Rules for oral and sign interpreters

Oral and sign interpreters

Oral and sign interpreters may be approved to support students with a moderate to severe hearing loss, to address the delay in the acquisition of vocabulary. It is the school’s responsibility to allocate a suitable oral or sign interpreter.

Who can be an oral or sign interpreter

Interpreters must be skilled and a familiar communication partner with the student, for example the support class teacher or itinerant support teacher. The interpreter must not act in the role of a supervisor.

Student use of an oral or sign interpreter in a language examination

The oral interpreter is permitted to read and interpret in English only. The sign interpreter can only interpret from English to Auslan or other English sign languages, eg British Sign Language, American Sign Language, if needed.

What an oral or sign interpreter can do

An oral or sign interpreter can:

• access the examination paper up to 15 minutes before the start of the examination to familiarise him/herself with the content. During this time the interpreter must remain strictly supervised and may not communicate with the student or any other person
• read or sign verbatim the directions to candidates
• explain words or phrases in the instructions, questions and stimulus material
• simplify the structure of a sentence grammatically
• paraphrase questions. The student may write this rephrasing on the examination paper and/or check their understanding of the question with the interpreter.

What an oral or sign interpreter cannot do

An oral or sign interpreter cannot:

• explain vocabulary specific to the subject, for example, ‘bisect’ should not be explained in a mathematics examination
• advise the student on the selection of questions
• read or sign stimulus material and/or passages in their entirety
• explain each of the alternative answers in multiple-choice questions. If the student is perplexed by the answer choice, explanation of individual vocabulary may be given, provided that this does not indicate the correct response
• help the student with planning or writing responses
• leave the exam room in the first hour.

What extra time is permitted with an oral or sign interpreter?

Extra time is allowed for the time in which a student engages with the interpreter. The maximum time allowable is calculated at the rate of five minutes per half-hour of examination time. The supervisor will record the amount of time that the student engages with the interpreter and extend the student’s examination time accordingly.

Contact Student Support

• phone 9367 8117
• email studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au