Running head: ASLAR #3 1

ASL Analysis Report #3

Cindy Zambrano 101054810

Wayne Nicholson

BINT 3001
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ASL Analysis Report #3

The final ASL Analysis Report (ASLAR) I will be analyzing the final room selected in

Casa Loma on the second floor, the “Windsor Room”. For this paper I will provide a brief

description of the Windsor Room, then touch on the issues I came across. I will then specifically

focus on the overall translation process. The reason why I would like to focus on the translation

process is that I struggled immensely with the production of the “Windsor Room” in Casa Loma

and would like to go into detail why the issues occurred and how that impeded the process. The

source that will be supporting my findings will be “Translation from ASL” by Carol Patrie.

Now, I will be briefly summarizing the third room selected in Casa Loma before moving

on to the analysis. For the third ASL analysis report the room selected is titled the “Windsor

Room”. This room discussed who the room was named after, and what Sir Henry Pellatt’s

intentions of this room was to be used for; the room was to be used for royal guests. It then

moves on to immense detail of the bed; every inch of the bed is illustrated as to when it was

made, the carvings on the frame, and information about the carvings. It then moves on to the

three chairs in the room regarding what style it was, along with the date it was sold in an auction

along with when Casa Loma repossessed the chairs. (Windsor Room, n.d)

Having provided a brief description of the selected room I will now present the

breakdown of the analysis report. Difficulties that occurred throughout the translation

performance were the amount of practice, use of fillers and a visual issue with the background.

The amount of practice put into this video was not put to use. This was the second practice video

filmed and it is apparent that I struggled to produce the translation and not much practice was

done, this created the use of fillers throughout the video. The use of fillers causes the register to

look unprofessional and the root cause of this is from a lack of practice. This is considered as
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sociolinguistic competency. The other issue that occurred was the background. I chose to do the

video in a location without considering factors that would be an issue, in this case, the lighting. It

would have been much more attractive to choose a background without a window in the back;

the lighting from the window created myself to appear dimmer and difficult to see.

Overall I feel this ASL translation of the Windsor Room was not done very well and is

clear I struggled throughout the whole process. Carol Patrie states “by looking at both the

process and the product we can obtain a claearer picture of where and why errors occur in

translation.” (Patrie, p.18, 2012). This lead myself to really analyze the translation process during

the video. I feel creativity and linguistic competency were the issues that occurred during the

transaltion process.

For linguistic competence, it is when one has the ability to accurately transition from both

target language and source language with ease. This can be split in to two parts, “(1) the ability

to understand the source language in all its nuances and (2) the ability to express oneself

correctly, fluently, clearly, and with poise in the target language.” (Patrie, p.19, 2012). For this it

would mean I would have the ability to understand the meaning in the source language and have

the ability to produce it in the target language accurately which I did not. (Patrie, p.19, 2012).

This was a competency I was missing during this transaltion. I recognized I was incompetent

when it came to having the ability to understanding the source text, produce the information

accurately in ASL and that was due to the fact I was unfamiliar with specific terminology used

in the text such as “lacqured”, “guilded frame”, and the portion regarding the chairs. This was the

root cause of the issues that appeared in the translation.

Without the ability of linguistic competency this creates an issue in the creatity process

during the translation. “The need to be open ended or flexible leads to the need for creativity
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because the source text and the context in which it occurred must be expressed in a different

language, with different linguistic and cultural constraints.” (Patrie, p.20, 2012). One must be

competent in linguistically and culturally to translate the information creativly by using Nida and

Taber’s model. Nida and Tabers model consists of “(1) analysis, (2) transfers, and (3)

restructuring.” (Patrie, p.22, 2012). In order to use this model one must be competent in the use

of an in depth analysis, transfer competency, and restructuring which can be done creatively.

All in all, I feel this translation was not the most successful as I had multiple struggles

throughout the transaltion. However, this translation has brought to my attention, when

translating or interperting, self analysis is essential. Without constantly self anaylyzing what

issues occurred, what success where there, one cannot improve. In conclusion, this was a

benefitial learning expeirence and has provided great key points as to what to focus on

throughout the next ASL course.

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References

Casa Loma. Windsor Room. Toronto.

Patrie, C. (2012). Translating from ASL (pp. 12-23). San Diego, Calif.: DawnSignPress.