Value-based and goal-setting orientations of pre-service Russian sign language interpreters

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of research into the problem of training Russian sign language (RSL) interpreters for the university bachelor’s degree is ensured by the government procurement for the provision of translation services for people with hearing disabilities in public offices and state agencies, which is compliant with the UN principles of providing equal opportunities for disabled people to actively participate in the life of society. During the period of university studies students are supposed to learn sign language, master translator’s skills and become aware of the specificity of communication with representatives of deaf society. To succeed in achieving these results students should clearly understand what they study and how it is related to their values and future profession. In other words, they are supposed to have goals which university program can help to achieve. Thus, the aim of the research is to analyze valuebased and goal-setting orientations of future RSL interpreters and their perception of the professionally important qualities of an RSL interpreter. Materials and methods. The research was carried out at Novosibirsk state technical university (Russian Federation). The samples were the first-year and fourth-year students majoring in Linguistics, specialty ‘English language and Russian sign language interpreter’. The data collection was done by means of a survey based on the questionnaire with open ended questions and Rokeach Value survey. Results. The choice of sample groups of the first-year and the fourth-year students was determined by the need to compare educational goals which students set at the start of the university studies and educational goals of those who have covered most part of the program and are close to graduation. The analysis of the received results reveals that the goals of the senior students are more focused on professional activity – ‘to master profession through practice’ (61%), while the goals of the freshmen are more orientated at mastering English (36%) and learning new sign language (23%). It is worth noting that 7% of the first-year students and 7.5% of the fourth-year students have the goals that are not related to studying in the program, and after graduation they are not going to work in the field of RSL interpreting. Moreover, students have rather inconsistent understanding of professionally important qualities of an RSL interpreter. The results of the Rokeach Value survey test demonstrate that students’ terminal and instrumental values correlate with their answers to the questionnaire. The instrumental values students ranked as the most important demonstrate stronger focus on self than on other people. Conclusion. The findings suggest insufficiently developed students’ skills of goalsetting and defining the means of goal attaining. The future RSL interpreters need to develop goalsetting skills that could help them formulate the strategies of setting personally and professionally important goals and define the ways of their attainment. The continuation of present research is seen as an action research into the problem of the pre-service RSL interpreters’ goalsetting.