Skills for Remote Interpreting
This lesson focuses on skills for remote interpreters working either from a call center, institutional setting or a home office. Combining a big picture view and practical activities, this lesson covers the skills and best practices that are specific to remote interpreting. These skills and protocols will help you effectively interpret remotely for many types of organizations, large or small, including government agencies, schools, businesses, non-profits and healthcare organizations.
Skills in Remote Interpreting
Course description: In remote settings the modes of interpreting (consecutive, simultaneous, sight translation) require slightly different skills and protocols from on-site interpreting. This lesson provides an overview of the specific skills needed for remote interpreting.
In this course, skills refers to expertise or abilities for the delivery of remote interpreting, and protocols refers to rules, or guardrails, that guide the application of skills in remote settings.
While this lesson assumes a basic familiarity and comfort-level with message transfer skills, it also offers exercises that will help strengthen those skills. Remote interpreting requires strong message transfer skills. This lesson will also provide guidance for the specifics of remote interpreting protocols; it will help you practice and apply skills with confidence.
Skills covered: memory and analysis, note-taking, picking up context, managing language variation, assignment preparation and multitasking (which includes information searches), finding location-specific resources before and during the assignment, assertiveness, loss of visual cues and addressing tech issues.
Protocols covered: positioning, professional introduction, turn-taking, direct speech intervention, mediation, handling hold times and shadowing communication.
Course length: 3 hours
Course access period: 60 days from purchase date
Once purchased, course access cannot be paused. See our FAQ for information on purchasing course access extensions.
Course completion requirements: Pass one exit test (score of 70% or above).
Certificate: Downloadable certificate available immediately upon passing the exit test.
CEUs:
- Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI): 3 CCHI CE hours pending
- International Medical Interpreters Association: 0.3 IMIA/NBCMI CEUs pending
- Maryland Court Interpreter Program: 3 CE credits
- Ontario Council on Community Interpreting: 3 OCCI PDUs pending
Learning objectives:
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
- Select the mode that is appropriate for the modality and the specialization of an encounter.
- Adapt your interpreting skills, such as note-taking, multitasking, and positioning, to perform successfully in remote settings.
- Implement appropriate protocols, such as using suitable scripts to intervene or take breaks (to manage additional fatigue from interpreting remotely).
- Develop new skills, such as managing hold times and researching information quickly online—including locale specific information—using contextual clues to fill in for missing context.
- Continue to hone your message transfer skills through component skills by practicing message analysis, concentration, parroting, anticipation, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
What you will get:
- Your video instructor: Sarah Stockler-Rex, MA
- 28 interactive exercises, including 2 parroting exercises, and a robust personal skills toolkit building exercise
- Critical information about skills and protocols in interpreting as well as their adaptation for remote interpreting
- Guidance for developing skills—from memory to ethical decision-making.
- Examples of remote interpreting encounters that require the application of covered skills and protocols.
- Activities for practicing and developing skills and protocols.
- Sections from The Remote Interpreter: An International Textbook
- Course completion certificate
How this course will improve your practice:
You will:
- Know how to use basic skills for remote interpreting regardless of specific modality.
- Be able to adapt face-to-face skills--such as note taking and researching assignments--to remote interpreting environments.
- Incorporate or enhance real-life skills such as assertiveness and problem-solving.
- Self-assess your ability to implement skills and protocols in remote interpreting.
- Hone your message transfer skills such as short-term memory (through exercises such as parroting), analysis skills (through exercises such as paraphrasing), and more!
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