Sign Language in Action

by Jemina Napier Click here to see this blog in International Sign, British Sign Language or Irish Sign Language Sign Language in Action is a new book just published by Palgrave as part of the Research & Practice in Applied Linguistics series. The book is co-authored by Jemina Napier and Lorraine Leeson, who both have […]


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InDialog in Berlin

By Stacey Webb 19-21 November 2015 if you were looking for Ursula Böser, Jemina Napier, Stacey Webb, Eloisa Monteoliva Garcia or Yvonne Waddell you wouldn’t have found them around Heriot-Watt campus or anywhere in Edinburgh, as this lot was deep ‘in dialogue’ in Berlin Germany! The InDialog conference, “Community Interpreting In Dialogue With Technology” was […]


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A taste of the real thing

by Fanny Chouc Heriot-Watt’s interpreting students were given a great opportunity to apply their skills to a real-life setting thanks to Heriot-Watt Engage. They interpreted for the Illuminations event, which was held on campus on Wednesday 02 December to mark the end of the UN Year of Light. As part of this event, Professor Jim Al-Khalili gave a fascinating […]


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Signposting Professional Practice: Intercultural Communication and Interpretation

Everyone was there. LINCS staff from all sections, students, colleagues from universities all over the UK, Heads of Schools, Vice-Principals, technicians, photographers, interpreters, representatives from Deaf organisations, Deaf friends. A little girl with long blonde hair was laughing and signing happily with her grandparents, who were all dressed to the nines for the occasion. It […]


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Final-year BSL students at the Scottish Parliament

Reflections from a teacher by Stacey Webb, Assistant Professor in Sign Language Studies It is not every day you get to bring your classroom to the real world.  So often we try to bring the real world to the classroom and it just never replicates real life!  Recently we listened and practised interpreting a graduation […]


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Progression 2015:  A two-day celebration of Deaf Arts

by Michael Richardson Only ten days into my Ph.D. research programme, exploring the engagement of the Deaf community and the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in theatre, I was fortunate to be able to attend a two day conference in Glasgow celebrating Deaf Arts and the progress made in that arena over the last decade. […]


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17th September 2015: A momentous day for the BSL Community

by Graham Turner On a most extraordinary afternoon last week (17th September 2015, a date to be remembered), it seemed that half of Heriot-Watt’s Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies re-located to the Scottish Parliament for a few hours. Why? It was the Stage 3 (final) reading in the chamber of the British Sign Language […]


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WASLI 2015 Istanbul: The conference

by Jill Gallacher, Virginia Dugo-Marmalejo and Jude Caldwell We were fortunate to receive funding from the Heriot Watt Alumni fund to attend the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters conference in Istanbul as it was seen as an opportunity that was too great to miss. As interpreting students, we were not sure what to expect, but having […]


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Mental health interpreting – considering some of the challenges

By Yvonne Waddell Work in mental health settings is often unique from other settings the community interpreter works in. When we consider that language is the principal investigative and therapeutic tool in psychiatry, (Farooq & Fear 104: 2003) the interpreting process will have a direct impact on the way that therapeutic tool is applied. As […]


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As If We Weren't There

by Jonathan Downie Neutrality has often been touted as one of the cornerstones of interpreting ethics. The general view seemed to be that interpreters should be so good that the multilingual event would run as if everyone spoke the same language. In other words, it should be as if we weren’t even there. Now, I have […]


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