Swedish Sign Research Articles

Sign duration and signing rate in British Sign Language, Dutch Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language

In this article, we look at sign duration and signing rate in corpora of three sign languages – British Sign Language (BSL), Dutch Sign Language (NGT), and Swedish Sign Language (STS). We investigate whether token frequency and sociolinguistic variables (e.g., age, gender, region) influence the production rate of signing. Following Zipf’s law of abbreviation, we see that a sign’s duration is negatively correlated with its frequency. Both sign duration and signing rate are found to correlate with signer age, in that older signers have longer durations and lower rates than younger signers. Signers' gender, family (deaf or hearing), and age of exposure have no effect on duration or signing rate. For NGT and STS, there is no effect of region on either duration or rate. However, in the BSL data, duration and signing rate vary with region. The overall findings align with previous work on spoken languages, particularly that frequency and aging are correlated with word length and production rate, thus demonstrating such patterns across modalities of language.

Language learning challenges for adult deaf migrants in Sweden: experiences from a four-year project

ABSTRACT Upon arrival in Sweden, adult migrants are required to learn Swedish at the earliest opportunity. This requirement also extends to deaf migrants, regardless of their linguistic and educational backgrounds. This paper presents findings and experiences derived from a project focused on the multilingual situation of deaf migrants in Sweden. Some deaf migrants have acquired sign language skills from birth and have received formal education, while others have had limited exposure to language and have never attended school. Due to a scarcity of interpreters proficient in different sign languages and many deaf migrants lacking knowledge of such languages, it becomes imperative for them to participate in courses aimed at learning Swedish Sign Language (STS). This enables effective communication with the Swedish Migration Agency and other authorities through STS-interpreters. They are also required, similar to other migrants, to acquire proficiency in reading and writing Swedish. Paradoxically, Sweden imposes the same education duration requirements on deaf migrants as hearing who only learn one language. Consequently, deaf migrants encounter challenges in attaining sufficient language proficiency level for successful integration into Swedish society. The paper highlights challenges and emphasizes the importance of addressing the unique language-learning needs of deaf migrants to facilitate their successful integration.

Finding continuers in Swedish Sign Language

Abstract In this paper, I use methods from corpus linguistics and computer vision to find candidates for continuers – that is, conversational markers that signal comprehension and encouragement to the primary speaker/signer to continue – in a corpus of Swedish Sign Language (STS). Using different methods based on distributional patterns in conversational turns, I identify a small set of manual signs – particularly the sign JA@ub ‘yes’ – that exhibit the characteristics associated with continuers, such as occurring frequently in repeated sequences of overlapping but noncompetitive turns. The identified signs correspond to those found in previous research on manual backchannels in STS, demonstrating that quantitative, distribution-based approaches are successful in identifying continuers. In a second step, I employ methods from computer vision to analyze a subset of the corpus videos, and find that the continuer candidates show interesting form characteristics: they are small in visible articulation and thus conversationally unobtrusive by often being articulated low and with little movement in signing space. The results show that distribution-based approaches can be used successfully with sign language corpus data, and that the nature of continuers exhibits similarities across modalities of human language.

Sign language interpreters’ experiences of remote interpreting in light of COVID-19 in Sweden

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the work of sign language interpreters from mostly face-to-face assignments to remote interpreting. The overall aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of interpreters working between spoken Swedish and Swedish Sign Language (STS) during the adjustment to remote interpreting (RI) due to COVID-19. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 26 sign language interpreters and analysed with qualitative content analysis. The interpreters represented 19 of the 21 regions in Sweden. The results of the analysis revealed five themes: (a) a comparison of interpreting settings; (b) adaptability; (c) social relations and interaction; (d) technical equipment; and (e) sustainability. Within the themes’ multifaceted experiences of both positive and negative aspects from a micro to a macro level were reported. This rather new setting for interpreters is still in transformation; thus, follow-ups are necessary.

Better letter: iconicity in the manual alphabets of American Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language

Abstract While iconicity has sometimes been defined as meaning transparency, it is better defined as a subjective phenomenon bound to an individual’s perception and influenced by their previous language experience. In this article, I investigate the subjective nature of iconicity through an experiment in which 72 deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing (signing and non-signing) participants rate the iconicity of individual letters of the American Sign Language (ASL) and Swedish Sign Language (STS) manual alphabets. It is shown that L1 signers of ASL and STS rate their own (L1) manual alphabet as more iconic than the foreign one. Hearing L2 signers of ASL and STS exhibit the same pattern as L1 signers, showing an iconic preference for their own (L2) manual alphabet. In comparison, hearing non-signers show no general iconic preference for either manual alphabet. Across all groups, some letters are consistently rated as more iconic in one sign language than the other, illustrating general iconic preferences. Overall, the results align with earlier findings from sign language linguistics that point to language experience affecting iconicity ratings and that one’s own signs are rated as more iconic than foreign signs with the same meaning, even if similar iconic mappings are used.

Translation as Language Making in Sign Language Revitalisation

This article highlights the translator's crucial role in the revitalisation of the severely endangered FinlandSwedish Sign Language (FinSSL). By giving voice to professional translators, filling in lexical gaps in FinSSL as part of the translation task, we discuss the concept of “Language Making” in relation to language revitalisation. The data of the study comprises interviews with two translators responsible for translating official information by authorities in Finland from Swedish into FinSSL. The translators taking part in the study identify areas where lexical gaps occur and draw on different resources for filling in gaps. When filling in lexical gaps, the translators use both written Swedish and Finnish Sign Language as well as Swedish Sign Language and Finnish, thus showing a flexible view of linguistic borders not commonly recognised in Translation Studies (cf. Kuusi et al. 2022). Besides resources such as using dictionaries and contacting peers, the community of signers are given a normative role in the choice of signs for filling in gaps. In addition to a professional responsibility for the translation, the translators show moral responsibility in relation to the audience of the translation and in mediating information to the FinSSL community. However, they do not explicitly express a responsibility for the development of the language itself.

Self‐Repair in Hearing L2 Learners’ Spontaneous Signing: A Developmental Study

AbstractThis study presents a corpus‐based investigation of self‐repairs in hearing adult L2 (M2L2, second modality and second language) learners of Swedish Sign Language (Svenskt teckenspråk, STS). This study analyses M2L2 learners’ STS conversations with a deaf signer and examines the learners’ self‐repair practices and whether there are differences among learners of different proficiency levels. This provides a description of characteristics of self‐repair made by M2L2 learners as well as the frequency and distribution of self‐repair categories. The results show that the frequency of self‐repair decreases with increased proficiency, at least after the initial stage. Furthermore, the self‐initiated repair categories of the beginners are often phonological repairs, while intermediate learners tend to carry out self‐repairs at the lexical and syntactic level. The results also reveal a specific type of STS repair linked to fingerspelling repairs. We discuss the effects of second modality learning as well as the relationship between monitoring and language proficiency.

Development of a Sign Repetition Task for Novice L2 Signers

ABSTRACT ENGLISH: There is a lack of tests available for assessing sign language proficiency among L2 learners. We have therefore developed a sign repetition test, SignRepL2, with a specific focus on the phonological features of signs. This paper describes the two phases of developing this test. In the first phase, content was developed in the form of 50 items with sentence lengths between one and three signs. Then, when a period of teaching revealed a ceiling effect in the first version, a second version was developed with 40 items varying between one and four signs. Test scores revealed increasing proficiency in Swedish Sign Language during education, and that mouth actions have a lower degree of accuracy than manual parameters.

“Why the long nose?”: A sociolinguistic analysis of deaf migrants’ language learning experiences in adult education

Linguistic skills are often seen as valuable capital necessary for migrants to successfully integrate into society. As part of Sweden's integration policy, deaf migrants are provided with opportunities to learn Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. Using an ethnographic approach comprising of classroom observations and semi-structured interviews in four folk high schools in Sweden, this study examines how deaf migrants’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence their language learning experiences. The study also explores different misunderstandings that have arisen as a result of not having the relevant linguistic resources necessary for efficient communication. The findings show the complexity of language learning and how this process is influenced by several social factors such as communication with family growing up, educational experiences or lack thereof, and cultural differences.

Which Aspects of Visual Motivation Aid the Implicit Learning of Signs at First Exposure?

AbstractWe investigated whether sign‐naïve learners can infer and learn the meaning of signs after minimal exposure to continuous, naturalistic input in the form of a weather forecast in Swedish Sign Language. Participants were L1‐English adults. Two experimental groups watched the forecast once (n = 40) or twice (n = 42); a control group did not (n = 42). Participants were then asked to assign meaning to 22 target signs. We explored predictors of meaning assignment with respect to item occurrence frequency and three facets of visual motivation: iconicity, transparency, and gesture similarity. Meaning assignment was enhanced by exposure and item frequency, thereby providing evidence for implicit language learning in a new modality, even under challenging naturalistic conditions. Accuracy was also contingent upon iconicity and transparency, but not upon gesture similarity. Meaning assignment at first exposure is thus visually motivated, although the overall low accuracy rates and further qualitative analyses suggest that visually motivated meaning assignment is not always successful.

“They forget and forget all the time.” The complexity of teaching adult deaf emergent readers print literacy

Abstract This article highlight and discuss the complex situation when deaf adults who are emergent readers learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish in parallel. As Swedish appears primarily in its written form, they also have to develop reading and writing skills. Study data comes from ethnographically created video recordings of classroom interaction and interviews with teachers and participants. The analysis reveals that while the migrants successively learn basic STS for interacting with other deaf people, learning Swedish takes a different path. The migrants struggle with learning basic reading and writing skills, vocabulary, and grammar. Furthermore, the instruction is highly repetitive, but unstructured and sprawled, using STS to explain and connect signs with written equivalents. The teachers testify in interviews that it seems very difficult for the emergent readers to learn Swedish on a level good enough to cope in Swedish society, which, in turn, puts them in a vulnerable position.

List constructions in two signed languages

AbstractThis paper examines how signers make lists. One way is to use the fingers on the signer’s nondominant hand to enumerate items on a list. The signer points to these list-fingers with the dominant hand. Previous analyses considered lists to be nondominant, one-handed signs, and thus were called list buoys because the nondominant hand often remains in place during the production of the list. The pointing hand was largely ignored as a nonlinguistic gesture. We take a constructional approach based on Cognitive Grammar. In our approach, we analyze lists as a type of pointing construction consisting of two meaningful components: a pointing device (the pointing hand) used to direct attention; and a Place, also consisting of form and a meaning. Using data from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Finland–Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL), we examine the semantic role of each component, showing how the nondominant list-fingers identify and track discourse referents, and how the pointing hand is used to create higher-order entities by grouping list-fingers. We also examine the integration of list constructions and their components with other conventional constructions.

Written products and writing processes in Swedish deaf and hard of hearing children: an explorative study on the impact of linguistic background.

The small body of research on writing and writing processes in the group of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children has shown that this group struggles more with writing than their hearing peers. This article aims to explore in what ways the DHH group differs from their peers regarding the written product and the writing processes. Participants are all in the age span 10-12 years old and include: (a) 12 DHH children with knowledge of Swedish sign language (Svenskt teckenspråk, STS) as well as spoken Swedish, (b) 10 age-matched hearing children of deaf adults (CODA) who know STS, (c) 14 age-matched hearing peers with no STS knowledge. More specifically we investigate how text length and lexical properties relate to writing processes such as planning (measured through pauses) and revision, and how the background factors of age, gender, hearing and knowledge of STS predict the outcome in product and process. The data consists of picture-elicited narratives collected with keystroke logging. The overall results show that age is a strong predictor for writing fluency, longer texts and more sophisticated lexicon for all the children. This confirms theories on writing development which stress that when children have automatized basic low-level processes such as transcription and spelling, this will free up cognitive space for engaging in high-level processes, such as planning and revision-which in turn will result in more mature texts. What characterizes the DHH group is slower writing fluency, higher lexical density, due to omitted function words, and extensive revisions (both deletions and insertions) on word level and below. One explanation for the last finding is that limitations in the auditory input lead to more uncertainty regarding correct and appropriate lexical choices, as well as spelling. The article contributes with more specific knowledge on what is challenging during writing for DHH children with knowledge of STS and spoken Swedish in middle school, in the developmental stage when basic writing skills are established.

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.

Práticas translinguísticas na educação de imigrantes adultos surdos

ABSTRACT In the last decade, Sweden has received many deaf migrants with very diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds. When arriving in Sweden, they are expected to learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish. For this study, we have used data from project Mulder, a four-year research project that aims to generate knowledge about deaf migrants’ multilingual situation in Sweden. The focus is on two folk high schools with programmes designated for deaf migrants. In this article, we describe how adult education for deaf migrants is organised in Sweden and examine how translanguaging practices are formed there. We found that translanguaging is a natural and common part of the multilingual classrooms, but also that the opportunities to translanguage depend highly on the individual’s repertoires and whether particular individuals have one or more languages in common or have a lingua franca. We also found that translanguaging is not always helpful in learning contexts if the teachers are not conscious and insightful when they mix languages.

