Connecting the Dots with Cohesive Devices

Connecting the Dots with Cohesive Devices
Link for participation will be emailed to Registrants on the day before the workshop.

Date:  August 14, 2023
Time:  8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Presented in Spoken English.

For K-12 ASL Educational Interpreters (FREE).

For all others, who are not Minnesota school district interpreters and fall outside our target audience, the fee is $25.

Workshop Description:  

The classroom environment can be challenging with the various educational approaches or methods employed to educate Deaf and hard of hearing students. Every interpreter strives to deliver a cohesive and articulate message but often all that was rendered was a list of facts, ideas, and sentences. Research indicates that we are often “trapped” by words – rendering all the words with limited connection to the big idea. One of the most important elements of an articulate message is the inclusion of cohesive devices. Cohesive devices help bring discourse together by making overt connections between the various elements, and concepts. Linguistic cohesion enables the students to determine the relationships between sentences, enabling them to predict what is coming and to make sense of what was said. The research concerning message cohesion indicates that practitioners often create interpretations lacking cohesion; this is evidenced in the work of both spoken and sign language interpreters. This workshop will address cohesive devices, and their function, and will allow ample time to practice incorporating them into our work.

Workshop Objectives:

• Identify 4-6 transitional terms and their function in the overall message.
• Identify 1-3 cohesive devices (ellipse, reiteration, and substitutions) and how they improve message cohesion.
• List 4-6 transition words and determine their location in ASL sentences.
• Reflect on and analyze current message production (based on the stimuli) and determine 1-2 opportunities to include cohesive devices thus improving linguistic/message coherence.

Presenter:

William F. Ross III, M.S. is currently the Vice President of Hands Up Communications, an all-access language company in Ocala, Florida. He is also one of the primary authors for one of the most recognized texts in the field of interpreting, You Want To Be An Interpreter? (5th Ed.) As a child of Deaf parents, he has been interpreting for more than 38 years and holds national certification (CI/CT) from the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf. Previously, Bill was the Curriculum Development Specialist for Deaf Bible Society (DBS); an international organization that provided training and resources for individuals working on Scripture translation. Prior to working at DBS, he was the Program Director of the Carlstrom Interpreter Training Program at North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bill is passionate about building mentoring relationships, studying American Sign Language, and accompanying interpreters on the journey of perfecting their craft.

CEU Hours:  0.3  RID CEUs  

Sponsored by Regional Low Incidence Projects - Region 11

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This training is funded with a grant from MDE using federal funding, CFDA 84.027A, Special Education - Grants to States. This event does not necessarily represent the policy of the federal Department of Education or the state Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal or state government.

Cancellation: You can cancel your own registration for an event before the cancellation deadline. (Please check the event information for specific cancellation details.) If the event has a fee, refunds are possible only if cancellation is prior to the deadline. If you do not attend and do not cancel prior to an event, you are still responsible for payment and will be billed.

Special Accommodations: Please alert BrightWorks 2-3 weeks prior to the workshop/event if you need special accommodations, including sign language interpreters. (BrightWorks requires a notice of 2 business days to cancel a sign language interpreter. If you fail to cancel, we reserve the right to bill your school/district for this expense.) Update your profile as needed. Special accommodations are not included with each registration, but are stored in your profile until you make changes.