Employee Use of Technology Agreement (See attached) • Pen/pencil Challenges to be included: • Lab technician should react emotionally to the accusation from the human resources representative. • Lab technician should ask the interpreter to translate the agreement before it is signed. • Human Resources (HR) representative should ask the interpreter to sign the agreement to indicate there was an interpreter present. Dialogue cues: HR representative: Inform the lab technician that he/she has been caught violating the college’s policy for appropriate use of technology. The lab technician has downloaded large files, streamed videos, printed large documents unrelated to work as well as spent work time on social media and personal © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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emails, all of which violate college policies. Co-workers have reported the lab technician, and the information technology (IT) department has tracked the lab technician’s online activity. The lab technician will be given a written warning and a plan will be agreed upon to how to prevent this happening again in the future. Lab technician: The lab technician is irate that his co-workers have reported him/her, and that the IT department has been secretly tracking his online activity. The lab technician explains that he/she did not know this was the policy and does not recall ever being informed of this policy. The tech person reminds the HR representative that no interpreter was present when he filled out the paperwork. The lab technician explains that he/she sees other employees on social media (Facebook and Twitter) all the time. The tech person feels unfairly singled out. HR representative: Shows the document that the lab technician signed stating understanding of the technology policies. The HR representative explains the policy and asks the lab technician for further questions. The HR representative works with the lab technician to create a plan to resolve the issue and set up communication process through email, using the VP, or Instant Messaging if the lab technician has more questions about the policies. Lab technician: Asks to attend a new employee training again with an interpreter to be sure all policies are clearly understood so violations do not occur again. HR representative: Has form ready for the lab technician to sign in agreement with the meeting and asks the interpreter to sign the form acknowledging that the meeting was interpreted.

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EMPLOYEE USE OF TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT

Every employee, volunteer, contractor, or other individual accessing the workplace network and/or Internet access must read and sign below:

I have read, understand, and agree to abide by the terms of the foregoing Administrative Regulation, AR 2620 ó Employee Use of Technology. I accept responsibility for the appropriate use of the workplace computer resources, which include all computer systems, network systems, Internet and intranet web sites or other data processing equipment owned or leased by the workplace, as well as remote computers, or computer systems when used to access workplace computer resources, the phone system including voice mail, cell phones and office equipment. Should I commit any violation or in any way misuse my access to the workplace computer network and the Internet, I understand and agree that my access privilege may be revoked, and disciplinary action may be taken against me.

Userís Name (print clearly):

Home Phone:

Userís Signature:

Date:

Status: Employee

Volunteer

Contractor

Other

This agreement will be kept in the employeeís personnel file.

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Scenario 6: Divorce Attorney Consultation Learning Objectives: • Interpreting students will maintain composure while interpreting emotional content. • Interpreting students will use prosodic markers to express various emotions. Situation: A woman is meeting with a divorce attorney. She has been married to her husband for 23 years, but he recently asked for a divorce. She has come to this meeting seeking advice about how to start the legal processes and to learn the steps that are involved. She and her husband are amicably parting, but she is obviously distraught and is unfamiliar with the divorce process. Actors: • Divorce attorney • Client (this scenario is written with for a wife, but the client could also be a husband) Props needed: • Desk (for attorney to sit behind) • Paper • Pen/pencil Challenges to be included: • The client should act distraught, unsure, and tearful during the meeting. Resources: • State laws regarding divorce: http://www.divorcesource.com/ds/ main/state-divorce-laws-656.shtml • DIY Divorce paper support: http://www.divorcenet.com/states/ nationwide/dnetart-01.html

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Dialogue cues: Attorney: 1. How long have you and your husband been married? Who asked for the divorce? What reason was given? What are the ages of your children? 2. What does your debt to income ratio look like? Do you have shared banking or investment accounts? What are your major assets? 3. Describe some of the options for the divorce process: mediation, court divorce and do-it-yourself divorce (see http://www.divorc enet.com/states/nationwide/dnetart-01.html) 4. Provide some resources both online and in the area that can be a support. 5. Tell the client that if she is interested in proceeding, she should contact his assistant to arrange the next steps. Client: 1. After a 37-year marriage, husband asks for a divorce citing irreconcilable differences. They have three adult children who are out of the house and a 16-year old son still living at home. The topic of divorce has been a discussion point between the couple for several months, but she did not believe her husband was serious about it. 2. They started a business together eight years ago and sold it last year. They owe a considerable amount of taxes from the sale of the business. They also own a house, three cars, a 5-wheel trailer, and two ATVs. Neither has any retirement or investment accounts. 3. The woman works part-time as a secretarial assistant at a local school with a gross income of approximately $1,000 a month. The husband works in construction and brings home $7,500 a month.

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Scenario 7: Emergency Room Learning Objectives: • Interpreting students will accurately interpret the names of medications, diseases/disorders, and other medical terminology. • Interpreting students will make reasoned decisions about what to do when medical personnel leave the interpreter and patient together alone in a room. • Interpreting students introduce him/herself to the patient and ask the patient how to explain interpreting services to the triage nurse. Situation: The patient walks with a friend every day, but on this particular day experienced severe dizziness while walking at a moderate pace. The patient sat down and the dizziness got somewhat better except when standing up, it was clear he/she couldn’t make it home independently. The friend helped the patient get home and the patient laid down on the couch for 45 minutes. The patient’s dizziness improved but after 20 minutes, first half of the patient’s tongue was getting numb and the lips were turning blue. The friend noticed the symptoms were worsening and drove the patient to the hospital. In this scenario, the patient is meeting with a triage nurse. The triage nurse will ask about the patient’s symptoms, medical history, drug allergies, and medications, and take the patient’s vitals in preparation for seeing the doctor. Actors: • Nurse • Patient • Patient’s friend (optional) Props needed (if available): • Scrubs for triage nurse • Blood pressure monitor • Stethoscope • Thermometer • Scale • Computer or paper and pen to record medications the patient is taking © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Challenges to be included: • Intentionally leaving patient and interpreter in a room alone together. • Patient acts somewhat emotional (calm, yet tearful when describing the experience) • List of medications and doses interpreter must interpret Dialogue cues: Nurse: What brought you here today? Patient: Tells background story above while crying. (Patient is calm but tearful and also tells the nurse she used to have panic attacks, but this is not a panic attack.) Nurse: What mediations are you currently taking? (Patient says she can’t remember all the names of the medicines, but you know that Trileptal was increased last week because of depression. Patient remembers bringing a list and reads the medications to the nurse. (Note: The list should not be shown to the nurse. The patient should recite from the list in order to give the interpreter practice.) Patient: Reports the medication names and doses below: • Levothyroxine 150 mcg • Lisinopril 20 mg • Trileptal 400 mg (100 am 300 pm) • Lamictal 200 • vitamins • Nexium • Inderal long acting 80 mg for essential tremor Nurse: (Writes down all the medications in the patient’s chart). Why are you taking these medications?

