Page 211 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

196 Reading Between the Signs

Back-Channel Feedback, Cues, and Empathy
If we were raised in mainstream American culture, it will be a lot
easier for us to put ourselves in the hearing person’s shoes than
the Deaf person’s. We have internalized the expectations for struc-
turing discourse in mainstream American settings. When an in-
ternal sensor tells us “That comment will be counter to this hear-
ing person’s expectations,” we can signpost accordingly. Depend-
ing on our amount of involvement in the Deaf community, how-
ever, we may be more or less able to see things from our Deaf
clients’ perspective.
Back-Channel Feedback. There are a few features of ASL dis-
course which are readily apparent. The receiver of the communi-
cation is involved in active listening (often called back-channel
feedback), which includes head nods and signs such as UH-HUH
and nose wrinkle (YES). While interpreting, if we feel that the
hearing person is listening silently, yet attentively, albeit with a
blank face, we may consciously or unconsciously supply the miss-
ing back-channel feedback to the Deaf client.
Speaking of silence, is interpreting silences part of our job?
After all, what is there to convey? Actually, there can be quite a
lot. As discussed in chapter 2, silence in different cultures has
many meanings. In American mainstream culture, wherein long
pauses are typically avoided, silences perform different functions.
There is the silence of respectful attention, the silence of thinking
before answering, and the silence that follows an emotionally in-
tense announcement, to name only a few. That we usually have
no trouble knowing which is which shows how attuned we are to
our own culture. Conveying to our Deaf clients the function of the
silence not only prevents them from interrupting an already full
moment but also gives them clues to the aural mood.
Cues. Besides silences, there are other aspects of a conversa-
tion the purposes of which may not be explicit. As a hearing per-
son is getting ready to wrap up a meeting, clues of this intention
are clearly present in vocal inflection and body language. For ex-
ample, if our sign rendition of the hearing person’s repeated
“Okay...okay...okay” does not convey the intention of ending the
conversation we know to be present from their heavy exhalation
of breath and the rustling of papers, we may need to add the sign
FINISH to explicitly state that the interview is now concluded.

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