Norwegian Sign Language Research Articles

"Your Turn!": Using Finger Pointing and PALM-UP Actions to Ask Questions in Norwegian Sign Language

Abstract: Researchers examining the structure of questions in signed languages, often using elicited data from informants, have proposed that there are specific manual and nonmanual actions produced by signers to indicate different question types (e.g., Zeshan 2004), for example, raised eyebrows for polar questions. In the current study, we add to this body of work with an investigation into the use of two common interactional behaviors—finger pointing and palm-up actions—as they occur in questions asked during naturalistic conversations in Norwegian Sign Language. The interactional work finger pointing and palm-up actions can achieve in various settings is well-documented (e.g., Bavelas 1994), and their presence in question contexts has been observed in Norwegian Sign Language (Ferrara 2020). In total, 455 questions produced by thirty-four deaf signers were examined as they appeared across dyadic, triadic, and multiparty conversations recorded in the Norwegian Sign Language Corpus (Ferrara and Ringsø 2021; Ferrara and Bø 2022; Ferrara in prep). These questions were then examined for the presence of interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions. Analyses firstly revealed that interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions appeared in many of the questions examined. Within this subset of the data, further analysis showed that these forms may be the only manual action that signals an utterance as a question, or they may occur in combination with other manual (e.g., wh-question forms: how, where) and nonmanual actions (e.g., furrowed or raised brows). In many of these questions, the two forms appear in utterance-final position, thereby indexing an interlocutor in order to solicit a response. Such initial observations suggest that these two manual actions must be considered as part of the constellation of behaviors that characterize the highly indexical and interactional nature of question-asking in Norwegian Sign Language.

Repair receipts in Norwegian Sign Language multiperson conversation

This paper describes practices for repair receipt in sequences of other-initiation of self-repair in informal Norwegian Signed Language multiperson conversation. Its main foci are how signers mark their (now-)understanding by employing upward or downward nods and withdrawal of mutual gaze and upper body. The multimodal analysis is illustrated with multilinear, glossed transcripts, comic-strip inspired graphic transcripts and videoclips. The analysis is conducted on a collection of 112 cases of other-initiation of self-repair. A simple quantitative breakdown shows the distribution of different embodied practices across different sequential positions, and some deviant cases are described. Among the findings is that even though these explicit repair receipts sometimes occur as responses to non-closing (failed) self-repairs, they are far more common in the closing cases. Whether the trouble-source turn is a first-pair part, a second-pair part or a telling also influences whether an explicit repair receipt is produced. Data are in Norwegian Sign Language with English translations.

A Dataset for recognition of Norwegian Sign Language

Machine learning is a powerful tool in developing sign language recognition models, significantly enhancing communication accessibility for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. However, such models' creation relies on the availability of comprehensive datasets, which are currently scarce for specific sign languages, particularly for Norwegian Sign Language (NSL). This paper introduces a unique dataset created to address this gap. The dataset, comprising 24,300 images of 27 NSL letters, was captured under varying conditions to represent each sign comprehensively. A man and a woman performed the signs. The goal of creating this dataset was to provide a robust foundation for further research in NSL recognition.
 The dataset is hosted by the Department of Applied Data Science at Noroff University College, Norway, and is freely accessible [1] at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/3cfrj4vd4m/1.

Comparative Analysis of Image Classification Models for Norwegian Sign Language Recognition

Communication is integral to every human’s life, allowing individuals to express themselves and understand each other. This process can be challenging for the hearing-impaired population, who rely on sign language for communication due to the limited number of individuals proficient in sign language. Image classification models can be used to create assistive systems to address this communication barrier. This paper conducts a comprehensive literature review and experiments to find the state of the art in sign language recognition. It identifies a lack of research in Norwegian Sign Language (NSL). To address this gap, we created a dataset from scratch containing 24,300 images of 27 NSL alphabet signs and performed a comparative analysis of various machine learning models, including the Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on the dataset. The evaluation of these models was based on accuracy and computational efficiency. Based on these metrics, our findings indicate that SVM and CNN were the most effective models, achieving accuracies of 99.9% with high computational efficiency. Consequently, the research conducted in this report aims to contribute to the field of NSL recognition and serve as a foundation for future studies in this area.