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Patient: I have been diagnosed with hypothyroid, hypertension, bipolar, and hypoglycemia. Nurse: When was the last time you had something to eat or drink? Patient: I had breakfast this morning. [While with the nurse the patient suddenly gets very dizzy, sees spots, and feels numbness in the right hand]. (Nurse checks patient’s blood pressure). Your blood pressure is 188/104. Patient: I just feel so dizzy. I am seeing spots and now my hand (indicate left hand) is starting to feel numb again. and up the arms. Nurse: The patient is told that to follow the nurse to a room. After getting the patient in a hospital bed, the nurse says, “The doctor will be right with you” and then leaves the room. The student interpreter and the patient are left in the room.

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Scenario 8: ESL Teacher and Student Meeting Learning Objective: • Interpreting students will interpret conversation supported by textual materials. Situation: Student is meeting with his English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher to review a lesson he missed in class. Actors: • ESL teacher • ESL student Props needed: • ESL lesson plan and worksheets (See link below) • Pen/pencil Challenges to be included: Instructor should use the ESL lesson and worksheets on English past irregular verbs when working with the student. Resources: • ESL lesson and worksheets on past irregular verbs located at https://esllibrary.com/courses/89/lessons/1566/print • How to Teach Practical ESL Lessons: https://www.fluentu.com/ blog/educator-english/how-to-teach-esl-to-adults/ Dialogue cues: ESL Teacher: The ESL teacher leads the student through the ESL lesson and worksheets on past irregular verbs to help him work on his English reading and writing skills. ESL Student: Works with the teacher on the worksheet. Student’s level of fluency can vary as the actor wishes.

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Scenario 9: Home Mortgage Application Learning objectives: • Interpreting students will practice accurately interpreting content with numbers. • Interpreting students will demonstrate consultative register in vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone. Situation: A customer has come in to get pre-approved for a mortgage so she/he can purchase a home. The interpreter is waiting with the loan officer in the office when the customer arrives. Actors: • Loan officer • Mortgage applicant Props needed: • Loan officer: Laptop computer and online mortgage application form (1033) (https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/15171/ display) Challenges or demands to be included: • Numbers should be used to the extent possible. • Actors should use professional discourse norms suitable for a business transaction. Resource: • Mortgage application Form 1003: https://singlefamily.fanniemae. com/media/15171/display Dialogue cues: Loan officer: Ask questions from Form1003. See above link. Mortgage applicant: Be prepared to respond to questions on form 1003 with fictitious numbers. Feel free to vary these each session.

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Scenario 10: Job Interview Learning objectives: • Interpreting students will position him/herself in a manner best suited for facilitating direct communication with the consumers. • Interpreting students will manage a question that is directed to him/her rather than the applicant. Situation: A college student is having a first interview with a manager at a pet store. This initial round of interviews is intended to get to know the candidate to determine (a) if the candidate meets the minimum requirement, and (b) seems to be a good fit for the job. Actors: • College student applicant • Manager of the pet store Props: • Clipboard • Paper • Pen/pencil Challenges to be included: The manager will show some confusion about where the interpreter should be seated during the interview. Further, the manager will ask the interpreter if it would be possible to accompany the applicant to employee training without pay. Resources for the manager and applicant: • Available jobs at Petco: https://careers.petco.com • 100 Top Job Interview Questions: https://www.monster.com/car eer-advice/article/100-Potential-Interview-Questions • Answers to 10 Most Common Job Interview Questions: https:// www.monster.com/career-advice/article/Top-10-Interview-Questi ons-Prep Dialogue cues: Manager: The manager needs to hire someone soon for the sales position. The manager is interviewing the college student to see if the individual would © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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be a good fit for the position. The manager wants to know the student’s availability for work, and how the student’s course schedule will allow time for working 20 hours a week. The manager gives specifics about the position and asks the applicant any or all of the questions below. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Tell me about yourself. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Why do you want this job? How many hours a week can you work? Where would you like to be in your career five years from now? What attracted you to this company? Why should we hire you? What irritates you about other people, and how do you deal with it? If I were your supervisor and asked you to do something that you disagreed with, what would you do? What are you looking for in terms of career development? How do you want to improve yourself in the next year? What kind of goals would you have in mind if you got this job? What is your greatest fear? What’s the most important thing you learned in school? What questions do you have for me?

Applicant: The applicant wants to get a part-time job, especially for weekends. The applicant isn’t sure what type of job is of interest but loves animals so any position at the store would be enjoyable. Respond to the interviewer’s questions. Questions the applicant might ask include: 1. What positions do you have available? 2. What locations are available? 3. Can you explain what is involved in those positions—what are the job responsibilities? 4. Are there many college students that work there? 5. What hours would I have to work? 6. What are the benefits I would receive? 7. What are the other perks provided for employees that work at the pet store? 8. Are there opportunities to move up? 9. How much is the pay? © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Scenario 11: Kitchen Remodel Learning objective: • Interpreting students will practice interpreting descriptions. Situation: A woman has come into a kitchen remodeling store to talk about replacing the countertops and possibly her cabinets. She has brought her interpreter with her. The interpreter meets the customer outside of the building. Actors needed: • Kitchen remodeler • Customer Props needed: • Countertop samples • Picture of current kitchen (attached) • Pictures of countertops, cabinets, etc. Challenges to be included: 1. Both actors should provide as many descriptions of features as possible and refer to pictures as much as possible. Resources: Customer: You can talk about your own kitchen or use the attached picture as your current kitchen. Dialogue cues: Remodeler: 1. How big is your kitchen? 2. Where are the appliances? 3. What type of cabinet do you want? 4. What colors do you like? 5. What kind of sink do you want? 6. Which countertop do you like?

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Customer: 1. You can talk about your own kitchen or use the attached picture as your current kitchen. 2. Respond to the questions any way you like.

