Using Components of Corpus Linguistics and Annotation Tools in Sign Language Teaching

Abstract

As an interdisciplinary group of people working on automatic sign language recognition, authors of the article developed concept how to facilitate the process of understanding Sign Language (SL) utterances by hearing learners. Concept is based on Polish SL, and was created in response to signals from the students who indicate understanding of SL messages as the hardest part of learning process, but can be easily adapted to other SLs. In comparison to speech corpora, SL databases constitute only a small fraction. From the other side thanks to the Internet there are available video recordings with native-signers, as well as tools which enable their analysis. Developed concept is based on using one of the available annotation tools used by professionals all over the world to describe SL corpora in SL classes. Making annotations helps students in understanding foreign language, corpora analysis helps to find objective rules governing SL, computer assisted language learning can be attractive way of study and Internet – great source of materials.