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Interpreter Certification

 

 

Interpreter certification is only available tor groups of interpreters who have completed Panoltia interpreter training. Individual examination and certification is not offered. Contact us for details.

 

With the increase in the number of people providing interpretation services, it's more important than ever to be able to distinguish between the bilingual person who casually interprets on occasion and the person who is formally trained and skilled in the language, techniques and ethics of interpretation. That's exactly what certification does!

 

Panoltia has developed a comprehensive English/Spanish interpreter certification program designed to ensure that interpreters are competent and capable of performing effective and ethical interpretation services.

 

 

 

Read More

 

What Certifications Does Panoltia Offer?

 

Can I Be Certified In More Than One Discipline?

 

How Do I Get Certified?

 

Levels Of Certification

 

What Does The Certification Exam Cover?

Certification Exam Overview

Results Reporting

What If You Don't Pass The Exam?

 Other Issues

 

Questions And Answers

 

 Cost

 

  


 

 

What Certifications Does Panoltia Offer?

 

Panoltia currently offers certification in Health & Human Services Interpreting and School Interpreting,

 

 

 

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Can I Be Certified In More Than One Discipline?

 

Yes. After you are certified in one discipline you only have to pass a vocabulary exam in the other discipline to be certified in that discipline. It is not necessary to take additional training; however some candidates prefer to take the training just to sharpen their skills before they take the exam.

 

 

 

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How Do I Get Certified?

 

Certification candidates must take at least one of our training seminars before they will be allowed to take the exam. The seminars are designed to teach candidates everything they need to know to become certified. We'll provide all of the information and materials they need to pass the exam. The only thing candidates need to add is hard work!

 

 

 

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Levels Of Certification

 

Two levels of certification are awarded:

1.    “Certification” means the interpreter has met minimum requirements and has scored at least 70% correct on each section of the certification exam.

 

2.    “Advanced Certification” means the interpreter has far exceeded minimum requirements and has scored at least 90% correct on each section of the exam.

 

 

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What Does The Certification Exam Cover?

 

 

The exam tests knowledge and skills in four basic areas: 

Language Proficiency

  • Must demonstrate fluency in both English and Spanish

  • Must know and be able to properly use relevant vocabulary, acronyms, expressions, and a variety of language constructions

 

Culture Competency

  • Must thoroughly understand both the American culture and the Latino immigrant culture, including the acculturation process

  • Must understand and be able to address culture issues relevant to their field of responsibility

 

Ethics & Professionalism

  • Must thoroughly understand and apply the standards of professional conduct and the interpreters’ code of ethics

 

Applied Interpretation Skills

  • Candidates must pass an oral interpreting examination while fulfilling all other responsibilities of the interpreter; for example, they must demonstrate:

    • That they know how and when it is appropriate to explain cultural issues,

    • That they know how to handle unusual or difficult situations,

    • That they know how and when to ask for repetition or clarification,

    • etc.

 

 

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Certification Exam Overview

 

 

The interpreter certification exam consists of two parts, a written exam and an oral exam. Each part is comprised of multiple sections.

 


 

Part 1 – The Written Exam

The written exam contains approximately 300 questions of various types, including multiple choice, true/false, and various others. Questions are designed to challenge the candidate without attempting to mislead, or “trick” them. The written exam measures candidates’ knowledge in five basic areas:

Section 1 - Technical Language – The first part of the exam tests the candidate's knowledge of the vocabulary and terminology necessary to interpret in their specific discipline.

 

Section 2 - Generic Language - To function as a skilled interpreter, basic language proficiency is required. This section tests the degree of general literacy in both English and Spanish, including comprehension and fundamental language skills.

 

Section 3 - Interpreting Fundamentals - Interpreting requires more than language fluency - much more. This section tests the candidate's knowledge of the concepts, skills, techniques, and terminology required to function as a professional interpreter.

 

Section 4 - Ethics and Professional Conduct - The fourth area of knowledge addressed by the written test is knowledge of ethics and standards of professional conduct.

 

Section 5 - Cultural Competency - In this section candidates are tested on their knowledge of Latino immigrant culture.

 

 

Scoring the Written Exam

Each question will have one correct answer. A score of at least 70% correct on each section of the written exam is required to pass. To qualify for “Advanced Certification” the candidate must score at least 90% correct on each section.

 

Note: The candidate must pass the written exam before he or she qualifies to take the oral exam.

 


 

Part 2 – The Oral Exam

The oral exam measures the candidate’s ability to properly apply their knowledge while accurately and clearly rendering meaning from target to source language in each of the three modes of interpreting that are required of interpreters:

  1. sight translation,

  2. consecutive interpreting, and

  3. simultaneous interpreting.

 

The candidate must demonstrate the following:

  • the ability to speak both Spanish and English fluently and without hesitation,

  • the ability to transfer all meaning faithfully from the source language to the target language while sight translating or interpreting, and

  • the ability to speak both Spanish and English clearly and in a way that does not systematically interfere with meaning and understanding.

