Developed by Mark Halley

Competencies Addressed:

  • Message coherence
  • Consecutive interpreting
  • Discourse mapping
  • Use of Space

Time Required for Activity: 30 mins

Objective: 

To practice spatial structuring in an ASL text.To improve message coherence when interpreting a fast and challenging English text into American Sign Language.

In this video, Dr. Sapna Parikh discusses the process of language acquisition, focusing on second language acquisition for children and adults.

This activity is the second of three activities working with this video.

Discourse Mapping | Consecutive Interpreting | Simultaneous Interpreting

Prediction

You will watch a video in which Dr. Sapna Parikh, a multimedia journalist, explains how children and adults acquire a second language. Considering what you already know about second language acquisition, predict some topics she might discuss, as well as some terms she might use.

Interpret the Video Consecutively:

The video is presented in 10 segments below. Watch the entire video segment in its entirety. Use as much time as you need to produce an ASL interpretation.  Don’t worry if you miss some things. Instead, focus on message coherence in your target language production. Try to incorporate things like discourse markers, emphasis, and pausing.

Check Your Work

Watch your interpretation without the sound.

  • Note any areas where your interpretation may be unclear due to prosodic inconsistencies or incoherent language use.
  • For example, did you run several sentences into each other without giving viewers’ eyes a ‘break?’
  • Are there places where you could take a brief pause between concepts, such as by holding a sign in space or lowering your hands for a moment?
  • When you compare your interpretation with your discourse map, do you notice any major omissions?

Interpret the Video Consecutively Again:

The video is presented in 10 segments below. Watch the entire video segment in its entirety. Use as much time as you need to produce an ASL interpretation.  Don’t worry if you miss some things. Instead, focus on message coherence in your target language production. Try to incorporate things like discourse markers, emphasis, and pausing.