Transliterating: Show Me The English

Since the 1970s, there has been a growing number of Interpreting Preparation Programs (IPPs) across the country set up for sign language interpreters. The focus of these programs has been to teach American Sign Language (ASL) and to train students how to interpret from ASL to English and English to ASL.A common belief among many educators and sign language interpreters is that once an individual haslearned ASL-to-English and English-to-ASL interpretation, then English-based transliteration should not be a problem. However, statistics from RID show that in the first 4 years the two performance tests were offered, the failure rate for the Certificate of Transliterating (CT) was almost 54%, while the failure rate for the Certificate of Interpreting (CI) was 27%. These statistics demonstrate the need for more training in transliteration.Few, if any, texts exist that cover the task of transliterating. This book was written to fill that need. It provides a comprehensive overview of the task of transliterating, and its primary goal is to serve as a standardized curriculum for students currently enrolled in IPPs who have taken at least one semester of interpreting skills.