Licence to inform: Norwegian sign language interpreters in a bureaucratic organisation

This article discusses how Norwegian sign language interpreters reflect on the discrepancy between (a) being defined professionally by their impartiality on behalf of all participants in an interpreted event, while they (b) work for a service organisation that ultimately defines sign language interpreting services as a measure to “enhance functioning” for deaf and hard of hearing people. Interviews with sign language interpreters show that their institutional affiliation to a large bureaucratic organisation influences how they reflect on their potential scope of action as interpreters. The article suggests that without a conscious and continuous discussion about the tension between being educated and defined as impartial language workers while also working for an organisation with a mandate to assist deaf or hard of hearing people, sign language interpreters may be caught in a process where they struggle to define their profession and are thus reverted to a preprofessional status as deaf peoples’ “helpers.”

Meaning-making in tactile cross-signing context

Cross-linguistic studies of tactile sign language are still not widely performed internationally. For this study, four deafblind informants in two different tactile sign languages, Swedish Sign Language and Norwegian Sign Language, participated in the recording at a social and cultural workshop where they worked together to create a mutual understanding in their conversations. The study provides new information on how tactile and bodily signals are incorporated in dialogues where the speakers are not familiar with each other's signing. The results illuminate various tactile communicative strategies used in negotiating in cross-signing dialogues. By the selected analyzed examples, this study contributes to knowledge of how language and interaction skills are brought into the process of understanding each other, despite linguistic barriers.

Indexing turn-beginnings in Norwegian Sign Language conversation

Abstract It is well known that signers and speakers routinely produce finger points during interaction. While the referential functions of such finger points have received great attention from researchers, they are also used to manage interactions between interlocutors. These functions are less understood and have received less research focus. The current study helps to redress this gap in the literature by investigating how finger pointing is used to index and coordinate turn-beginnings in a corpus of 11 semi-naturalistic (Norwegian) signed language conversations, involving between two to five signers (3.4 hours of signing). The data was initially annotated in ELAN and then further qualitative analysis was conducted. This investigation revealed that finger pointing effectively indexes previous and upcoming discourse, thereby binding sequences of conversational moves and guiding their trajectory, helping signers to coordinate turn transitions and interaction as it unfolds.

Conrad Svendsens beskrivelse av norsk tegnspråk

This text presents an introductory investigation of Conrad Svendsen’s analysis of Norwegian Sign Language, as it appears in a set of handwritten notes that have been preserved after him, supposedly from around 1910. The notes are significant for the history of the field, since little material has been preserved about Norwegian Sign Language before the end of the 20th century. Svendsen was an important personality, at first in Christiania’s [Oslo’s] community for the education of deaf children, then in the Church’s services for the deaf community, and finally in the establishment of a «home for the deaf». Since Svendsen’s own sign language political views have paradoxical features, it is interesting to find out to what extent he had a real understanding of what sign language is. The introductory investigation concludes that Svendsen had a good understanding of many aspects of Norwegian Sign Language and also was able to articulate well his pedagogical presentation of the material. However, he seems to assume that the sign language is less conventionalized than we have a reason today to believe that it may have been in his day. And to be able to assess how autonomous his understanding was, a closer investigation is needed of how he may have been influenced by earlier authors, not least in the German-speaking world.

