Myriam Vermeerbergen

Sign language research, uses and practices : crossing views on theoretical and applied sign language linguistics

Sign linguistics cannot be separated from deaf community practices, especially with regard to education and interpretation. This book brings together work on sign language interpreting, the use of spoken and sign language with CI children and early language development in children exposed to both a spoken and sign language. In addition, it includes papers addressing aspects of sign language structure and methodological issues in sign language research. This book has relevance for those teaching and learning sign languages, for professional and student interpreters and for teachers of the deaf.

Deaf perspectives on communicative practices in South Africa: institutional language policies in educational settings

Abstract This article reports on a study into communicative practices in educational settings by members of the South African Deaf community. The data contain interviews of miscellaneous South African Deaf people who were interviewed through South African Sign Language (SASL) by Deaf SASL users who received a short training on interview simulation. From the narratives a general prevalence of communicative barriers in educational settings emerges. Similar to many other Deaf communities, Deaf identities appear to be shaped by means of alienation from the hearing community and solidarity among the Deaf community (to a certain extent even across ethnic boundaries). The communication barriers lead to different dimensions of power relations. Moreover, certain educational practices extend beyond the school premises and influence family practices. What also emerged from the South African data were issues of stigmatization of signing and complex issues of communication in South Africas multilingual society. Linguistic ethnography has proven a very productive methodology as it has yielded interesting “counter-narratives” (i.e., narratives from within the Deaf community that give a different picture than the beliefs put forward within a hearing hegemony) by means of which Deaf South Africans get “a voice” in mainstream society.

Flemish Sign Language standardisation

In 1997, the Flemish Deaf1 community officially rejected standardisation of Flemish Sign Language. It was a bold choice, which at the time was not in line with some of the decisions taken in the neighbouring countries. In this article, we shall discuss the choices the Flemish Deaf community has made in this respect and explore why the Flemish Deaf community has decided to reject standardisation imposed from above. The main reasons are negative experiences with a former lexical unification scheme within the ‘Signed Dutch’ project and a lack of in-depth lexicological research into Flemish Sign Language. At the same time, it has become clear that a form of spontaneous standardisation has been evolving in the past decades. While the Flemish Deaf community has rejected imposition of a standardised form from above, they have opted to find ways to support this ongoing standardisation process. We shall look at what actions have been proposed and taken in this respect.

Deaf leaders’ strategies for working with signed language interpreters: An examination across seven countries

In this paper, we report interview data from 14 Deaf leaders across seven countries (Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) regarding their perspectives on signed language interpreters. Using a semistructured survey questionnaire, seven interpreting researchers interviewed two Deaf leaders each in their home countries. Following transcription of the data, the researchers conducted a thematic analysis of the comments. Four shared themes emerged in the data: (a) variable level of confidence in interpreting direction, (b) criteria for selecting interpreters, (c) judging the competence of interpreters, and (d) strategies for working with interpreters. The results suggest that Deaf leaders share similar, but not identical, perspectives about working with interpreters, despite differing conditions in their respective countries. Compared to prior studies of Deaf leaders’ perspectives of interpreters, these data indicate some positive trends in Deaf l...