Deaf Studies, Sign Linguistics, Sign Language

Understanding deafness not as a disability but as a benefit and vital aspect of humanity’s diversity

Through their in-depth articulation of Deaf Gain, the contributors to this pathbreaking volume approach being deaf as a distinct way of being, one that opens perceptions, perspectives, and insights less common to the majority of hearing persons. By framing deaf lives in terms of intellectual, creative, and cultural benefits, Deaf Gain recognizes physical and cognitive difference as vital to human diversity.


https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/deaf-gain

Abstract: Th main aim of the article is to present the conclusions of a series of studies performed over a period of twelve years, dedicated to the tourism of Deaf people who are users of sign language. Th synthesis of the research results (including, amongst others, a comparative analysis of the demand for tourism of Deaf people [n=292] and hearing people [n=1780] ) became the basis for the development of a “system of action stimulating the growth of tourism for Deaf people”. Such action requires a consistent long-term process on numerous levels which will lead to an increase an accessible tourism for sign language users in the future. Th proposed system of action includes elements of “external support” and “internal action” which are necessary for the
development of an “accessible tourism subsystem”. Th fist of these elements includes proposals for action directed at providing “equal opportunities” through the realisation of principles from
the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (PwD), amongst others. Th second element on the same level in the “hierarchy” of the internal action subsystem, focuses on encouraging deaf people to improve their own life situation, to make their expectations in regards
to the available tourism opportunities known and to participate in their creation (according to the assumptions of universal design). Both subsystems create the basis for the development of an additional, central “accessible tourism subsystem” for deaf people, the essence of which should be the appropriately structured transfer of tourism information.

Scholars of second language (L2) learning and teaching are increasingly exploring students' use of the L2 outside the classroom setting, in recognition of the powerful effect this self-directed study can have on language learning. Within sign language studies, students have long been exhorted to immerse themselves in the Deaf community. But until now we have lacked an evidence base of the degree to which they do this (or other out-of-class study), how effective they find it, or whether/ how engagement changes as proficiency develops. This study explores these issues by considering responses from 157 students enrolled in 4 different levels of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) units at the same tertiary institution. Findings indicate that students at all levels have low engagement with structured revision, but make good use of media resources and face-to-face interactions, and that uptake of these increase in relative frequency to their developing capabilities and personal networks. Innovative students also integrate Auslan study into everyday situations and interests.

In communities with an increased prevalence of hereditary deafness, social, and linguistic adaptations are found in response. Aulbers (1959) describes a high prevalence of deafness in a fishing village on the Dutch coast: Katwijk aan Zee. This article aims to assess the current prevalence of deafness in Katwijk, as well as the current sign language situation there. To this end, data were collected from various sources, including governmental studies on public health, archives, a genealogical database and interviews with deaf inhabitants of Katwijk. The various types of data confirm the presence of a higher prevalence of deafness in Katwijk that continues to date. Linguistic and anthropological research is needed to establish to what extent this has affected the experience and position of deaf people and their sign language usage in Katwijk.

The notion that the visual communication of the Deaf was a language analyzable with the tools provided by descriptive linguistics came into being with William C. Stokoe. His Sign Language Structure (1960) was the first modern attempt to devise a descriptive system of American Sign Language (ASL) based on the identification of phonological, morphological and syntactic features. The attempt to identify a phonological level in sign languages, named cherology by Stokoe, will be investigated comparing it to his later and less known essay Semantic Phonology (1991). This comparison will show that the idea of cherology proposed in 1960 has, ever since its own inception, proven to be difficult to adapt to some structural aspects of sign languages. Regarding the importance of Stokoe's theory on the history of sign language studies, the influence of his work on the first linguistic description of Italian Sign Language (LIS) will be discussed. His highly valuable support is testified by a notebook exchanged for more than one year between him and Virginia Volterra.