A cross-linguistic comparison of reference across five signed languages

Abstract Do signers of different signed languages establish and maintain reference the same way? Here we compare how signers of five Western deaf signed languages coordinate fully conventionalized forms with more richly improvised semiotics to identify and talk about referents of varying agency. The five languages (based on a convenience sample) are Auslan, Irish Sign Language, Finnish Sign Language, Norwegian Sign Language, and Swedish Sign Language. Using ten retellings of Frog, Where Are You? from each language, we analyze tokens of referring expressions with respect to: (a) activation status (new vs. maintained vs. re-introduced); (b) semiotic strategy (e.g., pointing sign, fingerspelling, enactment); and (c) animacy (human vs. animal vs. inanimate object). Statistical analysis reveals many similarities and some differences across the languages. For example, signers of each language typically used conventionalized forms to identify new referents, and less conventional strategies to maintain and reintroduce referents. Differences were mainly observed in relation to the patterning across animacy and activation categories and in the use of fingerspelled words from ambient spoken/written languages. We suggest that doing reference in these signed languages involves both signed language-specific and ecology-specific strategies. The latter may be attributed to the different social and historical trajectories of each language.

How to Use Comic-Strip Graphics to Represent Signed Conversation

ABSTRACT This article explores comic-strip-inspired graphic transcripts as a tool to present conversational video data from informal multiperson conversations in a signed language, specifically Norwegian Sign Language (NTS). The interlocutors’ utterances are represented as English translations in speech bubbles rather than glossed or phonetically transcribed NTS, and the article discusses advantages and disadvantages of this unconventional choice. To contextualize this exploration of graphic transcripts, a small-scale analysis of a stretch of interaction is embedded in the article. The extract shows conversational trouble and repair occurring when interlocutors respond to utterances produced while they as recipients were looking elsewhere. The NTS extract is introduced with a short sample of multilinear, Jefferson-inspired glossed transcript and then presented in full as graphic transcript. The article concludes that for presenting nonsensitive data, graphic transcripts have several advantages, such as improved access to visual features, flexible granularity, and enhanced readability. Data are in Norwegian Sign Language with English translations.

Psychometric properties of the Inventory of Life Quality in children and adolescents in Norwegian Sign Language

BackgroundSeveral studies have assessed the Quality of Life (QoL) in Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and adolescents. The findings from these studies, however, vary from DHH children reporting lower QoL than their typically hearing (TH) peers to similar QoL and even higher QoL. These differences have been attributed to contextual and individual factors such as degree of access to communication, the participants’ age as well as measurement error. Using written instead of sign language measures has been shown to underestimate mental health symptoms in DHH children and adolescents. It is expected that translating generic QoL measures into sign language will help gain more accurate reports from DHH children and adolescents, thus eliminating one of the sources for the observed differences in research conclusions. Hence, the aim of the current study is to translate the Inventory of Life Quality in Children and Adolescents into Norwegian Sign Language (ILC-NSL) and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the self-report of the ILC-NSL and the written Norwegian version (ILC-NOR) for DHH children and adolescents. The parent report was included for comparison. Associations between child self-report and parent-report are also provided.MethodsFifty-six DHH children completed the ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR in randomized order while their parents completed the parent-report of the ILC-NOR and a questionnaire on hearing- and language-related information. Internal consistency was examined using Dillon-Goldstein’s rho and Cronbach’s alpha, ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients. Construct validity was examined by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).ResultsRegarding reliability, the internal consistency was established as acceptable to good, whereas the comparison of the ILC-NSL with the ILC-NOR demonstrated closer correspondence for the adolescent version of the ILC than for the child version. The construct validity, as evaluated by PLS-SEM, resulted in an acceptable fit for the proposed one-factor model for both language versions for adolescents as well as the complete sample.ConclusionThe reliability and validity of the ILC-NSL seem promising, especially for the adolescent version, even though the validation was based on a small sample of DHH children and adolescents.

Changes in Educational Planning for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Scandinavia over the Last Three Decades

Approaches to deaf education in Scandinavia have been shaped and buffeted by controversies and debates about language, educational policy, and new technology. By way of thematic analysis of the content of national policy papers, this study provides a history and comparison of educational planning in Scandinavia over the last 30 years. The overall finding was that educational planning in Scandinavia has been similar over the years. In parallel, these countries adopted a bilingual-bicultural approach to deaf education 30 years ago and then, more recently, shifted towards an auditory-oral approach that makes less use of sign language. However, the study also found differences. While Denmark has increasingly focused efforts on auditory-oral education, Sweden has maintained an approach that seeks to protect minority languages and cultures, and Norway has developed an approach that mixes mainstreaming in local community schools and the protection of rights to a specialist curriculum in Norwegian Sign Language.

