[lg policy] Arizona: High-Demand Language Program Growing: Translation and Interpretation

Sat Oct 29 16:23:57 UTC 2011

High-Demand Language Program Growing
Translation and Interpretation

The UA's translation and interpretation program, in addition to
training highly specialized professionals to meet a nationwide demand,
is a "vehicle for growth for these students, and their engagement and
perseverance in higher education," said Dueñas-Gonzalez, who initiated
the program. (Photo credit: FJ Gaylor Photography)
Interpreter Training

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications, October 28, 2011

The UA's translation and interpretation program was introduced five
years ago with 35 students and has since grown to a be a
well-established program with an undergraduate degree and more than
170 now enrolled.When professors and interpreters came together six
years ago to establish a translation and interpretation program at the
University of Arizona, Amanda Campos was exactly the kind of student
they had in mind.

The program aims to train the next generation of highly skilled
translators and interpreters, especially those able to draw on their
heritage language and culture to serve in fields that include law,
medicine, business and education. "They have very high expectations
for us, which is what helped me to be productive on the job," said
Campos, a native Spanish speaker who graduated from the UA translation
and interpretation program, known as T&I, in 2010.

"In the program, I was taught to treat everyone with equality and
respect," said Campos, now an interpreter for pretrial services, a
division of the Arizona Superior Court. "No matter what a person's
language ability or socioeconomic status, this is about giving people
equal opportunities." Deeply rooted in academic training but with a
strong practical component, the program has seen sustained growth in
its five years while moving UA graduates like Campos into positions
with local and state courts, private companies and schools, among
other areas.

Most recently, T&I has worked with its longstanding partner, Tucson
Medical Center, to offer T&I interns a stipend for their linguistic
training at the hospital. The UA program also has developed
partnerships for numerous other internship and practicum experiences,
both on and off campus.  And enrollment has jumped from 35 to nearly
170 students, placing T&I among the largest accredited programs of its
type in the nation.

"We need to pay more attention to this," said Jaime Fatás-Cabeza, the
program's director and a federally  certified interpreter.

"The program has grown; the students are seeing the value in it,"
Fatás-Cabeza said, also underscoring the statewide and nationwide
demand for more qualified translators and interpreters.

"If we really want to work together on issues on a global level, we
have to have cross cultural communication and a way to allow
stakeholders to speak on an equal basis," said Fatás-Cabeza, also an
assistant professor of practice in the UA Spanish and Portuguese
department. "This is a fundamental role, and a linguistic and cultural
asset."

Other tangible benefits exist.

The impetus for the T&I was the "Professional Language Development
Project," which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund
for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, or FIPSE.

The program was offered 1999-2002 during the summer, involving
talented bilingual high school students for intensive training in
English and Spanish translation and interpretation. The National
Center for Interpretation, Testing, Research and Policy at the UA, or
NCI, has since implemented the language training program in several
Tucson-area high schools.

Students involved in the initial program exhibited remarkable academic
and cognitive results: stronger academic performance in writing,
reading and language proficiency, and increased GPAs after their
involvement, especially when compared with peers who did not
participate, said Roseann Dueñas-Gonzalez, the director of NCI.

The students also had greater graduation rates and were more likely to
pursue a college or university education, Dueñas-Gonzalez added.

"Their heritage and culture are often viewed as a deficit, but making
them understand that their cultural and linguistic skills were
valuable and that they could develop them at a rigorous level – that
was my goal," said Dueñas-Gonzalez.

Armed with this data, along with nationwide evidence pointing to the
need to professionalize a language service workforce to aid limited
and non-English speakers, Dueñas-Gonzalez developed the curriculum and
materials for the UA T&I program through a second grant from FIPSE.
She then recruited Fatás-Cabeza to implement the curriculum.

"It has been very heartening to me that we were able to get the
Department of Education to see the need to create programs that not
only meet a societal need, but that include traditionally
underrepresented minority populations, including Latinos," said
Dueñas-Gonzalez, a UA English professor who also directs the Agnese
Haury Institute for Legal Interpretation.

Students in the T&I program receive comprehensive simultaneous and
consecutive training in areas that include medical, legal and business
translation and interpretation.

As part of their training and experiential learning, students also
offer translation and interpretation services to courts, hospitals,
nonprofits, newspapers and several UA colleges and departments.

"I tell my students that the program offers everything that a person
needs who wants to be the crème de la crème," said Erin Vinton, a 2009
graduate of the program who is now serving as one of its adjunct
faculty members.

For instance, students in Vinton's legal and business translation
course speak in both English and Spanish, learning about the legal
system, criminal procedure and pertinent terminology in both
languages. They also must be quite adept at converting words into
meaning that is relevant culturally and with regard to context.

If not, the consequences are dire, she noted.

Some of the stories driving the work of those in the program are
deeply concerning: domestic violence victims unable to communicate
with police officers, people arrested for criminal offenses not able
to understand judges, also, emergency room patients, physicians and
nurses unable to understand each other.

Thus, the coursework is rigorous, requiring that students in the
program be independent and devoted to in-depth understanding of the
field.

"I still use the CDs and documents I accumulated throughout my time in
the program," Vinton said. "There is so much information that we can
continue to glean after graduating."

That was a huge draw for Anders Peterson, who shares a story with many
bilingual individuals.

Having been raised in a Spanish-speaking household, Peterson was the
one tugged at the arm to translate and interpret for family and
friends.

"There are several ad hoc, self-appointed interpreters and translators
who never acquire those skills," said Peterson, a 2008 graduate of the
program now working toward his master's degree in the Spanish and
Portuguese department with a focus in Hispanic linguistics.

For him, the basic level involvement began around his pre-teen years,
when his mother – who was the Parent Teacher Association president at
his school – enlisted his support to translate for Spanish-speaking
families, or when he would help friends buy medicine or get dental
care while in Mexico.

"I just used my skills, but there are various degrees of proficiency,"
Peterson said, emphasizing the importance of the methods, techniques
and professionalism the program teaches. "When I realized it was
something that really interested me, it made logical sense that I
should study more and acquire other skills."

http://uanews.org/node/42531

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