  • That they are able to continuously keep everyone in the communication loop

  • That they know how and when it is appropriate to explain cultural issues

  • That they know how to handle unusual or difficult situations

  • That they understand and can adhere to the interpreter’s code of ethics and professionalism

  • That they understand and can correctly apply all of the other skills and knowledge relevant to interpreting in either Health and Human Services or School settings, depending on the discipline for which they are testing

 

The oral exam consists of three sections:

 

Section 1 – Sight Translation

  • Spanish to English – This part of the exam simulates an interpreter reading a Spanish language document aloud in English to an English-speaking person. The document is approximately 200 words in length.

  • English to Spanish – This part of the exam simulates an interpreter reading an English language document aloud in Spanish to a Spanish-speaking person. The document is approximately 200 words in length.

 

Section 2 – Consecutive Interpreting

During this portion of the exam, the interpreter interprets English language questions, comments, statements, conversation, etc. (segments) into Spanish, and the Spanish responses into English.

The examinee may ask to stop the dialog up to four times to ask for repetition, clarification, definitions, etc. The interpreted bilinguaal conversations can be either recorded or read live by the examiners.

 

Section 3 – Simultaneous Interpreting (optional) *

This part of the exam is two monologues, one in English and one in Spanish, of approximately 400 words each, at an approximate speed of 120 words per minute. (One hundred and twenty words per minute is slower than most ordinary speech.)

During this portion of the exam, the candidate listens to each monologue and, while listening, interprets aloud from the source language into the target language. This part of the examination takes approximately ten minutes, including instructions and preparation.

 * The simultaneous interpreting portion of the exam is optional. Candidates who choose not to take it or choose to take it and fail can still be certified if they pass all other parts of the exam. Their certification documents will indicate that they are only certified to interpret consecutively.

 

Scoring the Oral Exam

 

The oral exam will be scored in two ways:

  1. objectively, by the number of scoring units interpreted correctly, and

  2. subjectively, by an overall subjective evaluation.

 

 

What are scoring units?

 

Scoring units are particular words and phrases that are selected to represent various features of language that interpreters encounter in their work, and that they must render accurately and completely, without altering the meaning or style of speech.

 

The types of scoring units that are distributed throughout the exam include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Grammar - words or phrases that might be interpreted incorrectly due to an inadequate command of grammar

  • False cognates - words that sound or look alike in both languages, but that have different meanings

  • General vocabulary - a range of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

  • Technical vocabulary - special terminology frequently encountered in discipline-specific situations

  • Idioms and expressions - words or phrases in the source language which will usually result in lost meaning or nonsense if they are interpreted word-for-word into the target language

  • Numbers, names, dates - these must be accurately preserved during the interpretation

  • Modifiers, emphasis - adjective, adverbs, exclamations, etc. in the source language that must be accurately preserved in the target language

  • Register/style - words or phrases characteristic of a style of speech (formal, casual, informal) that must be preserved in the interpretation, for example, “yeah” and “yes” mean the same, but make a different impression on the listener

  • Position and special function - words or phrases that might be overlooked or left out because of their position in the sentence, such as embedded phrases or tagons, or because they are “fillers,” such as false starts, stalls, etc., and

  • Slang/Colloquialisms - words or phrases that are slang or colloquial language.

 

How many scoring units must a candidate get right to pass the exam?

Each section of the exam has a fixed number of scoring units. There are 50 scoring units in the sight translation section (25 scoring units in each of the two sight translations), 75 scoring units in the simultaneous interpretation section, and 75 units in the consecutive interpretation section, for a total of 200 scoring units that are used to calculate the objective score for the oral examination. The candidate must score at least 70% correct on each of the three sections of the exam in order to pass, and at least 90% correct to qualify for “Advanced Certification.”

 

Overall Subjective Evaluation

In addition to the evaluation of a candidate’s scoring unit assessment, each section of the exam is further evaluated by the examiner for consistency in interpreting and language skills. This is a subjective, structured assessment of interpreting and language skills that may not be captured within the framework of the scoring unit assessment. It is used to evaluate any consistently repeated mistakes, difficulty understanding a candidate due to speech habits or accent, and significant changes in meaning in non-scoring unit phrases of the exam. For example, on rare occasions a candidate might “hit” the correct interpretation of scoring units enough times to achieve the minimum acceptable score in an exam section, while routinely misinterpreting the entire unit of meaning within which the scoring unit has occurred. Candidates might also manage to correctly interpret many keywords, but frequently embellish the text or “make-up” words. These are serious breaches of professional conduct and may result in an unacceptable rating on that dimension of the evaluation. The subjective evaluation functions as a corrective measure of the quantitative performance criteria associated with the point score earned through interpretation of the scoring units.

 

Using this evaluation, the examiners will assign one of three values to the candidate’s performance on each of three dimensions: English Language Skills, Spanish Language Skills and Interpreting Skills. The values are Acceptable, Borderline, and Unacceptable.