Mis à part quelques outils développés pour l’évaluation globale des compétences de l’ASL, il n’existe pas vraiment d’outils d’évaluation formelle de la production des formes phonologiques des langues signées et plus particulièrement de la LSQ. Notre objectif est de présenter la démarche de développement d’un outil d’évaluation de la phonologie de la LSQ. Cet outil, conçu par une équipe comprenant orthophonistes et linguistes, vise à donner aux orthophonistes un cadre pour tester la production d’enfants d’âge préscolaire. Dans un premier temps, nous expliquons comment ont été choisis les signes cibles et comment le degré de difficulté articulatoire a été défini, puis nous exposons l’hypothèse retenue pour rendre compte du degré de complexité articulatoire. Dans un deuxième temps nous présentons les résultats de l’essai d’un prototype auprès de deux enfants de trois ans et nous montrons comment cette préexpérimentation a permis de modifier l’outil. Dans un troisième temps, nous discutons du problème d’économie du système actuel de représentation phonétique de la LSQ d’une part, et de la forme des grilles d’évaluation de l’outil d’autre part.

RD HOBBS reviews "Talking Hands" by Margalit Fox.
Fox, M. (2007). Talking hands; What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
A team of researchers descend on a village in southern Israel where a Bedouin tribe has 4% deaf population because of the custom of cousins marrying one another. The "organically grown" language of the deaf is an opportunity for linguists to study are relatively new language that should give clues as to how languages come to be. Half of the book is devoted as a narrative of the linguists visiting, recording, photographing, and filming families in their homes, and the other half of the book as intermittent chapters discuss language, linguistics, language in the brain, grammar, and language evolution. Comparisons are drawn between Sign languages, sign language communities, grammars, and more.

Theory-of-mind (ToM) abilities were studied in 176 deaf children aged 3 years 11 months to 8 years 3 months who use either American Sign Language (ASL) or oral English, with hearing parents or deaf parents. A battery of tasks tapping understanding of false belief and knowledge state and language skills, ASL or English, was given to each child. There was a significant delay on ToM tasks in deaf children of hearing parents, who typically demonstrate language delays, regardless of whether they used spoken English or ASL. In contrast, deaf children from deaf families performed identically to same-aged hearing controls (N=42). Both vocabulary and understanding syntactic complements were significant independent predictors of success on verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks.

RD Hobbs Book Review
Fox, M. (2007). Talking Hands. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
A team of researchers descend on a village in Southern Israel inhabited by a Bedouin tribe with 4% deaf population due to cousins marrying. The normal statistic for deaf population is one out of 1,000 to one out of 10,000, not four out of 100. Having deaf family members in the village is normal. Deaf children do not grow up in isolation. As a result, a deaf language organically evolved. The more dependable way of observing the evolved language is to observe a deaf child with his hearing sibling. The reason is that deaf children go to school and learn Israeli Sign language. So, when two deaf children get together from the village, their sign language will be mixed with Village sign and Israeli sign. Hearing children learn Village sign from deaf relatives at home and not in school, so they are unfamiliar with Israeli sign language. Chapters in Fox (2007) alternate between observations of Village Bedouins using Village sign and chapters on language and linguistics. The author tells of a Dublin School for the deaf that segregate boys from girls. As a result of the segregation, 70% of the signs are different. The authors explain that before Sandinistas taking power, deaf children grew up in isolation, so they were language impaired for the rest of their lives - having missed the threshold of time to learn a language. After the Sandinistas took power, education improved and deaf children attended school. Linguists report that the older children in the first cohort never learned Nicaragua Sign Language (NSL) adequately, but in the second cohort, children under age 7 enriched the rudimentary "language" they were given to create a bonafide language. Researchers were informed by other examples of Sign language. Thus, Fox (2007) takes on the roles of neurolinguists and psycholinguists in that they explain language in the brain, but also sociolinguists in that they explain deaf language in society as well as in culture and sub-cultures.

