“So, why do you sign?” Deaf and hearing new signers, their motivation, and revitalisation policies for sign languages

Meulder, Maartje De

doi:10.1515/applirev-2017-0100

Cited by 35 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…As a result, the group of deaf heritage signers (Pichler et al, 2018), who often learned to sign at a (residential) school for deaf children, or from their deaf parents, is in many Western countries now skewed toward the older age groups and decreasing (Johnston, 2004). On the other hand, there is an increasing number of deaf new signers (De Meulder, 2018) who have a nonheritage background and sign language acquisition path. Many deaf new signers use both sign languages and spoken languages comfortably, often with the use of hearing technology.…”

Section: Oralism and Deficit Perspectives On Deafnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence and evolutions: Introducing sign language sociolinguistics

Kusters

Lucas

2022

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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The sociolinguistics of sign languages parallels as well as complements the sociolinguistics of spoken languages. All of the key areas of sociolinguistics, such as multilingualism, language contact, variation, and language attitudes-are of immediate relevance to sign languages. At the same time, sign language researchers using a range of data sources and methods (e.g., sign language corpora, linguistic elicitation, and linguistic ethnography) have showed that the unique natures and features of sign languages allow us to look at all these areas from a different vantage point. First, deficit perspectives on deafness serve to sharply distinguish the reality of sign languages from that of spoken languages. The linguistic status of sign languages has been long contested, and certain forms of signing are still labeled "nonlanguage." The delineation and differentiation of sign languages, and of sign languages from other signing practices (e.g., gesturing, home sign) has therefore been a key issue. Second, sign languages are used by both deaf and hearing people, in contexts where spoken/written languages, and increasingly also other sign languages are in use, leading to complex multimodal forms of signspoken, sign-written, and sign-sign language contact, and to hierarchical constellations of language attitudes and This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Oralism and Deficit Perspectives On Deafnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence and evolutions: Introducing sign language sociolinguistics

Kusters

Lucas

2022

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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“…Mesch (2010) also implies that it is helpful to have a sign language as a native language. The concept of what defines this native language is not clear cut (Lu, Jones, and Morgan 2016), especially for deaf people who may not grow up with a sign language as their home language if they have hearing parents (Murray, Hall, and Snoddon 2020), who as 'new signers' may choose to acquire a sign language later in life (De Meulder 2019). Next to these basic pre-requisites, the IS interpreter needs to know how to construct an IS interpretation by creating a meaningful target message utilising a mix of multiple languages and very few conventionalised signs for audiences that might be less or more familiar with IS (Whynot 2017).…”

Section: Interpreting International Signmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting international sign: mapping the interpreter’s profile

Wit

Crasborn

Napier

2021

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer

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This is the first study mapping the profile of International Sign (IS) conference interpreters worldwide. Rather than a language, IS is a set of variable communicative practices used by deaf persons in international settings. In addition, international institutions and organisations increasingly offer IS interpreting services in order to provide accessibility. As IS is created through contact by deaf persons with various sign languages, IS is continuously changing and evolving. Because IS is not conventionalised, it requires highly specialised skills of the interpreter. At present there are only ad hoc training opportunities for IS conference interpreters and a new accreditation system has recently been put in place. This study presents questionnaire data from current IS interpreting practitioners, which provides insight into their present demographics and qualifications and which, in turn, can be used to inform educators on how to train future IS conference interpreters.

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“…Signed languages are widely used by people, and have emerged throughout human history as shared languages in communities of deaf and non-deaf users 2 . In the present day, widespread interest in signed languages has led to a large and growing number of non-deaf people becoming signed language users in many countries around the world 3 …”

Section: Signed Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education and health of children with hearing loss: the necessity of signed languages

Murray

Hall

Snoddon

2019

Bull. World Health Organ.

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Medical and educational interventions for children with hearing loss often adopt a single approach of spoken language acquisition through the use of technology, such as cochlear implants. These approaches generally ignore signed languages, despite no guarantees that the child will acquire fluency in a spoken language. Research with children who have a cochlear implant and do not use a signed language indicates that language outcomes are very variable and generally worse than their non-deaf peers. In contrast, signing children with cochlear implants have timely language development similar to their non-deaf peers that also exceeds their non-signing peers with cochlear implants. Natural signed languages have been shown to have the same neurocognitive benefits as natural spoken language while being fully accessible to deaf children. However, it is estimated less than 2% of the 34 million deaf children worldwide receive early childhood exposure to a signed language. Most deaf children are, therefore, at risk for language deprivation during the critical period of language acquisition in the first five years of life. Language deprivation has negative consequences for developmental domains, which rely on timely language acquisition. Beyond the adverse effects on a child’s education, language deprivation also affects deaf people’s mental and physical health and access to health care, among others. Therefore, policies in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities are needed. Such policies would ensure early intervention and education services include signed languages and bilingual programmes where the signed language is the language of instruction.

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“So, why do you sign?” Deaf and hearing new signers, their motivation, and revitalisation policies for sign languages

Cited by 35 publications

References 44 publications

Emergence and evolutions: Introducing sign language sociolinguistics

Emergence and evolutions: Introducing sign language sociolinguistics

Interpreting international sign: mapping the interpreter’s profile

Education and health of children with hearing loss: the necessity of signed languages

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