 

Assignment of an Acceptable score occurs when the examiners believe that the candidate’s overall performance is competent or better. In such circumstances the scoring unit scoring will determine whether the candidate passes or fails the exam.

 

A Borderline classification is an indication to the candidate that his/her performance on the exam demonstrated weaknesses that concerned the examiner. This rating does not affect the objective (scoring unit) score, so a candidate will not fail the exam if a borderline rating is received and the candidate passes on the point score.

 

Examiners will assign an Unacceptable rating when a candidate's performance clearly does not meet minimum standards for interpreting. Usually, Unacceptable ratings are matched by scoring unit scores that do not meet the minimum standards for passing the exam. However, if an Unacceptable rating is given on any of the three dimensions of the subjective scoring system, the candidate will receive a failing grade for the exam, even if the objective (scoring unit) score is in the passing range.

 

 

 

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Results Reporting

 

Candidates will be notified by e-mail of their exam results within 10 business days of completing their exam.

 

 

 

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If You Don't Pass The Exam

 

A candidate who doesn’t pass the examination on the first attempt will be provided general feedback on the area(s) of the exam that they failed, and will be allowed to retake the exam once within six months of the original exam date at no additional charge. If the candidate fails only one section of the exam he or she will only be required to retake and pass that section to be certified. If the candidate failed more than one section he or she must retake and pass the entire exam to be certified.

 

Note: It is important to note that the exam you take for your second attempt at either the written or oral exam will not be the same exam you took for your first attempt. The second exam will cover the same material as the fist exam, but it will contain different questions, dialogs, etc.

 

 

 

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Other Issues

 

 

Copyright

Security of the exam materials is critical for obvious reasons. All Panoltia materials are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Candidates may not copy, record, duplicate, transcribe, or in any other way capture or otherwise represent the content of any portion of the exam. VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED.

 

Cheating

If the examiner suspects that an examinee is cheating in any way, including receiving assistance during the exam, communicating with others, copying or otherwise compromising the security of any portion of the exam as described above, or using prohibited aids, the instructor will immediately terminate the examination and the examinee will be permanently disqualified from certification.  

 

Punctuality

You must be prepared to begin your examination at your agreed upon date and time. If you are more than 15 minutes late you will forfeit your place on the exam schedule and you will receive a failing grade on your exam. You will have one more opportunity within six months of your original exam date to take the exam.

 

Reference Materials

Candidates are allowed to use reference materials during the exam. One important note - the exam is timed so a candidate who is overly reliant on reference materials will run out of time before they complete the exam. The candidate should have an excellent grasp of the exam content so they don't have to rely on reference materials.

 

 

 

 

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Questions And Answers

 

Questions and Answers about the certification program:

 

  • Question: Exactly what does it mean to be certified?

Answer: It means that an individual has passed an examination designed to determine whether they meet the requirements to function as an interpreter in a given field.

 


  • Question: Why is certification important?

Answer: It depends. If you're an interpreter, certification from a respected interpreter trainer instantly opens doors for you! Few interpreters are certified, and if you are, it sets you apart and tells a potential employer or client they don't have to guess when they hire you. They know you have the skills and knowledge to do the job, and they can hire you with confidence.

 

And if you're an employer, certification tells you your in-house interpreter or potential employee has the language skills, the techniques, the culture knowledge and the ethics to do the job.

 


  • Question: Is if difficult to pass the certification exam?

Answer: It isn't difficult if you are willing to work hard and practice. People who expect to pass the certification exam simply because they are bilingual and attended an interpreter seminar will almost certainly be disappointed.

 


  • Question: How will I know how to prepare for the exam?

Answer: We'll tell you. Our seminars give you all of the information you need to pass the exam. If you work hard and use the resources we provide you should be able to pass.

 


  • Question: Where do I have to go to take the exam?

Answer: The certification exam is taken online, so you can take it at home, at work, or anyplace where it's quiet and you have access to a computer with a webcam, microphone, headphones, and high speed internet access.

 


  • Question: When will I know if I passed?

Answer: You should expect to receive your exam score within 10 business days of taking the exam.

 


  • Question: What if I disagree with the grade I receive?

Answer: You can appeal. The content of the exam is very specific, and your entire exam will be recorded, so if you believe it wasn't graded accurately it will be possible to go back over it with a certified examiner and discuss in detail how it was graded.

 


  • Question: Can I be certified in more than one discipline?

Answer: Yes. All you have to do is take the exam for the additional certification. If you pass you will be certified in that discipline.

 


  • Question: If I get certified does it mean I can interpret in court?

Answer: Probably not. Court certification in most jurisdictions is very specific, and unless you are court certified in your jurisdiction chances are you are not considered qualified by your court system. At this time Panoltia does not offer court certification. If you wish to be a certified court interpreter you should contact the Administrative Office of the Courts in your state.

 

 

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Contact Panoltia for more information or to schedule your group's exams.

 

 

 

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