Preparation Strategies for Sign Language Conference Interpreting: Comparing International Sign with a National Sign Language

International Sign (IS) interpreting at conferences has been slowly becoming more common over recent decades, while still new within international institutions. However, little is known about IS interpreting. The few studies to date indicate that IS interpreting requires partly different skills and strategies to interpreting into a national signed language. This chapter reports on a comparative study of interpreting strategies between two teams of interpreters. The study analyses the interpreting strategies of a team of IS interpreters, contrasting them with a team of national sign language interpreters (NGT in this case), and looking specifically at how they prepare for an interpreting assignment. A reflexive thematic analysis shows that their preparation methods are very different: the IS team focuses on creating signed concepts whereas the NGT team primarily discusses terminology and using the correct NGT signs. This study provides further evidence that conference IS interpreting requires specific preparation.