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Interpreters and INTERRUPTING

February 19th, 2005

Anne Potter and I will present soon, at the internet conference Supporting Deaf People Online, about a hypothesis we’ve been developing over the last three years. Our paper, The Interpreter and INTERRUPTING: Cultural and Group Dynamics, introduces some distinctions that we think are important, but we might be the only ones who think so! So, the discussion at this conference will really be a “test” of the hypothesis. Do others agree or disagree? Is this conversation worthwhile and useful?
Hypothesis: There is a pattern in the way interpreters and Deaf people talk about interruptions that shows a bias toward INTERRUPTING as an outcome of cultural difference, instead of as a typical feature of intercultural interaction.