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Scenario 12: Medical History and Insurance Learning objective: • Interpreting students will interpret terminology related to medical history and insurance. Situation: A doctor is going to prescribe a patient some medication for her knee injury. The nurse asks the patient several questions regarding the patient’s medical history to make sure that there are no contraindications with the medication and to see if her current insurance covers the drug or if a generic drug needs to be prescribed instead. The patient has a history of high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The patient’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, father is diabetic, and a sister died from a stroke. Actors: • Nurse • Patient Props needed: • Patient Medical History Form (attached) • Table for patient to sit on • Pen/pencil • Lab coat or scrubs Challenges to be included: • Nurse should include as much medical terminology as appropriate. Resources: • Patient Medical History Form (attached) Dialogue cues: Nurse: Use the attached Patient Medical History Form (attached) to ask the patient questions. When asked the following questions, patient provides the answer given in the parentheses. 1. What are your current health concerns? (Knee injury) 2. What medications are you currently taking? (Atorvastatin for cholesterol control and Chlorothiazide for high blood pressure control) 3. What over-the-counter medications do you take? (Vitamin C, Fish Oil, Calcium, and Motrin) © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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4. Do you have any drug allergies or reactions to medications? (Yes, I’m allergic to Penicillin) Do you have a family history of any of the following? (I am adopted, so do you want my adoptive parents’ health history? Mother is a breast cancer survivor and her father is diabetic. Sister died from a stroke) Insurance information: 1. What insurance do you have? (My company laid me off, but I am on COBRA. Am I still covered?) 2. Who was your employer? (AT&T) 3. What is your member ID number? (0005146891)

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PATIENT MEDICAL HISTORY FORM PERSONAL INFORMATION Name_______________________________________________________ DOB____________ Current Health Concerns________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ MEDICATIONS (medications the patient is currently taking) Prescription Medications

Dose

Frequency

Over-the-Counter Medications

Dose

Frequency

Allergies or reactions to medications, food, or other agents? ____ Yes _____No If yes, please give details________________________________________________________

PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION Do you have any issues regarding your health as given below? If yes, check box to the left. Acid Reflux

Depression

Anxiety or Nervousness

Diabetes

Cancer Chronic Pain Cholesterol Problem

Endocrine System Disorder Erectile Dysfunction Gastrointestinal Issues

Genitourinary System Issues High Blood Pressure Mental Health Issues Musculoskeletal System Nervous System

Osteopenia / Osteoporosis Respiratory Issues Skin Conditions Surgeries Thyroid Problems

TURN TO OTHER SIDE

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Please check Yes or No for the questions below Yes

No

How much?

Do you smoke? Do you drink alcohol? Do you use illegal drugs or other substances?

Do you have a family history of any of the following? If yes, please check box. Diabetes

Glaucoma

Macular

Retinal

Degeneration

Detachment

Cancer

High Blood Pressure

Cataracts

Mental Health Issues

Please sign that you have reviewed the information and it is correct to the best of your knowledge.

Signature________________________________________________ Date_______________

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Scenario 13: Parent-Teacher Conference Learning objectives: • Interpreting students will manage the turn taking in the discourse. • Interpreting students will accurately convey the affect and register of each participant. Situation: A parent-teacher conference is scheduled between a parent of a math student and the child’s math teacher. The student is struggling in the course and the parent is concerned about the son’s progress. The teacher shares that the student has not completed most of his homework. The parent wants to know if the student can make up the work and improve his grade. The student has stated being unhappy with the class because the teacher is too strict and requires too much detail in the work. The student also misses class often due to volleyball games. Actors: • Middle school math teacher • Parent Props needed: • None Challenges to be included: • Actors should intentionally overlap and interrupt each other with questions and comments during their conversation. Resources: • Top 10 Questions to Ask During a Parent Teacher Conference: http://www.sylvanlearning.com/blog/index.php/top-10-questi ons-to-ask-during-a-parent-teacher-conference/ • Three Ways Parents Can Help Their Child with Algebra: https:// huntingtonhelps.com/resources/blog/3-ways-parents-can-helptheir-child-with-algebra Dialogue cues: Parent 1. How is my child doing? (Teacher: Not well. Getting a D) © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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2. Why is the grade that low? (Teacher: Most homework is missing.) 3. Tell the teacher that the student is dissatisfied with the class because the teacher is too strict and requires too much detail in the work. The student also misses class often due to volleyball games. 4. What can be done to make up the work? (Teacher: Work with the parent to set a plan to complete the required work. Teacher 1. Discusses other things about the student a. The student’s strengths b. The student’s academic challenges c. How the student is doing socially d. How the parent can support the child in math (see the following websites): • Three Ways Parents Can Help Their Child with Algebra: https://huntingtonhelps.com/resources/blog/3-ways-par ents-can-help-their-child-with-algebra • Top Tips for Helping Kids with Algebra Homework: https://www.swanlearningcenter.com/2017/09/helpingwith-algebra-homework/

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Scenario 14: Pediatrician Interview Learning objective: • Student interpreter will consult with the parent about whether the interpreter or the consumer will explain to the doctor about how to work with an interpreter. Situation: A parent has recently moved into a new city and is looking for a pediatrician for her children, one of whom is nine months old. She received a reference from her insurance company (United Health Care) and has an appointment to ask the doctor some questions. Before coming, the parent printed out a form from the Internet that includes many questions to ask the doctor. The mother is concerned about having good interpreting services because of some bad experiences with interpreters in her former city. The pediatrician graduated from Dartmouth Medical School and did rotations at Primary Children’s Medical Center. The practice is a medical group of four doctors, and they accept all insurances. The doctor has been practicing medicine for six years, married with two biological children and two adopted children. The doctor has never conducted a medical interview with an interpreter before. Actors: • Parent who is a potential new patient • Pediatrician Props needed: • Form with questions the parent can ask the doctor: https://assets. babycenter.com/ims/Content/first-year-health-guide_doctor_int erview.pdf (and attached) • Pen/pencil • Lab coat • Stethoscope Challenges to be included: The doctor will repeatedly direct remarks at the interpreter about interpreting work, how to translate certain medical concepts, etc.

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Dialogue cues: Parent: 1. Bring form (attached or accessed via webpage address above) and ask questions from the form. Pediatrician: 1. Respond to parent’s questions any way you like.

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Scenario 15: Physical Exam for an Athlete Learning objectives: • Interpreting students will make decisions about how to position oneself in a room during a physical exam. • Interpreting students will determine how to express the physician assistant’s annoyance at the high school athlete. Situation: A high school student has scheduled a physical examination. The school district requires a form to be signed by a doctor or nurse in order to participate in the school athletic programs. The clinic has assigned a physician’s assistant to conduct the physical exam and ask questions. The athlete has no current injuries or concerns, but this is the first time he/she has played on a high school team. The athlete is also very curious about the exam today and asks a lot of questions. The physician assistant is in a hurry and becomes annoyed with the questions. Actors: • Physician’s assistant • High school student athlete (brings the attached Physical Examination Form*) Props needed: • Physical Examination Form as a guide (*attached) • Table for patient to sit on • Pen/pencil • Lab coat or scrubs • If possible: stethoscope, scale, otoscope Challenges to be included: 1. Student should ask as many questions as possible. 2. Physician’s assistant should act annoyed by so many questions. Resources: • What is a Sports Physical? (attached)

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Dialogue cues: Physician’s Assistant: 1. Use the Physical Examination Form to ask the patient questions about his health (Use your judgment about what questions are appropriate to ask in this role play). 2. Based upon the answers, you can provide clearance for all sports, some sports, or recommend further testing before providing clearance. 3. As the patient asks questions, your level of annoyance increases. Student athlete: 1. Respond to the physician assistant’s questions in any way you like. 2. Ask many questions throughout the interview, even though the physician’s assistant is becoming annoyed.