An adequately sized corpus is a prerequisite for any automatic sign language translation and recognition systems. Indian Sign Language (ISL) used by Deaf community in India, does have linguistically meaningful constituents and structural properties. According to [Zeshan Ulrike (2006)], it is language with visual-spatial modality used by the Deaf for communication. For purpose of sign language corpus of the domain 'disaster messages', we created the Indian Sign Language corpus, based on the disaster messages provided by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The messages were converted into Indian Sign Language. It was later annotated using HamNoSys resulting in a rich bilingual text-based sentence corpus, using motion capture and video tracing.

“The Silent Theatre: Notes and Reflections around the Deaf Theatre” — In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the theatrical production related to the Deaf world. There are now many diversified projects, festivals, companies and laboratories that produce shows where Deaf and hearing performers are integrated, as well as dramaturgy that is immersed in the roots of Deaf culture.
After some preliminary considerations on deafness, this paper aims to analyse the contexts of production and fruition of Deaf theatre starting from the pioneering experiences of the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) and the company “Senza parole” (Speechless) up to the most recent ones, represented by the Deaf West Theatre or the Laboratorio Zero. On the basis of examples from the Italian and the international contemporary scene, the author focuses on the relationship dynamics that can result from the encounter, in the theatrical context, between Deaf culture and hearing culture. In particular, the essay examines the specific identity of Deaf theatre and its function in the perspective of appreciation, recognition and integration of Deaf culture. Such a function is crucial in Italy, especially nowadays, as the Italian Sign Language (LIS) is not yet nationally recognised.

امروزه حتی باوجود پیشرفت روزافزون علوم پزشکی، ناشنوایی و تبعات آن همچنان گریبانگیر قشر نسبتاً قابل توجهی از کودکان و بزرگسالان کشورمان می‌‌باشد. به روشنی مشخص است که ماهیت ارتباط و آموزش ناشنوایان با افراد شنوای جامعه، متفاوت است و مستلزم نگاهی ویژه و کارشناسانه، حاصل از همگرایی علوم مختلف از جمله علوم تربیتی، زبان‌شناسی، شنوایی‌شناسی و روانشناسی می‌باشد. در این بین، مسالۀ زبان (از هر نوع که باشد زبان اشاره یا زبان گفتاری) و آموزش آن در ناشنوایان با توجه به ماهیت طبیعی زبان و در نظر گرفتن پارامتر‌هایی از قبیل انواع ناشنوایی، شدت ناشنوایی، زمان وقوع ناشنوایی و زمان تشخیص ناشنوایی اهمیت بسزایی دارد. زبان اشاره و زبان گفتاری همواره مسائل بحث‌برانگیزی در حوزه مطالعات ناشنوایان بوده و هست. همواره رویکردها و روش‌های ارتباطی (ارتباطی-زبانی) و آموزشی مختلفی برای ناشنوایان وجود داشته و دارد. چیزی که فقدان آن در تحقیقات و پژوهش‌های انجام‌شده پیرامون ارزیابی این رویکردها و روش‌ها احساس می‌شود بررسی آنها از منظر علم زبان‌شناسی و ارتباط است. مخصوصاً آنجا که بحث انتخاب و آموزش زبان (زبان گفتاری/ زبان اشاره) به ناشنوایان مطرح می‌شود.

This article analyzes language ideologies with regard to sign language in Adamorobe, a “shared signing community” in southern Ghana. Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL) is a “shared sign language,” used by all deaf people and a large number of hearing Akan-speaking people. Deaf schoolchildren from Adamorobe attend a school where Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) is taught. Hearing interviewees have experiential knowledge that everything can be said in AdaSL, emphasise the shared roots of AdaSL and Akan, and called AdaSL “natural.” Deaf interlocutors describe Akan, AdaSL, and GSL as three distinct but equivalent languages. AdaSL is said to be a “hard” language, more pleasant to use, and more expressive than GSL, but sign bilingualism is highly valued. These findings are compared and con- trasted with accounts on language ideologies with regard to other shared sign languages and larger urban/national sign languages. (Language ideologies, language practices, Ghana, Ghanaian Sign Language, Adamorobe Sign Language, Akan, shared sign languages, shared signing communities, village sign languages)

Interpreters are taught they have deep roots in the Deaf community, and their work began as volunteers from schools, churches, and social services. This article expands on that history to include the time before any of those systems existed. Legal settings are the best place to gather evidence, because more reliable records are available.