Second language acquisition of depicting signs

AbstractThis paper concerns the acquisition of the sign lexicon in L2 learners of Swedish Sign Language. Sampled data (conversation and narrative retelling) from a longitudinal learner corpus with 16 adult L2 signers was analyzed and compared with data from nine L1 signers. The use of three broad types of signs was analyzed: lexical signs, partly-lexical signs (i.e. depicting signs) and non-lexical signs. The results revealed some differences between L1 and L2 signers, especially with regard to depicting signs. The number of depicting signs used by L2 learners increased over time, approaching the target language use. Qualitatively, we observed differences between L1 and L2 signers in their use of depicting signs, related to handshape choice and sign constructions. We discuss these findings in light of previous research linked to L2 vocabulary as well as the role of gestural knowledge in sign L2 acquisition.

Writing Development in DHH Students: A Bimodal Bilingual Approach.

This article describes the lexical and syntactic development of written narratives in 24 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students aged between 8 and 18 and takes into account how their varying linguistic backgrounds may predict their written performance. All participants use spoken Swedish, but the study also considers their proficiency in Swedish Sign language, which ranged from zero to fluent. Their narrative texts were analyzed in regard to syntax and lexicon, which demonstrated a strong developmental trend in which increased age predicted more complex texts. Age of acquisition did not predict any writing outcome, which is suggested to occur because all participants were exposed to language early, that is, within the critical time window for language acquisition. Sign language proficiency showed a tendency to predict adjective density and number of clauses, which encourages future research in this area, especially since this connection argues for the benefits of early access to a language and the positive relationship between sign language proficiency and writing.

"They have no language"

This article is based on data from an empirical research project on the multilingual situation of deaf migrants in Sweden. Deaf migrants attending folk high schools are a heterogeneous group with various language and educational backgrounds. Some of them have grown up with limited or no access to a spoken or signed language while others have grown up learning multiple languages. In those schools, the migrants learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish as well as about Swedish society. The study uses an ethnographic approach, and data has been created through participant observations and interviews with teachers and migrants in three folk high schools in different municipalities in Sweden. The analysis reveals that language ideologies are present in these schools, such as what constitutes a language and what status different languages and other repertoires have. In addition, STS appears to be the only acceptable language for communication within the schools. Another finding is that the Eurocentric perspective on ‘language’ among researchers and teachers often collides with the migrants who have different experiences of language use. Furthermore, the study reveals that some migrants, after some time in school, begin to view their previous repertoires used for communication as inferior to STS. It also emerges that the teachers lack the knowledge necessary to understand what it means to learn a language formally for the first time as an adult. In order to develop teachers’ knowledge to ensure social justice, research on adult deaf migrants’ language acquisition within school contexts is essential.

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.

L2M1 and L2M2 Acquisition of Sign Lexicon: The Impact of Multimodality on the Sign Second Language Acquisition.

In second language research, the concept of cross-linguistic influence or transfer has frequently been used to describe the interaction between the first language (L1) and second language (L2) in the L2 acquisition process. However, less is known about the L2 acquisition of a sign language in general and specifically the differences in the acquisition process of L2M2 learners (learners learning a sign language for the first time) and L2M1 learners (signers learning another sign language) from a multimodal perspective. Our study explores the influence of modality knowledge on learning Swedish Sign Language through a descriptive analysis of the sign lexicon in narratives produced by L2M1 and L2M2 learners, respectively. A descriptive mixed-methods framework was used to analyze narratives of adult L2M1 (n = 9) and L2M2 learners (n = 15), with a focus on sign lexicon, i.e., use and distribution of the sign types such as lexical signs, depicting signs (classifier predicates), fingerspelling, pointing, and gestures. The number and distribution of the signs are later compared between the groups. In addition, a comparison with a control group consisting of L1 signers (n = 9) is provided. The results suggest that L2M2 learners exhibit cross-modal cross-linguistic transfer from Swedish (through higher usage of lexical signs and fingerspelling). L2M1 learners exhibits same-modal cross-linguistic transfer from L1 sign languages (through higher usage of depicting signs and use of signs from L1 sign language and international signs). The study suggests that it is harder for L2M2 learners to acquire the modality-specific lexicon, despite possible underlying gestural knowledge. Furthermore, the study suggests that L2M1 learners’ access to modality-specific knowledge, overlapping access to gestural knowledge and iconicity, facilitates faster L2 lexical acquisition, which is discussed from the perspective of linguistic relativity (including modality) and its role in sign L2 acquisition.