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What Is a Sports Physical? A sports physical -- also known as a pre-participation physical examination -- is a check-up to assess health and fitness as it relates to a sport. It is not the same as a regular physical. During the sports physical, the health care provider looks for any diseases or injuries that could make it unsafe to participate in sports and reviews the family’s medical history to ensure additional tests are performed if necessary. Where Is a Sports Physical Done? The teen’s pediatrician can perform the sports physical. Physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners also can do a sports physical and sign the required forms. While sports physicals are offered at ‘minute clinics,’ such as those inside some drug store chains, they should not take the place of an annual physical exam by your teen’s pediatricians. During a Sports Physical The health care provider will ask about any history of illness, hospitalizations, or injuries. Ask about: Asthma Shortness of breath or chest pain during exercise Dizziness or fainting spells High blood pressure Excess fatigue Diabetes Frequent headaches Eating disorders Vision problems (wearing glasses or contact lenses) Epilepsy Past surgeries or injuries (broken bones, fractures, dislocations, or concussions) Heart problems such as a murmur or abnormal heart rhythm Bone, joint, or spine injuries Skin problems Severe allergies such as to food, pollen, or stinging insects Liver or kidney problems

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Use of certain medications including prescription, over-the-counter, illicit, and herbal medicines. A family history of heart problems or sudden death before age 50 At the end of the sports physical, the health care provider will decide whether it’s safe to play the sport. The the: • • • • • •

health care provider’s decision is based on several factors, including Type of sport and how strenuous it is Position played Level of competition Size of the athlete Use and type of protective equipment Ability to modify the sport to make it safer

If everything checks out during the sports physical, the health care provider will give approval to play without any restrictions. Or the health care provider might recommend certain modifications, like using special protective equipment, carrying epinephrine auto injectors for severe insect allergies, or using an inhaler for asthma.

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Scenario 16: Post Office Work Review Learning Objective: • Interpreting students will practice interpreting for a performance review in which an employee will be evaluated. Situation: A supervisor is conducting a 90-day probationary review for an employee working at the post office. This employee works in domestic mail in the sorting department but is interested in transferring to the international mail department. After the review, the supervisor will explain the process for switching departments. Actors: • Post office supervisor • Post office employee Props needed: • Clipboard • Paper • Pen Challenges to be included: • Participants should use post office terminology and jargon to the extent possible. See resource below for support. Resources: • United States Postal Service Handbook page regarding employee evaluation: https://about.usps.com/handbooks/el312/el3 12c5_040.htm • United States Postal Service Employee Evaluation Report: http:// www.swfloridaapwu.org/zipfiles/ps1750.pdf Dialogue cues: Supervisor: 1. How have things gone for you here in the past 90 days? 2. Tell me what contributions you have made to the job? 3. What are things you are still learning how to do?

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4. Tell me about your attendance and punctuality, are you: a. showing up to work on time? b. completing tasks on time? 5. How many sick days have you taken? 6. How are you getting along with other team members? Employee: 1. I would like to sign up for the health insurance benefits that are available to me now. How do I go about getting information about those benefits? 2. I have been having some difficulty in communicating with one of my co-workers. What are suggestions you have for better communication? 3. What can I do to improve my skills for the job? I feel like it takes me twice as long as other people to do my work. 4. I am interested in switching departments. How does that process work?

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Scenario 17: Principal Meeting About Bullying Learning Objective: • Interpreting students will interpret highly emotional content. Situation: A student is being bullied by other students in his class and he reported the incident to the principal. Someone stabbed the student with a pencil in the back on the bus, put his head between the metal frame and seat and repeatedly hit him. He is being teased by the same group of kids in the halls, is being taunted on the playground. His bullies have yelled at him many vulgar and profane things, have thrown rocks and snowballs at him and comes home crying almost every day. He is scared to go to school. To date, no action has been taken by the school administrator. The parent of the child is enraged and wants action to be taken before something serious happens. Actors: • Upset parent • Principal Props needed: • Desk for the principal to sit behind Challenges to be included: • Parent should be very upset. Parent is angry and sometimes tearful. Resources: • Strategies for Principals-How to Prevent Bullying: https://educat iononline.ku.edu/community/strategies-for-principals-bullying • What is Bullying? http://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/ Dialogue cues: Parent: 1. Why is nothing being done? Why is no discipline or action being taken? 2. What is the standard protocol when an incident is reported to you? What do you normally do? 3. Why is my son continuing to be bullied? Why haven’t you tried to stop this? © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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4. Should I involve other people in this? 5. My son is a victim, he doesn’t want to come to school anymore, is that what you are promoting? 6. What actions have you taken to ensure that bullying is not encouraged in this school? 7. Do you think my son is making this up? 8. Who is your immediate supervisor? I want this taken up with the superintendent and the school board. Principal: 1. How do you know it actually happened? 2. What makes you think I am not enforcing strict regulations on them? Bullying happens when we are not watching and will happen anyway. 3. How do you know if your son is telling the truth and not trying to incriminate the other kids? 4. What are some incidents your son reported to you? I will see if it matches my report of what he told me. 5. On a scale of seriousness, what would you give the bullying? 6. Why do you feel your son is a target?

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Scenario 18: Renting a House Learning objective: • Interpreting students will work in consultative register. Situation: A meeting has been arranged between a landlord and a prospective tenant. The prospective tenant is interested in renting a house and wants to complete a rental application. The two are meeting to discuss the available properties and see if there is something that the tenant could move into soon. Actors: • Applicant • Property manager Props: • Tenant application paperwork and pens Challenges: The property manager/landlord speaks very quickly and often mumbles in a way that the interpreter cannot understand him. He also seems somewhat reluctant to rent to a Deaf individual. Resources: • California Rental Application Form: https://eforms.com/rental/ ca/california-rental-application-form/ Dialogue cues: Landlord: You are ready to rent the property to the tenant. You will explain the policies and expectations of the tenant and describe what the place looks like. Questions you can ask: 1. Standard questions on a rental contract (see resource link above) 2. How will we communicate? How can I reach you on the phone? Can you drive? Applicant: You just moved to town and need to rent a place to live. You moved here with your young daughter and small puppy. You want to rent a house

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with a yard and two or three bedrooms. You have a good rental history and a good job. Questions you can ask the landlord: 1. How many bedrooms does the place have? 2. Is there a yard? 3. Is there place to park? 4. Does it have easy access to the freeway? 5. How close is the nearest shopping center? 6. How much is the rent? How much is the deposit? 7. Are utilities included? 8. When is the rent due?

