Wem gehört die Gebärdensprache?

Gebärdensprache ist sichtbar. Die Anwesenheit von Gebärdensprachdolmetscher*innen im öffentlichen Raum ist vertraut. Doch nicht nur für Gehörlose ist Gebärdensprache wichtig. Gebärdensprachkurse und -studiengänge sind bei Hörenden beliebt und zeugen von einer wachsenden Neugierde an dieser besonderen Sprache. Tomas Vollhaber bewegt sich auf einem Grat zwischen der Forderung nach Anerkennung der Interessen Gehörloser und der Entdeckung der Gebärdensprache durch Hörende. Mit seinen Essays wendet er sich an Menschen aus dem Bereich der Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft, der Deaf Studies und Disability Studies und an jene, die mehr vom Körper und seinen Sprachen erfahren wollen.

Odyssey Towards a Sirenic Thinking: An Attempt at a Self-Criticism of the Listening Paradigm Within Sound Studies

This text departs from a contradictory claim in deaf studies and sound studies: both disciplines describe a hierarchical regime of the sensible – visuocentrism and audiocentrism – which they try to counter with conceptualisations as “acoustemology” or “deaf gain.” However, as we argue, they both thereby erect what they claim to overcome: a sensual regime that privileges one sense over another and a restricted conception of subjectivity deriving from it. First, we draw a philosophical line in the critique of sensual regimes. Then we propose a figure for the transcendence of the separation of the sensible: in re-reading of the myth of Odysseus and the sirens, we engage various examples from literature, art, and acoustics to describe sirens as a mythological and technical archetype of the transcendence of the sensual regime, as well as reified subjectivity. The question, then, is not how to escape the sirens, but how they can be approached. It is necessary, we argue, for sound studies to develop a critical self-consciousness of its own restricted concepts in order to move from sonic thinking towards a sirenic thinking.

Deaf Anthropology

Deaf anthropology is a field that exists in conversation with but is not reducible to the interdisciplinary field of deaf studies. Deaf anthropology is predicated upon a commitment to understanding deafnesses across time and space while holding on to “deaf” as a category that does something socially, politically, morally, and methodologically. In doing so, deaf anthropology moves beyond compartmentalizing the body, the senses, and disciplinary boundaries. We analyze the close relationship between anthropology writ large and deaf studies: Deaf studies scholars have found analytics and categories from anthropology, such as the concept of culture, to be productive in analyzing deaf peoples’ experiences and the sociocultural meanings of deafness. As we note, however, scholarship on deaf peoples’ experiences is increasingly variegated. This review is arranged into four overlapping sections titled Socialities and Similitudes; Mobilities, Spaces, and Networks; Modalities and the Sensorium; and Technologies and Futures.

Reading Fluency in Young Elementary School Age Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

The Center on Literacy and Deafness examined the language and reading progress of 336 young deaf and hard-of-hearing children in kindergarten, first and second grades on a series of tests of language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom communication: a spoken-only group (n = 101), a sign-only group (n = 131), and a bimodal group (n = 104). Previous work reports the overall data (Antia, S., Lederberg, A., Schick, B., Branum-Martin, L., Connor, C. M., & Webb, M. (2020a). Language and reading progress of young DHH children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, (3), 25; Lederberg, A. R., Branum-Martin, L., Webb, M. L., Schick, B., Antia, S., Easterbrooks, S. R., & Connor, C. M. (2019). Modality and interrelations among language, reading, spoken phonological awareness, and fingerspelling. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 24(4), 408–423). This report presents an in-depth look at the reading fluency of the participants measured along multiple dimensions. In general, 43% of the participants were unable to read fluently and an additional 23% were unable to read fluently at grade level. Rate and accuracy, rate of growth, miscue analysis, and self-corrections differed by communication modality. Most notably, children demonstrated limited strategies for self-correction during reading fluency tasks.

Language in the Workplace Project and Workplace Communication for Skilled Migrants course at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

The School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS) at Victoria University of Wellington conducts research and teaching in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Writing and Deaf Studies. It incorporates a Deaf Studies Research Unit, which undertakes research on topics relating to deaf people and their language in New Zealand, and the New Zealand Dictionary Centre, set up in partnership with Oxford University Press, which provides a base for research into New Zealand lexicography and aspects of language in New Zealand. It also incorporates an English Language Institute, which specialises in teaching English language courses and teacher education programmes. A particular strength of the School's makeup is the opportunity to engage in research which benefits and is benefited by both theoretical and practical approaches to issues in linguistics and applied linguistics. This report describes one of a number of examples of the productive integration of language teaching and language research at LALS. We describe an ongoing research project that has developed organically over the past twelve years. The research involved first collecting and analysing authentic workplace interaction between native speakers, and then making use of it in explicit instruction aimed at developing socio-pragmatic proficiency in the workplace among skilled migrants with English as an Additional Language (EAL). We are now engaged in evaluating the results of the instruction, not only in the classroom, but also in workplaces where the migrants have been placed as interns.

Language in the Workplace Project and Workplace Communication for Skilled Migrants course at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

The School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS) at Victoria University of Wellington conducts research and teaching in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Writing and Deaf Studies. It incorporates a Deaf Studies Research Unit, which undertakes research on topics relating to deaf people and their language in New Zealand, and the New Zealand Dictionary Centre, set up in partnership with Oxford University Press, which provides a base for research into New Zealand lexicography and aspects of language in New Zealand. It also incorporates an English Language Institute, which specialises in teaching English language courses and teacher education programmes. A particular strength of the School's makeup is the opportunity to engage in research which benefits and is benefited by both theoretical and practical approaches to issues in linguistics and applied linguistics. This report describes one of a number of examples of the productive integration of language teaching and language research at LALS. We describe an ongoing research project that has developed organically over the past twelve years. The research involved first collecting and analysing authentic workplace interaction between native speakers, and then making use of it in explicit instruction aimed at developing socio-pragmatic proficiency in the workplace among skilled migrants with English as an Additional Language (EAL). We are now engaged in evaluating the results of the instruction, not only in the classroom, but also in workplaces where the migrants have been placed as interns.

Deaf Studies in Literacy

This chapter summarizes the major trends that run through the chapters of the Oxford Handbook on Deaf Studies in Literacy and contextualizes suggestions for where researchers and education professionals should turn their attention. Three clear trends emerged in the curating of the chapters. First, we have made notable progress in our understanding of the literacy process, but many aspects of literacy were left behind. This must be rectified. Second, it is time for a renewed focus on stronger, more robust research that takes the field beyond simple correlations to explanations of causation. These should elucidate the remaining pieces needed to understand fully the components of the literacy process. Third, research and practice must cease working in silos. Significant collaboration between the university and the classroom must become the norm. Finally, information for the purpose of information should no longer be the purpose of research. Rather, collaborative researchers must focus on the development of classroom and home interventions that will improve literacy outcomes for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners.