The Diagnostic Assessment and Skills Training Series
(DX) is a set of three courses designed to help you analyze and
improve your interpreting skills. Each 3-credit hour course requires
one academic semester, making this an August to August series.
The program includes an in-depth pre-diagnostic
assessment and report used to identify patterns in your work, both
strengths and weaknesses that need attention. These patterns will
define which lessons within the program you will complete. At the
end, you will participate in a post-diagnostic assessment to
evaluate your progress towards improving the patterns identified in
your pre-assessment report and assist you in defining an ongoing
professional development plan.
Online Orientation
INTR 470 - Skill Performance Assessment
for Working Interpreters (3 credits)
This course involves a detailed
diagnostic assessment of student work for the purpose of identifying
patterns of performance that need to be enhanced or improved towards
the goal of more accurate and reliable interpretation from ASL to
English and English to ASL. Students will be introduced to a system
of discourse analysis intended to help interpreters achieve a
greater degree of understanding of the meaning of various ASL and
English texts. As well, students will learn a system of
self-assessment and peer review and feedback. All students will
engage in skill development activities related to semantic awareness
and semantic equivalence as the foundation for continuing skill
development related to additional patterns in the next two courses
within the the strand of study.
INTR 471 - Skill Development for Working Interpreters
I (3 credits)
This course engages students in improving three of
the specific skills identified in the students' Diagnostic Assessment
report from INTR 470 through a series of guided learning activities
supported by practice activities, online discussion, periodic
self-assessment, peer review, and feedback. Students will explore
a variety of resources available for engaging in skill development
and utilize selected materials as part of practice activities.
Practice activities will engage students in applying principles
of discourse analysis and content mapping for the purpose of
understanding message meaning, message coherence and message
equivalency towards the goal of generating more accurate and
reliable interpretations.
INTR 472 - Skill Development for Working Interpreters
II (3 credits)
This course will guide students through skills development practice
exercises related to two knowledge rich interpreting skills-one
related to ASL to English performance and one related to English
to ASL performance. Students will be guided through a series
of learning activities supported by practice activities, online
discussion, periodic self-assessment, peer review, and feedback.
Students will explore specific resources available for engaging
in skill development and utilize selected materials as part
of practice activities. Students will also generate a post-diagnostic
assessment and compare results with the pre-assessment generated
at the beginning of INTR 470 for the purpose of identifying
progress towards overall interpreting competence and creating
a plan for continued skill development.
After completing this program, you will be able
to:
- Identify examples of the main features of ASL and English
texts.
- Chart the main ideas and supporting details associated with a
text by using discourse and/or visualization mapping
strategies.
- Identify and discuss the salient linguistic features associated
with ASL and spoken English texts.
- Identify and discuss the features of effective interpreted
messages.
- Apply features of discourse analysis to a discussion of ASL
and spoken English texts.
- Identify and analyze the strengths and areas that need
improvement in a videotape of your interpreting.
- Work on four specific skills identified in their custom
diagnostic assessment.
Participants in this program must have the following:
- Three years of experience as an interpreter
- Internet access wtih highest speed possible
- Email address
- Windows 2000 or higher
- Microsoft Office 2000 or higher preferable
- Access to a DVD player
- Access to a DVD digital camcorder