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Scenario 19: Sailing Lessons Inquiry Learning objective: • Interpreting students will interpret on a topic related to sailing and other nautical terminology Situation: A customer comes into the aquatic center who wants to learn to sail. He/she is a beginner and has never sailed before so has a lot of questions. The sailing instructor at the aquatic center answers all his questions and provides some advice about learning to sail. The interpreter is present with the sailor at the aquatic center when the customer arrives. Actors needed: • Sailing instructor • Customer Props needed: • Aquatic center brochures (see https://mbaquaticcenter.com/sai ling.htm) • Pricing plans Challenges to be included: • Use sailing terminology as appropriate. Resource: • Mission Bay Aquatic Center-Sailing Lessons and Classes: https:// mbaquaticcenter.com/sailing.htm Dialogue cues: (answers available on above website) Sailing Instructor: 1. What kind of sailing are you interested in (e.g. laser sailing, keelboat sailing, Hobie Cat?) Customer: 1. How much do sailing lessons cost? 2. How often are the classes? 3. How long are the classes? 4. Do I have to have a boat? 5. Can I bring an interpreter to the lessons? Who will pay for those services? © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Scenario 20: Travel Agency Learning objective: • Interpreting students will interpret content containing numbers. Situation: A mission director who has traveled many times on a church mission trip to Africa, is meeting with a travel agent to book the trip for himself and six other church members to volunteer at a village in Kenya. They will be teaching at school in a remote area, helping build a new school, and working in a clinic. The mission director is meeting with the travel agent to discuss the trip and book the travel. They will discuss flights, hotels, transportation, dates and prices. Actors: • Director of a mission trip to Kenya (or any other country) • A travel agent Props needed: • Clipboard • Pen • Paper • Laptop computer Challenges to be included: • Actors should include the use of numbers to the maximum extent possible. Resource: • Projects Abroad: http://www.projects-abroad.org/about-us/ourimpact/ Dialogue cues: Mission Director: You need to reserve plane tickets and local hotel rooms for the volunteers for the first night when they arrive in Kenya. Work with the travel agent to arrange transportation to the village where you will be working. Be prepared to provide the full names and birthdates of six other people you are traveling with. Your group will be in Kenya for six weeks. Be prepared to tell the travel agent the dates you plan to be gone. © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Travel Agent: You will book travel for the group of seven volunteers traveling to Kenya. • Arrange flights, hotel for their first night’s stay and transportation. • Find out the date of the trip. • Get names and birthdates of all the volunteers so you can book their flights. • Discuss costs of flights, hotel and transportation. • You can also ask some questions about the trip and what the group of volunteers will be doing while they are there.

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Scenario 21: Medical Consultation (Fully Scripted) Learning Objective: Interpreting students will interpret for a full scripted dialogue. Situation: A woman is meeting with a doctor to talk about concerns that her mother’s recent diagnosis of diabetes. Actors: • Woman • Physician Props needed: • Two chairs Challenges to be included: • The topic is very sensitive to the woman and the doctor is very objective about the information. Resource: Refer to script Dialogue cues: Woman: Thank you for seeing me today. I wanted to find out information about diabetes because my mother was just diagnosed with it. My mother is overweight but not obese. I can’t imagine how she got diabetes!! I’m very scared about what will happen. I’ve heard horror stories about people going blind, and having their feet and legs amputated. I can’t give shots! How will she do it? And of course, I’m worried about myself…what if I develop diabetes in the future? Physician: I’m very sorry to hear about your mother’s diagnosis and I appreciate that you came to me with your questions. First, you should know that diabetes is very common in the United States. You are interested in causal factors. Well, there are several factors that can lead to the development of diabetes. There’s a genetic component, so your grandparents may have passed on a genetic predisposition for diabetes to your mother as well.

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It’s impossible to predict who will develop, but one way to predict risk is by looking at people’s parents. If both parents are diabetic, then there’s a greater chance that a person will become diabetic as well. Now, this doesn’t mean that you will develop diabetes, but you should know that the chances are greater, and we should keep an eye on it. Diet also has an influence. People who eat more fruit and vegetables as a regular part of their diet are less likely to get diabetes. This doesn’t mean they’re immune, but they have a reduced chance of developing diabetes. People who eat a lot of bread, carbs, drink a lot of soda and eat a lot of candy are more susceptible to diabetes. Exercise is also an important factor. Regular exercise reduces the chances of developing diabetes. People who don’t exercise much have a greater chance of developing the disease. Further body type and size play a role. If a person is already heavy like your mother and starts to put on more weight, the chance of developing diabetes increases. I don’t know if that’s what happened to your mother, but weight gain is common as we age. Let’s talk about how your mother can control her diabetes in relation to these factors. In the genetic sense, you are who you are and you can’t do anything about who your parents genetic makeup. However, when it comes to diet there are changes that can be made. Eating more fruit and vegetables can help. I’ll give you more information in a moment. I’m talking about adjusting your mother’s diet over time, not making a drastic sudden change, which is very difficult to do. Exercise is also very important in controlling the advancement of the disease. Again, this doesn’t mean suddenly diving into heavy physical activity. I generally suggest walking thirty minutes to an hour every day for people your mother’s age. Light exercise may help your mother control her diabetes. Hopefully the diet and exercise changes will result in weight loss, which will also help her regulate her diabetes. Woman: Honestly, I don’t really understand what diabetes is. Can you explain it? © Miner & Nicodemus, 2021

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Physician: Ah yes. Well an important thing to understand is that in most people the blood sugar, through the food they eat is digested and absorbed and stored as energy. Diabetics have a hard time reducing the amount of sugar in the blood. High blood sugar affects everything in the body. That is why we must regulate it through the use of insulin. And yes, as you suggested, diabetes can have a degenerative effect on the eyes resulting in loss of vision and the kidneys, including problems with urination. The nerves can be affected as well, resulting in a tingling feeling like when one of your limbs falls asleep. A person can also become more susceptible to heart attacks. So, there’s a lot to deal with. So, you’re right, it’s very important to manage your mother’s diabetes. I have some informational pamphlets that I can get for you and the nurse practitioner who by the way also has diabetes would be happy to talk with you further, alright?