Learn the basics of SignWriting with this 42-page booklet. An introduction to reading and writing any sign language, it presents an overview of hand symbols, contact symbols, finger movements, arm movements, facial expressions, and reading sign language literature. All examples are in American Sign Language (ASL).

ISBN: 978-0-914336-49-5

The main purpose of this research was to determine whether the Deaf of Ethiopia could understand and use literature videotaped in American Sign Language (ASL), which is related to Ethiopian Sign Language (ESL). This was investigated by means of a Video Recorded Text Test (VRTT) using both translated scripture and original literature in ASL. The results show quite low comprehension of the videotaped material by Ethiopian test subjects. Further research will be needed to investigate dialect differences among signers of ESL.

"21st Century American Sign Language Pedagogy" by Federico A. Quintana, M.Ed., addresses the need for modern and practical teaching strategies for K-12 ASL educators. It critiques traditional academic approaches focusing heavily on research rather than practical application. Quintana advocates integrating experiential knowledge, collaborative opportunities, and real-world teaching practices. The document highlights the importance of evidence-based instructional strategies, incorporating cultural and background knowledge, and adapting ASL pedagogy to meet the diverse needs of 21st-century learners. The author emphasizes using action research to enhance educational practices and the development of resources that align with the ACTFL standards.

Original whitepaper of the curriculum design framework for the "ASL Yes!" textbooks.
Https://www.DeafCompanyLLC.com

In Understanding International Sign, the author examines International Sign (IS) to determine the extent to which signers from different countries comprehend it. She focuses exclusively on expository lecture IS used in conference settings and presents the first empirical research on its effectiveness for communicating rich information to diverse audience members. International Sign is regarded as a lingua franca that is employed by deaf people to communicate with other deaf people who do not share the same conventionalized local sign language. Contrary to widely-held belief, sign languages are not composed of a unified system of universal gestures—rather, they are distinctly different, and most are mutually unintelligible from one another. The phenomenon of IS has emerged through increased global interaction during recent decades, driven by a rise in the number of international conferences and events and by new technologies that allow for enhanced global communication. IS is gaining acceptance as communicative access to conference audience members who do not have knowledge of the designated conference languages, and it is being recruited for use due to the prohibitive expense of providing interpreting services in numerous different sign languages. However, it is not known how well audience members understand IS, and it may actually limit equal access to the interpreted information for some monolingual audience members. The study compares IS to native sign languages and analyzes the distribution of linguistic elements in the IS lexicon and their combined effect on comprehension. Her findings indicate that varied monolingual sign language participants understand much less of IS presentations than has been previously assumed- particularly detailed information; Also, multilingual audiences who know BSL, ASL (and their related languages), and English are more successful at understanding information via IS. Whynot’s research has crucial implications for expository IS usage, training, and interpreting, and it sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses inherent in cross-linguistic, signed contact settings.

