Program Overview

The coursework and nationally certified instructors guide students in developing interpreting expertise, sign language fluency and professional ethics. Coursework encompasses interpreting process models and their application; analytical approaches to professional and ethical decision-making; and interpreting comparative analyses of English and American Sign Language through the study of linguistics, discourse structures and features, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Students learn self-assessment strategies for lifelong learning and gain roughly 400 clinical or practical hours. They also experience working with interpreter mentors. They also have preparation toward the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) and the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA).

The American Sign Language/English Interpreting major includes the following optional concentration:

• The Community Setting Interpreting optional concentration is for students who are not seeking licensure to interpret in Ohio schools. Students in the concentration complete 400 hours at a community agency.

Students who do not choose the optional concentration may apply for licensure from the State of Ohio to interpret from pre-kindergarten to grade 12. Students complete 300 practicum hours at an educational placement.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

• Demonstrate native or near-native fluency in spoken and written English (80% of the time as per the NCEIC), American Sign Language, Deaf and non-Deaf cultures
• Effectively interpret audio and video texts, as well as live presentations, across a variety of genres and be able to adapt interpretations to consumer modality preferences
• Demonstrate appropriate interpersonal skills and professionalism across all classroom/program-related settings, while interacting with others, with an awareness of linguistic, cultural, contextual and personality differences
• Make appropriate and effective ethical decisions, both in practical and authentic interpreting situations in alignment with RID's Code of Professional Conduct and Kent State University's Code of Student Conduct
• Demonstrate adaptability and teachability
• Articulate the impact of interpreting models, theories and best practices and how they inform one's work
• Recognize substantive linguistic and paralinguistic cues from others from a distance of 3-10 feet in a variety of environments