Preparation strategies used by American Sign Language- English interpreters to render President Barack Obama’s inaugural address

Abstract

A fundamental principle held by professional American Sign Language-English interpreters is the critical importance of preparing for assignments; however, neither preparation strategies nor their efficacy have been studied in depth. For this study, six experienced ASL-English conference interpreters were interviewed about the preparation process they used to render President Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural address into ASL. The participants were given the full script of Obama’s speech and 20 minutes of preparation time. After completing their interpretations, the participants engaged in a retrospective verbal report regarding their preparation strategies. The descriptive findings suggest that even ASL-English interpreters with experience in conference settings do not have standard strategies for preparing with written material, especially when interpreting a dense text under time constraints. A systematic approach to teaching preparation may improve the quality of the interpretations of scripted speeches, and other discourse genres, by ASL-English interpreters.