Mexican Sign Language courses for court interpreters

This study analyzes the training courses for interpreters in Mexican Sign Language (MSL) to observe their adequacy to the training needs of court interpreters. The Mexican Federal Judiciary calls every year for those interested in becoming expert witnesses in translation and interpreting. To comply with this profile, adequate training is needed, as well as proof of knowledge to provide an expert testimony (Martorelli, 2017). Considering that undergraduate and graduate programs for learning MSL do not exist, our study sets out to explore what non-academic courses on MSL interpreting and expert function exist. We will analyze those courses and determine whether they are based on the competencies required by the National System of Competencies of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competencies. The data reveal that there are 5 courses focused on the training of interpreters and 5 on the expert function in translation, but none focused on court interpreting.