Multiple Other-Initiations of Repair in Norwegian Sign Language

AbstractNot all other-initiations of repair (OIR) are instantly followed by a functional self-repair that restores the progress of the conversation. Despite previous observations of OIRs generally leading to restored progress after one single-repair initiation, data from a multiperson conversational corpus of Norwegian Sign Language (NTS) show that 68% of 112 individual repair initiations occur in multiple OIR sequences. This article identifies three different trajectories of multiple OIR sequences in the NTS data, which are as follows: (1) a trouble source being targeted by more than one repair initiation, (2) the self-repair becomes a new trouble source, or (3) the repair initiation becomes a new trouble source. The high frequency of multiple OIR sequences provides an opportunity to quantitatively investigate how the various formats of repair initiation are distributed in single- and multiple-OIR sequences, how they occur as first or subsequent, and whether they restore the progress of the conversation or are followed by another repair initiation.

Other-initiations of repair in Norwegian Sign Language

During the last five decades, a substantial amount of research has been conducted into conversational repair (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977), and especially other-initiation of repair (OIR). A vast part of the research has been on spoken English, without considering or having access to embodied practices. Through a series of examples, this explorative paper provides a brief overview of formats and subtypes of other-initiation of self-repair employed in Norwegian Sign Language (NTS). Special attention is given to the implicit open-class repair-initiation “freeze-look”, as identified by Manrique (2016), Manrique and Enfield (2015), and Manrique, Enfield, Levinson, Crasborn, and Floyd (2017) in Argentine Sign Language, and to the subtype of restricted repair-initiations categorized as candidate offers. The data has been extracted from a corpus of informal multi-person conversations among deaf adult co-workers, recorded at their workplaces.
 The results show a high degree of overlap with formats found in spoken languages, but also highlight features that seem to be unique to signed languages and the visual mode of communication. The examples presented take the form of summaries, transcriptions, uncensored video clips, and series of stills. 
 

Validation of the Strengths and Difficulties Self-Report in Norwegian Sign Language.

The majority of studies on mental health in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children report a higher level of mental health problems. Inconsistencies in reports of prevalence of mental health problems have been found to be related to a number of factors such as language skills, cognitive ability, heterogeneous samples as well as validity problems caused by using written measures designed for typically hearing children. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Norwegian Sign Language (NSL; SDQ-NSL) and in written Norwegian (SDQ-NOR). Forty-nine DHH children completed the SDQ-NSL as well as the SDQ-NOR in randomized order and their parents completed the parent version of the SDQ-NOR and a questionnaire on hearing and language-related information. Internal consistency was examined using Dillon-Goldstein's rho, test-retest reliability using intraclass correlations, construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were established as acceptable to good. CFA resulted in a best fit for the proposed five-factor model for both versions, although not all fit indices reached acceptable levels. The reliability and validity of the SDQ-NSL seem promising even though the validation was based on a small sample size.

Coordinating signs and eye gaze in the depiction of directions and spatial scenes by fluent and L2 signers of Norwegian Sign Language

ABSTRACTThe current study investigates the coordination of signs and eye gaze during depictions of directions and spatial scenes by fluent and second language (L2) signers of Norwegian Sign Language. First, findings show that fluent and L2 signers make different choices regarding the perspective they use to depict spatial scenes. Second, there is variation within and across groups in relation to how eye gaze is directed during these depictions. Findings suggest that eye gaze is used to establish a vantage point upon a depicted scene, but L2 learners may not always engage in this type of coordination. This study contributes to our understanding of how visual perspective is depicted in signed languages and has implications for signed language pedagogy.

