Cross-Cultural Communication and Interpreting (ASL3330)

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About This Course
This course is an continuation of signed language (SL) interpreting theory and bidirectional (ASL-to-English and English-to-ASL) interpreting between Deaf and nondeaf people. While we discuss issues germane to the interpreting field, this course focuses more heavily on 1) interpreting with special emphasis on intercultural communication and 2) the development of language understanding with respect to intercultural communication. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- understand and deconstruct foundational, historical, global theories of ‘culture’ and intercultural communication studies
- understand and distinguish unique cultural features and behaviors of American Deaf and nondeaf people
- ascertain reasons for cultural differences and then describe and apply teachniques for creating equivalent cultural adjustments (Mindess, 2006) in interpretations
- understand how technology and interpreting trends affect cultural climates
- develop fundamental linguistic skills and reasoning and then create equivalent meanings between spoken English and American Sign Language
In addition, this course will help prepare candidates to take the Utah State and/or RID NIC written examination.
A significant portion of this course requires self-directed efforts (a/sychronously working with other colleagues) and fairly good command of web-based technologies and learning environments (video creation, salient discussion and reporting skills; we’ll discuss this more in class).
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