Using Auslan Interpreters In Educational Settings Tips

Posted on: January 27, 2021 by admin

With all the changes in government legislation to ensure user accessibility and inclusivity, Speak Your Language is ahead of the game to provide excellent interpretation services for the hearing impaired, most of whom are not native English speakers.

We have qualified Auslan interpreters who can handle interpretation in a range of disciplines from legal to medical, rehabilitation, financial, educational, and more to facilitate communication between signed and spoken languages.

Our professional Auslan Interpreters can sign everything that is spoken and voice everything that is signed while abiding by a strict code of ethics. When you are looking for Auslan interpreters, you need to ensure they will transmit the message by maintaining the original intent and meaning of the speaker to the receiver while remaining unbiased and not sharing any opinion. This is certainly all in 100% confidentiality and privacy.

We deal with various educational institutions to offer our interpreting services, and as a leading interpreting and translation company in Australia, we have put together some tips to help with your next job.

• Be prepared. Meet with the Auslan interpreter, and give a full brief as much as possible along with any materials that will be discussed and reviewed during the session to be signed and voiced.
• Find a good location to position the interpreter within the sight of the recipient and receiver while still maintaining a good sight of the presenter (yourself). This spot should have enough light at all times for the interpreter to be visible.
• Speak directly to the hearing-impaired student, not the interpreter, i.e., say “Do you have your homework?” not “Does he/she have his/her homework?”
• Direct eye contact is hard as the student will need to look at the Auslan interpreter, so ensure you give enough time for the student to watch the interpreter signing before you proceed.
• It is important to face the class if you are speaking so the student can benefit from lip-reading along with the interpreter’s assistance, as a backup when they cannot understand.
• If other students ask questions, ensure you repeat them to allow, the interpreter to pass these on to the hearing-impaired student along with the answers.
• Try and speak as clearly as possible and at a normal pace, and ask the interpreter if you need to slow down or clarify anything before moving on with your presentation or lecture. Ask the interpreter if the student has any questions and make sure you invite them to participate with the rest of the class.
• Remember, slow down if the student needs to watch any visual materials, as this will mean that they would not be looking at the interpreter and they would end up missing on some parts of the lecture.
• Handouts are very useful if you will be going through extensive passages as the student can then read the passages in print rather than following the interpreter.
• Do not allow more than one person to speak at a time during group discussions as this will make the interpreter’s job harder. Ask for a brief pause between speakers to permit the interpreter to finish before the next speaker starts.
• Any visual material should be captioned.

If you need to hire an Auslan interpreter anywhere in Australia, talk to the team at Speak Your Language today.