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CHAPTER 8

Partnerships and the Road Ahead

It is likely evident by now that developing community partnerships are integral to the success of implementing situated learning in interpreter education. It would be impossible to create authentic learning opportunities if partnerships were not fostered and nurtured with community members, including professional interpreters, students in other departments, and the many professionals who work in businesses, agencies, associations, and other institutions. To create a “functional and progressive model”1 of authentic learning, stakeholders who have a vested interest in the advancement of interpreting students must necessarily be included. Not only do community partners perform such functions being actors in role-play scenarios, mentoring students, offering internship/practicum sites, granting observation opportunities, and giving valuable feedback on students’ performance, their collaboration also helps students gain entrance into the larger society that will be their professional domain. Further, collaborating with community partners helps these stakeholders understand the complex competencies that professional interpreters hold, including ethical decision-making, problem-solving, interpersonal relations, cognitive abilities, and linguistic expertise. The concept of community partnerships in pre-service interpreter education is not a new idea. In particular, the profession of signed language interpreting was borne in partnership with the Deaf community and through guidance from Deaf organizations. Over time, as signed © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9_8

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language interpreting became increasingly professionalized, the positionality of interpreters shifted and it has been argued that partnerships with the Deaf community have been weakened.2 We suggest that the use of situated learning in interpreter education has the power to re-instate an approach that relies on partnership. Spoken language interpreting has also seen an increased focus on work that is done within the community. One example is the establishment of Critical Link International, a non-profit organization “committed to the advancement of the field of community interpreting in the social, legal and health care sectors” (from https:// criticallink.org/what-is-critical-link/). As education in community interpreting continues to grow, we suggest that situated learning theory can provide a powerful approach for the development of interpreters. Although partnership is often defined as a legal relationship bound by contractual agreements, the term also connotes more informal affiliations in which people agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The value of partnership is that every individual brings different talents, skills, contacts, and knowledge that can result in the betterment of the whole. Perhaps the greatest benefit of a partnership lies in the potential to pool resources and expertise. It has been shown that shared trust and cooperation are essential to the success of partnerships.3 Trust and cooperation take time to develop in a true partnership. In recognition of the challenges that can arise when working with other people and the difficulty in measuring the outcomes of a partnership, at an early stage in the alliance, partners might decide how and when they will discuss the progress of their collaboration. Partnerships must be assessed to ensure it is cultivating and drawing on participants’ perspectives, knowledge, and skills.4

Partnerships in Interpreter Education As part of a study of situated learning in interpreter education,5 several interpreter educators were interviewed about the type of situated learning activities in their programs. The value of community partnerships was apparent in all programs that strived for providing authentic learning activities for their students. Here, we share some of the perspectives from interpreter educators6 that highlight the importance of relationships with members of the larger community beyond the classroom. One educator, Nell, described the cadre of community members that she had developed over time and their function in the program:

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I have a stable set of members from the … community who come in each semester. Those folks and I do a series of role plays, and we take turns being the primary, the leader. We’ll do five or ten of those over the course of two weeks, with the [community partner] coming in class after class and (students) practice interpreting those.

Clearly, relationships with various stakeholders are critical in situated learning. Nell continues by describing her partnerships with local interpreting agencies and how, with care and consideration, those partnerships can be beneficial to the community at large: Again, we’re blessed with a great relationship with the … community but we’re also blessed, I think, with a really good relationship with the agencies. We have a memo of understanding with pretty much all the community interpreting agencies and one with all the educational institutions, so we all know what our role is and how we’re going to manage those things and how we’re going to communicate about them. Sometimes someone will note that a (minority language user) is in a small private nursing facility, but the nursing facility says, ‘We have no way to pay for an interpreter.’ I can sometimes negotiate and say, ‘Okay, if I can find a certified interpreter who is willing to work for a lower flat rate, then I’d be comfortable having a student go and assist.’ I then work with one of our supervisors to see if they’d be willing to interpret at a lower rate. So, we just all work together to try and get the students to have good safe experiences but at the same time meet the community needs.

Another interpreter educator, Carmen, discusses the importance of having a positive connection with community partners, which is reinforced by providing the participants with a small payment: We’re so lucky. We have such great relationships so that a few people do the work because they enjoy it. Even if they’re just coming out of the goodness of their hearts, we pay them. We have a fund set up for visitors in any of our classes.

Pedro, another interpreter educator, comments on creating a winwin situation with selected community partners who benefit from practicing workshop material: We have a deal where when he (the community partner) is creating new workshops or, even if he has old workshops, he will come and do

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usually three, sometimes four sessions, practicing with the students in my Simultaneous Interpreting class.

Similarly, in the description below, a win-win situation occurs when students get involved with creating and facilitating community events, modeling how cooperation and reciprocity can unfold between interpreters and members of the community: They (the students) work in groups to plan activities and events. Then they go out into the community and get sponsors from restaurants to give them food and drinks and gifts, prizes. They have raffles and things. Then each classmate is teamed with someone from the community. That person comes in, and then they spend the whole day doing a field day. We have volleyball, games, icebreakers, lots of raffles, and then food. Yeah, so that day is fairly structured because we’re choosing which people come and we get around 35 or so folks on that day. It’s great fun because students are assigned to a buddy. When we have competitions, if we have an egg race or whatever, it’s you and your buddy. Any of the games, students are working with their … community partner on those.

On the other hand, interpreter educator Sahara was mindful of the possibility of that students can overstay their welcome if they are present at every community event. She describes how she engages her students in decision making about what events are appropriate to attend: (As a class) we collectively vote on what we feel is an appropriate event. The students go to plays, attend comedy shows, gatherings at the minor league baseball park, where some interaction occurs, but not too heavy and fairly structured and fairly social language is required. (More advanced students) go to parties, the Halloween party, the St. Patrick’s Day party, things like that.

One educator, Amir, notes the subtle ways that his students are being led into the community of practice outside of the classroom through their interaction and engagement with community members: With the practicum students, we believe that the students start having a sense of how to interact in the community at that level, how to manage their interactions. They’re out there interpreting in the community. Then they’re seeing those same people (as professionals).

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Still another interpreter educator, Gretchen, arranges for students to have authentic interactions by holding free lunches for members of the community, as discussed below: We host (community) gatherings once a month, and the people are thrilled to have a place to meet with free parking and a free meal and free resources. They know that we are offering that to them, and, in turn, they are hanging out with our students to make better interpreters.

Partnerships can take a variety of forms as illustrated by Hannah, below. Here, she describes how students rely on members of the community for a research project and then the community members serve as the audience for the students’ subsequent presentations: Students are working in groups to present a research project so for those students, they’re going out into the community. They’re interviewing people. They might be doing a research project on VRS interpreting so they’re going out to (a call center) and interviewing the director there. Or they might be doing something on vicarious trauma in interpreters. Then after a period of usually three class settings, the students present their research to an audience. The audience is their classmates and any other students who want to come. The audience also consists of interpreters and employers and other members of the community. Those people that we have a Memo of Understanding with typically send three or four representatives. The class is presenting their research findings, PowerPoint presentations, handouts, formal presentations, a huge audience with staff members from local agencies, interpreters at a local school, the interpreters from the local community college, all comes. Then the practicum class has to interpret the presentations!

Finally, Louisa comments on partnerships that she developed with the nursing and theater departments on her college campus in order to create mock scenarios: Sometimes… well, every year, we go to the nursing lab on campus. Using their props we discuss, ‘Now where are we going to stand and what are we going to do?’ We talk about that, and have some discussions, and then we have short role-playing scenarios but with a little bit more because of the props. Also, once a year, the nursing program students come in and they do eye tests, blood pressure screening, with community members while our students interpret.