Adamorobe Sign Language is the sign language used in the village of
Adamorobe in
Ghana. This sign language has evolved as a result of the high hereditary
deafness incidence in this village. Adamorobe has approximately 1400
inhabitants, more than 30 of whom are deaf.
The main spoken language in the village is Akan, a Kwa language. This
thesis aims to give a description of aspects of Adamorobe Sign Language
(AdaSL) and to compare these with other sign languages as well as with
Akan. It attempts thus to contribute to our knowledge of possible structures
in human language and in languages in the visual modality in particular.
More than spoken languages, the sign languages studied so far show
structural similarities.
These corresponding structures seem to be motivated by the
communicative channel used by sign languages – that is, the visual-spatial
modality. However, the well-studied sign languages not only share their
modality, but they also occur in corresponding, rather specific social
conditions. Thus, most of well-studied are relatively young, they are used by
rather large Deaf communities, have an atypical acquisition pattern and a
history of suppression. Home sign languages –sign languages of deaf people
who do not regularly communicate with other deaf people- arise in radically
different circumstances and are therefore much more divers in structure. It is
commonly assumed that large sign languages have arisen from the merger of
several home sign languages as documented in the case of Nicaragua Sign
Language.
The considerable structural variety in home sign languages and the
relatively great similarity between large sign languages suggest that
languages develop along a unidirectional path leading to structural
convergence. Sign languages arisen and used in hearing communities also
appear to have a different structure. However, the differences in the social
settings of these three types of sign languages differ to such an extent that it
is hard to establish which ones are really relevant. The differences in social
settings between AdaSL and large sign languages are relatively small and
enable us to evaluate the influence of these differences. Thus like the large
sign languages AdaSL has a community of deaf people and a comparable
time depth.
A significant but well defined difference concerns the
intergenerational transmission. In large deaf communities transmission is
hampered by the fact that most deaf children are born in hearing families. In
Adamorobe a deaf child is surrounded by signing relatives from early on. In addition, there seems to be a difference in the experience of deafness, in
particular in the lack of a distinct Deaf community.
The chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this thesis give a comparative description of a
number of AdaSL aspects. In chapter 2 it becomes clear that if we compare
AdaSL to NGT, a large sign language, the former uses considerable sign
space, has many lexical signs with a non manual element and a small set of
unmarked hand shapes. AdaSL rather resembles home sign and young sign
languages in these respects.
Chapter 3 deals with the lexicon, specifically the semantic fields of
relationship, colour, numbers, time and names. The lexicon appears to be
strongly influenced by Akan considering the frequent use of mouthings and
loan translations.
Chapter 4 describes various ways of expressing form and size in
AdaSL. In a number of ways AdaSL diverts significantly from what is
common in the large sign languages so far studied. This is particularly
notable in the use of so called measure stick signs. These measure stick signs
are also used by hearing people in Ghana and other parts of Africa.
Moreover AdaSL has standard signs to indicate a relative size which do not,
as seems to be the case in other sign languages, adapt to the absolute size of
the entity in question.
Chapter 5 describes expressions of motion. A structure that seems to
be common in almost any large sign language is the so-called classifierconstruction.
Whereas handle classifier constructions typically express
externally controlled motion, entity classifier constructions typically express
internally controlled motion. AdaSL rarely uses handle classifier
constructions to express externally controlled movements. Moreover, AdaSL
appears not to make use of a system of entity classifiers.
In AdaSL the usual way to indicate movement is through ´directionals´.
These movement signs (which can be spatially modified) each express a
basic movement pattern of movement regarding the cause of the movement
e.g. TOWARDS or ENTER. They may occur in a series with a sign expressing
manipulation (e.g. TAKE) or expressing a way of moving (such as RUN), thus
specifying the Cause of the movement.
From the descriptive chapters a pattern of features typical of AdaSL
arises. These are discussed in chapter 6.

This 2009 thesis aims to explore how the rapid development of different communication technology that has taken place over the last few years offers new possibilities for deaf people to use American Sign Language through the use of videophones and webcams.  I started by delving into the inventions of many communication tools that have excluded and included deaf people from society.  I proceeded to talk about the 1988 and 2006 protests at Gallaudet University and the diverse technology used to distribute information during each protest by deaf people and the media.  Afterwards I revealed the amazing impact videophones have on deaf people whose native or second language is American Sign Language.  Deaf people no longer have to rely on English to contact one another in distant places.  Next I mentioned the conflict parents of deaf babies face with the many choices of audio and visual technology. Lastly I focused on present and future research on electronic learning used for the education of deaf children.