| Summary: | 博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 101 === This thesis was originally motivated from discussions with fellow Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) interpreters, from insights into some government documents regulating the profession of sign language interpreters in Taiwan and from my interest as a conference interpreter to explore other fields of the same profession, which are yet to be explored from an academic point of view.
According to the TSL professional interpreters interviewed in the process of writing this thesis, their professional status seems to be treated differently from fellow oral interpreters. First of all, they are not paid by working day but rather by the hour and their retribution is considerably much lower than oral interpreters, for various reasons. This is due to budget issues but also to a deep-rooted attitude towards sign language interpreting, which had never before been explored in any publication in Taiwan.
This study attempts at investigating general issues concerning the profession of sign language interpreters and focuses on some challenging areas, furthermore it provides a scientifically-based academic structure to recognize the equal professional status of sign interpreters and oral interpreters, not only in theoria but also de facto. The hypothesis underlying one of the chapters of the study, namely chapter six, is that if TSL is indeed a language and if the neurobiological efforts required to carry out the interpreting task, both oral and signed, are the same, then there is no reason for the two modally different categories of interpreters to be treated unequally.
In the thesis, there is a complete literature review of the most representative neurobiological studies aimed at proving that sign languages are natural languages at all effects. Furthermore, chapter five is dedicated to an experiment aimed at proving the intrinsic difficulty of sign language interpreting and the fact that the efforts underlying the modally different sign interpreting tasks are by no means inferior.
The thesis is divided into seven chapters. Each chapter is divided into different paragraphs and some paragraphs are further divided into subparagraphs.
The data gathered from this research, both in terms of literature review and in terms of experiments and interviews, will contribute to enhancing interpreters’ knowledge about their own profession and their professional figure. This study is also the first dissertation ever on Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) interpreting-related issues. There have been theses and publications on TSL, per se, but never on TSL interpreting. This is also one of the main contributions in a Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (GITI). We also hope that this study will spur the government and the ad hoc institutional bodies to recognize the fact that sign language interpreters should have the same rights as oral language interpreters, for instance the co-presence on stage of two colleagues shifting every twenty to thirty minutes, which is the ideal situation, yet not always the case for sign language interpreters.
The results of the study have implications for sign language interpreting field in regard to research, pedagogy and practice insofar as they raise the awareness of one’s own professional figure, with all the rights attached. This seems to be a crucial deontological factor in interpreting-related rights discussions.
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