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Louisa continues, The theater department is very excited to send people to role play people in different roles. In fact, the theater director wants to offer a one-credit class every year!

Taken together, these comments illustrate the importance of partnerships in creating authentic learning opportunities for students as well as how community partners can benefit from their involvement. Community members engage with interpreter education in various ways (e.g., as presenters, interactants, role-play participants, audience members, mentors) and students, often without realizing it, are finding their footing within the community of practice in which they will soon be fully engaged as professional interpreters.

The Road Ahead In writing this book, we found ourselves reflecting on the growth in our students who have experienced learning in an authentic, supported, and safe environment with the guidelines suggested by situated learning. The great South African leader, Nelson Mandela, reminded us that we should “celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” His words remind us that our students’ learning doesn’t come to a halt when they graduate from our programs, rather they are merely prepared for the road ahead in which they will engage fully with the community. We believe that engaging in situated learning activities during the training phase of students’ development can pave the way for graduates to begin the deep learning that unfolds within their community of practice. We believe that the lessons of situated learning can also lead to future partnerships between the interpreting and language communities. Without question, interpreting is a complex sociolinguistic activity requiring highly developed decision-making skills.7 Interpreter educators have observed that even after students graduate from interpreting programs, they still require experience, education, and mentoring in order to be adequately prepared to provide professional interpreting services.8 This may be especially true for graduates of signed language interpreting programs because of a lack of language entrance requirements and standards for graduation, among other challenges. In signed language interpreting, the period between graduation and certification is referred

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to the readiness-to-work gap.9 The importance of continuous learning, even for highly experienced interpreters, is evidenced by requirements to maintain professional certification for association member to complete continuing education units. We suggest that both novice and experienced interpreters can benefit from continuing to engage in purposeful situated learning activities in their communities of practice as they engage in professional development. For novices, the application of situated learning theory during their education holds potential to mitigate the “real-world transition shock”10 experienced by interpreting graduates. Experienced interpreters, on the other hand, can capitalize on situated learning theory to answer the questions that have arisen during their practice. One example of how to apply situated learning after graduation, during professional practice, can be found in a study that examined the first impressions of Deaf consumers to their ASL-English interpreters prior to a healthcare appointment.11 The group of interpreters in the study wanted to improve the Deaf consumers’ first impressions of them, which they felt would lead to more effective interpreting outcomes. In the study, a group of ten interpreting practitioners were engaged in a 10-week intervention within a community of practice. The interpreters were comprised a mix of individuals from two different states, all of whom worked for the same referral agency. The demographics of the group included a range of professional experiences, as well as varied gender, geographical, community, and linguistic backgrounds. Following the principles of situated learning, the experiences of interpreters and Deaf consumers were explored in their interactions prior to a healthcare appointment. After gathering and cataloging the perspectives, the participants worked together to generate solutions to improve interpreterconsumer first impressions with the aim of positively impacting future interpreted events. This study applied the principles of situated learning to a real-world setting in the way the guidelines are used in a structured education program. That is, a group of professional interpreters formed a community of practice to generate solutions that would mitigate barriers that can arise with Deaf consumers on the onset of an assignment. Based on what the interpreters learned from feedback, they were able to apply new strategies to their interpreting during the subsequent weeks, specifically applying ideas to how they approached consumers in an initial encounter. Critically, the study occurred within a community of practice of professional interpreters and provided an opportunity so as to extend

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the staircase model of interpreter education to the post-graduation experience. Thus, the milestones achieved by interpreting students through situated learning principles can be replicated to solve real-world problems in their professional practice. Although this study comes from signed language interpreting research, similar research, especially in the form of action research, can be conducted within spoken language interpreting. Professional development activities in the interpreting field are frequently offered as decontextualized workshops and lectures. While effective as conceptual and theoretical learning opportunities, the workshop/lecture structure lacks authenticity. We propose reformulating how professional development opportunities may reflect the developmental stages of the staircase model by incorporating the use of partnerships and collaborations within a community of practice. Situated learning projects could be undertaken in any place that a group of interpreters come together, such as at an interpreter referral agency, a local association, or an educational system. Instead of passively reading or attending lectures about topics, learning can become embedded within the community. For example, if interpreters chose to focus on how to cultivate professional boundaries and interpersonal skills, they could contextualize their learning within the real-world community of practice through a situated learning project. The learning might begin with a workshop or a reading, creating a conceptual foundation for the interpreters to engage in applied learning activities within the context of their daily work. The community of practice might then work with members of the community regarding concerns and issues surrounding expectation of interpersonal interactions and cultural norms during interpreting. The community of practice may collect and catalog feedback through surveys or panel discussions, meet again to discuss the results, and ultimately, practice role-play situations with one another. In an iterative manner, the community of practice could gather again to reflect on the experience, discuss insights, and continue to practice strategies with one another. As the community of practice moves from theoretical activities to engagement with the community through practice opportunities, they would be reflecting the learning stages of the staircase model. The benefit grows exponentially as each stakeholder and member of the community experiences diverse perspectives, contributes to solutions, attempt strategies within workplace settings, and forges bonds with other members. The ultimate goal is to learn by doing and basing that doing on a theoretical foundation. When

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theory and application are coupled, deep and meaningful learning can occur. On paper, the description of this process may appear to be clean and well structured. We recognize that whenever people come together, there are different points of view about what constitutes a community of practice, who should be involved and what voices are missing, how to maintain confidentiality, among the nuts and bolts questions of how often to meet, what are the expectations, whether there is a leader of the group, how communication should unfold, and other issues. We suggest that the community of practice consider the structure that works for them in their first meeting and re-visit that structure at each subsequent meeting to determine if it is working and make modifications as necessary. Such communication provides an opportunity to discuss community values and create a safe environment for the participants. In a circular manner, a community of practice with specific goals to enhancing relationships and improving interpreting services can also enhance trust within the community. Interpreters are sometimes viewed as isolated practitioners who work on their own. We argue for the need for partnerships in order to feel connected to a larger community as we move beyond the classroom and into the community.

Conclusion As we draw to the end of this book, we add a few concluding thoughts. Through situated learning, interpreting programs can support outcomes that will lead students to successfully work in complex assignments and work within the many institutions they will encounter. In this book, we advocate a learning by doing approach that is first based on a theoretical foundation, then is scaffolded by activities that increase in level of authenticity. Guided authentic interpreting practice provides students with the breadth and depth of experiences needed to be ready for the challenges of professional work. Situated learning can help students to extend their experiences and integrate into their future community of practice. In the community, life-long learning continues to be nourished, and students refine the knowledge and skills necessary to interpret both ethically and effectively. As the title of this book concisely states, interpreter educators can move students out of the classroom and into the community and, by doing so, guide them into successful professional practice.

