1. Results of the Service Learning Experience
Utilizing Hispanic Interpreting Students in Service Learning Opportunities In the Hispanic Community
Janice Smith-Warshaw, Ed.D. & Peter Crume, Ph.D.
Communication Sciences and Deaf Studies
California State University, Fresno
Results of the Service Learning Experience
Overview
Service Learning
As the U.S. becomes more racially and linguistically diverse, the interpreting field needs to recruit and train more diverse interpreters who can respond to complex issues related to race and/or linguistic diversity within the deaf community.
The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the pros and cons of using native Spanish speaking interpreting students in a service learning project that worked with a deaf service agency (DSA) to provide intervention services to Hispanic families with deaf children.
Service learning (SL) blends classroom learning with “real-world” community experiences and learning
SL been shown be beneficial for students enrolled in ASL (Cripps & Cooper, 2012) and Spanish (Petrov, 2013; Trujillo, 2009)
SL shown to improve understanding and empathy of deaf community (Monikowski & Peterson, 2005)
Hispanic students found to provide extra value in SL when serving fellow local community Hispanics because of a shared “authenticity of experience” (Petrov, 2013)
Exchange of Deaf and Hispanic Culture (+)
Improved Communication (+)
Deaf Service
 Agency Staff
Hispanic Spanish-Speaking Families
Positive community engagement
Shared information about 
family’s use of Spanish in ASL (+)
Used Spanish to teach ASL (+)
Clarified some misconceptions 
about Deaf culture (+) 
Provided additional service hours 
to support families in need (+)
Hispanic ITP Students
Drawback was student limited
availability during work day (-)
Uncovered some Hispanic cultural biases and family apathy to their deaf children (-)
Challenges
Research Questions
Few interpreter training programs incorporate Spanish in the curriculum
Educational and service organization struggle to provide services to Hispanics because of language barriers
The Hispanic/Latino population is highly diverse, many families speak Spanish or other indigenous languages at home
Deaf Hispanic leaders state that many deaf Hispanics struggle to communicate with their families.
What benefits or drawbacks occur when using Hispanic students in service learning experience between the DSA and Hispanic families
How do Hispanic students benefit in their three language skills during in the service learning experience?
Do Hispanic students develop any additional motivation and incentive to work as interpreters?
Enhanced meta-cognitive awareness of language abilities
Improved motivation to support needs in the Hispanic community
With my Spanish, I've noticed that conversationally I’m not just pretty good, like I'm really, really good. But (in)….academic things, I have to really think about it.
It's frustrating because you can tell, they're not practicing during the week… it gets just frustrating because like you can see the little girl, she's so desperate for them to learn
I didn't realize (that) I'm able to receptively look at signs and go straight up, go to a Spanish speaking and like interpret in Spanish. And I guess in the moment, I was doing it and I was able to receptively like watch all the signs and able to interpret it in Spanish without any trouble.
…when I would teach them ASL, …the mother would preferably want to learn it in English and then ASL because Spanish would confuse her since she already knew (LSM)
This semester I feel now it's like more--it's being involved with the family and making that connection with the family and wanting-- working with them and wanting them to feel like to grow and grow their relationship with their deaf children.
... there's such a difference in dialects… even though my advanced Spanish classes are helping, there just needs to be I guess a little more of support in that area
Conclusions
Implications for ITP Trainers
Hispanics largest minority in U.S.
Hispanics comprise 25-30% of the U.S. population, higher in west and southwest
Deaf Hispanics also comprise about 25-30% of the deaf population in the U.S.
Under-represented as interpreters
Interpreters of color comprise around 13% of self-identified RID members
Hispanic individuals comprise only 5% of interpreters in the field (RID, 2016)
Methods
Design: Qualitative study utilizing individual and group interviews, and self-reflection prompts with students
Setting: Deaf Service Agency (DSA) service region in a predominately Hispanic community in the western U.S. that included urban and rural areas
Participants:
12 native Spanish speaking ITP students
9 Hispanic families with deaf children
1 deaf DSA staff member
Data collection: Data collected over 10-week period in spring semester of 2018
Data analysis: Inductive thematic analysis
The ITP students provided a significant boost in communication and cultural awareness between families and the DSA staff member
The SL experience was one of the first opportunities for students to blend their use of English, Spanish, & ASL in a formal setting
Students realized that their Spanish abilities needed to improve
Students realized that many of the same biases toward the deaf occur in Hispanic community too
Students felt greater agency to support the Hispanic families
Need to incorporate more Spanish language experiences in areas with a robust Hispanic population (i.e. service learning, trilingual-processing classes, etc.)
ITP students with native-Spanish speaking abilities should be encouraged take advanced classes in Spanish to boost language skills
Authentic SL experiences can boost the sense of agency for under- represented interpreters in the field
Invite deaf people from different racial and ethnic communities to share their views & perspectives
Percentage of the Hispanic population by state
RID Membership Demographics
Source: Wikipedia
Source: RID website