The Advanced (8-unit) English – Spanish Course for Court Interpreters provides in-depth training to legal interpreters. Students are expected to be fully bilingual in both languages. This course offers a comprehensive approach to theoretical and practical training for aspiring and working legal interpreters.
It consists of six major components distributed among eight units.
Course Outline:
Fundamental Legal Concepts:
- The Interpreter Role in the U.S. Justice System
- Overview of the U.S. Legal System
- Criminal Justice Agencies
- Juvenile Justice System
- Civil Law
- Immigration Law
- Intellectual Property Law
Types of Crimes and Stages of Criminal Procedure
- Stages of the Criminal Justice System: Overview
- Types of Crimes: A to Z
- Crime, Investigation, Arrest, Booking
- First appearance; Disposition of Cases Other than by Trial
- Preliminary Hearing, Grand Jury, Arraignment on Indictment/Information, Pre-Trial Procedures
- Trial: Jury Selection; Opening Statements; Presentation of Evidence
- Trial: Examination of Witnesses; Objections, Rebuttal and Sur-Rebuttal; Closing Argument
- Trial: Jury Instructions; Deliberations; Verdict
- Sentencing; Appeal; Corrections; Probation and Parole; the Writ of Habeas Corpus
Court Interpreter Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice
- Overview of the Enacted Codes of Ethics for Court Interpreters and NAJIT Position Papers
- Accuracy and Completeness
- Representation of Qualifications
- Impartiality and Avoidance of Conflict of Interest
- Professional Demeanor Confidentiality Restriction of Public Comment. Case Study: the Camayd-Freixas case and My Guantanamo book
- Scope of practice
- Assessing and reporting impediments to performance
- Duty to report ethical violations
- Professional development
- Final Examination
Interpretation Theory
- Overview of Interpretation Modes
- Sight Translation
- Simultaneous Interpretation
- Consecutive Interpretation and Note-Taking
- Taking Care of Your Voice
- Telephonic Interpretation
- Taking Care of your Body and Coping with Stress
Skill-Building Practical Exercises
Students will complete multiple interpretation exercises that have been designed to develop their simultaneous, consecutive and sight translation interpretation skills as well as 8 terminology audio drills.
The course includes: 39 chapters; 23 quizzes; 23 glossaries; 4 videos; the Initial and Final Interpretation Performance Evaluation Tests in three modes of interpretation; multiple interpretation exercises and terminology drills; including 6 exercises to be evaluated by the instructor.