Spatial Vantage Points in Norwegian Sign Language

Abstract Previous studies on perspective in spatial signed language descriptions suggest a basic dichotomy between either a route or a survey perspective, which entails either the signer being conceptualized as a mobile agent within a life-sized scene or the signer in a fixed position as an external observer of a scaled-down scene. We challenge this dichotomy by investigating the particular couplings of vantage point position and mobility engaged during various types of spatial language produced across eight naturalistic conversations in Norwegian Sign Language. Spatial language was annotated for the purpose of the segment, the size of the environment described, the signs produced, and the location and mobility of vantage points. Analysis revealed that survey and route perspectives, as characterized in the literature, do not adequately account for the range of vantage point combinations observed in conversations (e.g., external, but mobile, vantage points). There is also some preliminary evidence that the purpose of the spatial language and the size of the environments described may also play a role in how signers engage vantage points. Finally, the study underscores the importance of investigating spatial language within naturalistic conversational contexts.

How sign language interpreters use multimodal actions to coordinate turn-taking in group work between deaf and hearing upper secondary school students

Abstract This study examines interpreted group work situations involving deaf and hearing senior high school students, using Norwegian Sign Language and spoken Norwegian. The research question is: how does the sign language interpreter explicitly coordinate turn-taking in group work dialogues among deaf and hearing students? Video recordings of authentic learning situations constitute the basis for analysis of how a sign language interpreter uses multimodal actions to convey information that is used by the deaf and hearing students in establishing a shared focus of attention and thus coordinating their turn-taking. Five types of actions were recurrently identified: construction of visual gestures; timing of the interpreter’s input; use of gaze to negotiate for the deaf students’ speaking turns; left-right shifts in body position to convey information about which of the hearing students is speaking; and backward-forward shifts in body position to negotiate for shared attention. The analysis draws mainly on concepts developed by Goffman (1959, 1981), Goodwin (1994, 2000, 2007) and Wadensjö (1998). The discussion examines implications for the educational interpreter’s role set (Sarangi 2010, 2011), and the dual responsibility s/he fulfils by not only interpreting the students’ utterances, but also explicitly coordinating their interaction.

The Baobab: Translanguaging in a multimodal sign language translation project

AbstractThis article offers a case study of language ideologies and languaging in the translation of a bilingual bimodal iPad storybook app,The Baobab Tree, from American Sign Language and written English to Norwegian Sign Language and written Norwegian. Heeding Canagarajah’s (2011, Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy.Applied Linguistics Review2. 1–28) call for studies which look beyond the product to the processes involved by people navigating linguistic and semiotic diverse environments, this article looks at choices made by project team members in a language locality (Pennycook 2010,Language as a local practice. London: Routledge.) shaped by multiple language ideologies. During the process of translation the project team adopted a flexible-multiple model of pluriliteracy (Garcia 2009,Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Wiley-Blackwell) at odds with their initially more rigid preconceptions of languages as bounded entities. The concept of semiotic assemblages (Pennycook 2017, Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages.International Journal of Multilingualism14(3). 269–282) is helpful in showing how languaging choices are influenced by language ideologies, sociocultural values, and the history of language practices among project team members in a particular language locality.

Depicting and describing meanings with iconic signs in Norwegian Sign Language

AbstractThere is growing momentum towards a theory of languaging that acknowledges the diverse semiotic repertoires people use with each other. This paper contributes to this goal by providing further evidence from signed language discourse. In particular, we examine iconic signs from Norwegian Sign Language, which can be interpreted as both “regular” lexical signs and token depictions. This dual potential is manipulated by signers in context. We analyze these signs asdescriptionsanddepictions, two different modes of representation. Then we compare these signs to some of the description and depiction that occurs in spoken language discourse. In this way we aim to present some of the advantages of using description and depiction in analyses of communication and interaction. By doing this, we also forge links between the languaging of speakers and the languaging of signers.