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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Brundiers, Wiek, & Redman, 2010. Cokely, 2005 Charness & Dufwenburg, 2006. Weiss, Miller Anderson, & Lasker, 2002. Quotes are part of the data collected in the Miner (2018) study. Names of all interpreter educators are fictional but the quotes are authentic. Dean & Pollard, 2011, 2013; Witter-Merithew, Johnson, & Nicodemus, 2010; Mills Stewart & Witter-Merithew, 2006. Patrie, 1995; Stauffer, 1995; Godfrey, 2011. Witter-Merithew & Johnson, 2005. Meadows, 2013. Covey von Pingel, 2019.

References Brundiers, K., Wiek, A., & Redman, C. L. (2010). Real-world learning opportunities in sustainability: From classroom into the real world. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11(4), 308–324. https://doi. org/10.1108/146763710101077540. Charness, G., & Dufwenburg, M. (2006). Promises and partnership. Econometrica, 74(6), 1579–1601. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2006.007 19.x. Cokely, D. (2005). Shifting positionality: A critical examination of the turning point in the relationship of interpreters and the Deaf community. In M. Marschark, R. Peterson, & E. A. Winston (Eds.), Sign language interpreting and interpreter education (pp. 3–28). New York: Oxford University Press. Covey von Pingel, T. L. (2019). First impressions: Improving the connection between Deaf consumers and ASL/English interpreters (Order No. 27547783). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (2331273359). Retrieved from https://login.dax.lib.unf.edu/login?url=https://search-pro quest-com.dax.lib.unf.edu/docview/2331273359?accountid=14690. Dean, R. K., & Pollard, R. Q. (2011). Context-based ethical reasoning in interpreting. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 5(1), 155–182. Dean, R. K., & Pollard, R. Q. (2013). The demand control schema: Interpreting as a practice profession. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing. Godfrey, L. (2011). Characteristics of effective interpreter education programs in the United States. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 3, 88–105.

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Meadows, S. A. (2013). Real-world shock: transition shock and its effect on new interpreters of American Sign Language and English (Master’s thesis). Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR. Retrieved from https://digita lcommons.wou.edu/theses/8. Mills Stewart, K., & Witter Merithew, A. (2006). The dimensions of ethical decision making: A guided exploration for interpreters. Burtonsville, MD: Sign Media Inc. Miner, A. (2018). The use and perceived effectiveness of situated learning in American Sign Language-English interpreter education (Doctoral dissertation). Gallaudet University, Washington, DC. Patrie, C. J. (1995). The “readiness-to-work gap.” In E. A. Winston (Ed.), 1994 CIT proceedings: Mapping our course: A collaborative venture (pp. 53–56). Washington, DC: Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Stauffer, L. (1995). A response to the “readiness-to-work gap.” In E. A. Winston (Ed.), 1994 CIT proceedings: Mapping our course: A collaborative venture (pp. 57–60). Washington, DC: Conference of Interpreter Trainers. Weiss, E. S., Miller Anderson, R., & Lasker, R. D. (2002). Making the most of collaboration: Exploring the relationship between partnership synergy and partnership functioning. Health Education & Behavior, 29(6), 683–698. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019802237938. Witter-Merithew, A., & Johnson, L. J. (2005). Toward competent practice: Conversations with stakeholders. Alexandria, VA: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Witter-Merithew, A., Johnson, L., & Nicodemus, B. (2010) Relational autonomy and decision latitude of ASL-English interpreter: Implications for interpreter education. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth National Convention of the Conference of Interpreter Trainers. San Antonio, TX.

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Index

A assessment, 8, 63–65, 93–100, 112 authentic activity, 30, 32–34, 36, 42, 45, 46, 48, 66, 100, 108 authentic assessment, 63, 65, 66 authentic learning activities, 11, 30, 45, 57, 59, 63, 64, 186

B behaviorism, 24

C checklist, 115, 118 cognitive apprenticeship, 11, 30, 35, 36, 63 cognitive learning theory, 23, 24 collaboration, 17, 75, 77, 87, 88, 100, 108, 185, 186, 192 community engagement, 44, 69, 73, 79 community of practice, 3, 12, 30, 32–33, 45, 46, 49, 51, 52, 55,

62, 66, 73, 100, 126, 188, 190–193 community service, 50, 73, 76–78 conference ambassador, 78 constructivism, 24 constructivist assessment, 65 cornerstones, 12, 33–34, 35, 42, 45–49, 51, 52, 55, 57, 66, 100

F Fenwick, T.J., 67 field trips, 73, 74–75

G Gibbs’ reflective cycle, 94–95, 100, 113

H Hansman, C.A., 36 Herrington, J., 36

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 A. Miner and B. Nicodemus, Situated Learning in Interpreter Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68904-9

205

206

INDEX

I imposter syndrome, 7, 13 interpreter observations, 75–76 Interpreter organizations, 78

K Kiraly, D., 67

L Lave, J., 26, 35, 36, 67 learning objective, 52, 55, 57, 111, 113, 126, 127, 132–134 learning theories, 24 learning transfer, 11, 24, 25–27

M mock interpreting, 18, 50, 94, 95, 103–112, 113–115, 120, 125, 128, 129 mock interpreting checklist, 115 mock interpreting scenario template, 126, 128

O Oliver, R., 36

P partnerships, 8, 12, 55, 75, 79, 87, 88, 185–187, 189, 190, 192, 193

R readiness-to-work, 9, 129, 191 real-world context, 8, 27, 28, 33, 42, 44–47, 50, 59, 66 role of educators, 35, 63 role play, 18, 50, 54, 61, 81–87, 88, 93, 100, 108, 192

rotation schedule, 104, 105, 114, 115 S sample email, 115 scaffolding, 43, 45, 48, 50–52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 66, 82, 100 service learning, 10, 50, 63, 73, 76, 77, 109 simulated interpreting, 44, 47, 79, 81, 82, 87, 88, 90, 92, 93, 98, 100, 107, 110 situated cognition, 24 situated learning, 2–4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17, 23–25, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 42, 43, 45–48, 51, 55, 57, 64, 66, 70, 73, 100, 114, 122, 125, 127, 135, 185–187, 190–193 situated learning curriculum, 62–63, 66 social interactions, 23, 30, 32–34, 42, 45–47, 66 social learning theory, 24, 67 staircase model for interpreter education, 12, 35, 41–66, 79, 81, 83, 125, 192 Step 1, 44, 45, 47, 49, 83, 108 Step 2, 44, 47, 49 Step 3, 44, 47, 50, 69, 79, 84 Step 4, 44, 47, 50, 79, 81–83, 100 Step 5, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 100, 103, 122, 125 U use of tools, 33, 34, 42, 45–47, 66, 100 V volunteer, 73, 76, 78, 119, 120, 122 volunteer interpreting, 50, 103, 115, 119–122

INDEX

W Wenger, E., 2, 13, 36, 67

Wilson, A.L., 36 working backwards, 59, 66

207