Author: Jack Slemenda Converse College, SC Date submitted

Author: Jack Slemenda Converse College, SC Date submitted to deafed.net March 20, 2008 To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: [email protected] To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author. 01/21/20 1 Sign Languages Around the World Jack Slemenda Converse College A look at France, China and South Africa 01/21/20

2 Did you know? 01/21/20 Contrary to popular belief, sign languages are not universal. Each country or culture has its own gestures or hand shapes for words and sentences. 3 Introduction Sign languages are either the main

or only languages used by certain members of society. Considered its own language Has its own set of rules 01/21/20 4 More about Sign 01/21/20 Each society, then, has its own primary sign language Variations in dialect just as in

spoken language As many sign languages as there are spoken languages. 5 Just to name a few 01/21/20 French Sign Language South African Sign Language Chinese Sign Language 6 French Sign Language

Langue des Signes Francaise (LSF) 1st known sign language identified as a true language Discovered by accident Abbe Eppe 01/21/20 Met twin sisters who were deaf Developed interest in their communication (OFSL) 7 Development of LSF

Epee created methodical signs Very difficult First attempt for a sign language to have spoken language appearance Started a school for the deaf Located in Paris Deaf students in one place

01/21/20 Continuous communication Accelerated the language Deaf could still be intelligent without using spoken language 8 Transformation of LSF Abbe Sicard Student of Abbe Epee Headmaster of Paris school following Epee Theory of Ciphers Code

system to help put language into patterns Helped students create sentences using grammatical French 01/21/20 9 Other Instrumental Individuals Jean Massieu Laurent Clerc

01/21/20 Born deaf Head Teaching Assistant at the Paris school Studied under Jean Massieu Met Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Decided to go to America to help establish The American School for the Deaf 10 Spread of Sign Language Schools for the deaf Graduates took what they learned and found new schools Contributed to transformation of sign language into other dialects

01/21/20 11 The Battle: LSF vs. Oralism Round 1 Milan Congress 1880 LSF banned from classrooms Only allowed to use oral approach

Round 2 1970s - Deaf began fighting for use of LSF Fabius law passed 01/21/20 1991 Allowed use of LSF to educate deaf children 12 And the Winner is 01/21/20

2004 - LSF officially recognized as a language Oralism still used 13 South African Sign Language SASL Introduction to South Africa 1881 Deaf school established by W. Murray Children from Afrikaans-speaking families British Sign Language first used By

1900s three deaf schools existed in SA 01/21/20 14 Communication Between Hearing and Deaf Few hearing people know SASL Mix of speech, signs, and fingerspelling Between Deaf Adults

Sign and fingerspelling Some confusion Residential schools develop own dialects Passed down to each generation Individuals leave schools Still use their own dialect Can create misunderstanding 01/21/20 15 Norman NeiderHeitmann 1974 Appointed to research sign languages used in South

Africa Hoped to standardize the signs Help all language groups communicate better 01/21/20 16 7 years later Talking to the Deaf was published 1st sign dictionary in SA Further research to test validity of signs

Seven deaf groups from SA questioned 95% of signs recognized by groups Not necessarily used 01/21/20 17 Whats happening now? Talking to the Deaf Primary method in many schools Follows grammatical rules of

language Designed to teach children spoken language Part of both communities 01/21/20 18 Chinese Sign Language CSL First deaf school in China

CSL fairly new 01/21/20 1887 American missionary C.R. Mills and his wife Focused on oral methods ASL had no influence on CSL Proposed in 1950 by SL Reform Committee 1961 sign language book published 19 Chinese Sign Language

Shapes and motions along with facial expressions Signs resemble written pictorial characters Manual alphabet Used only to fingerspell words Rarely used among deaf Write characters on palm or air 01/21/20 20 Some Statistics

Approximately 21 million people in China with hearing loss 3 million are deaf Last 50 years 1500 hearing rehabilitation centers 01/21/20 CSL discouraged Banned from some classrooms Oral-only policy For preschool children <10% of children leaving hearing

rehabilitation centers are able to grasp enough CSL for school 21 Why so few? Chinese is a tonal language Same phonetic pronunciations with different intonations have different meanings Deaf children cannot hear to distinguish tones 01/21/20 22 The Deaf are disabled?

Chinese view deafness as a disability Deaf view themselves as disabled Parents aim to cure deafness 01/21/20 Spend 10s of thousands of yen Acupuncture Hearing Aids Rehabilitation Centers Deaf students prefer hearing teacher to a deaf one

23 Is there hope for CSL? Schools aiming to embrace deaf culture Tianjin Third largest city Working to create jobs for deaf 2001 Tianjin School for the Deaf

Tianjin Technical College for the Deaf 01/21/20 Adopted CSL as primary communication method Aim to have deaf employees First technical college for deaf Chinese Focuses on computer technology 24 References 01/21/20

Chinese Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org French Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org Herbst, Johan M. South African Sign Languages. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 106-108 25 References (continued) 01/21/20

J., Julie Sign language Can Deaf People from Different Countries Understand Each Other? Online posting. February 2007. Yahoo! Answers. 8 July 2007. http://answers.yahoo.com Moody, William. French Sign Languages. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet Encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 74-77. Singer, M., Afsari, N., Michaut, Frederik, & Lamit, Virginia. LAlphabet en LSF. [online] The DESS Nouvelles Technologies and Handicaps Sensory and Physical at Paris8 University. [cited 20 July 2007] http://ufr6.univ-paris8.fr. 26 References (continued)

01/21/20 South African Sign Language. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online]. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 2007 [cited 8 July, 2007] http://en.wikipedia.org Standard Manual Alphabet. [online] A to Z to Deafblindness. 17 September 2002. [cited 20 June 2007]. http://www.deafblind.com/ukthma.html Yau, Shun-chiu. Chinese Sign Languages. Cleve, John V. van (ed): Gallaudet encyclopedia of deaf people and deafness (Vol. 3. S-Z. New York, NY: McGraw Hill (1987) pp. 65-67 27