This course provides opportunities to practically apply a cognitive model of interpreting in which the interpreter actively constructs meaning based on cues provided by others. Students will develop skills in analyzing and translating ASL and English texts, exploring multiple parameters of discourse and message analysis. These may include speaker/signer intent, implied and explicit content, emotional affect, culturally-bound elements, and the impact of contextual factors.
Prerequisites
Missing prerequisites?
Learn more about VCC's academic upgrading or English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, or discover which university transfer options are right for you.
What you will learn
- Key linguistic differences between English and ASL:
- Use of face and space;
- Common sentence types, syntactical structures and discourse markers;
- Time/tense markers;
- Pronominalization;
- Prepositional and adverbial information;
- Pluralization;
- Contextualization and topicalization - Analysis parameters in English and ASL texts:
- Variables of the cultural, situational, relational, psychological context(s);
- Implied and explicit propositions, main points and supporting details;
- Culturally-linked elements;
- Linguistic register;
- Speaker/signer characteristics and goals;
- Emotional affect and tone;
- Metanotative qualities/style of the speaker/signer;
- Contextual force relative to target audience characteristics and goals - Power and responsibility inherent in the tasks of translation/interpretation:
- Meaning-making as a shared process of co-construction;
- Linguistic and cultural mediation;
- Awareness of positionality and bias;
- Challenges in aiming for dynamic equivalence and impartiality - Steps and sub-processes in translation/interpretation:
- Predicting what to expect from the discourse;
- Concentrating and attending to source message;
- Representing meaning, dropping source language form;
- Preparing to express meaning using target language form;
- Producing target message;
- Monitoring and critiquing one’s own process and results
How to register
This course is offered as part of a VCC program only.
Course schedules
Select your program to see the available course schedules.
Contact us
If you have any question, please email at advising@vcc.ca.
† This information is intended as a guideline only. Program and course details are subject to change with the approval of VCC's Board of Governors.