Teaching Sign Language Research Articles

Socially Assistive Robots Serving Children with Special Needs (Autism, Cancer, Deafness/Hearing Loss)

One of the main challenges in social and cognitive research is relevant to our understanding of how to perceive and interact with others in the world around us. With the dramatic growth of emerging technologies in our societies, such as social robots, computer graphic generated avatars, and virtual reality devices, the complexity of this challenge is growing. As a result, interdisciplinary educators and researchers strive to determine the extent neurocognitive mechanisms, which support human interaction with artificial agents and tools, have evolved. Hence, a growing number of researchers working within the field of social robotics and engineering are engaged in collaboration with other scientists to utilize their expertise in social cognition, neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology with mutual interests that benefits naturally developing children as well as children with some form of disability and/or illness (i.e. Kids with: autism, cancer, deafness/hearing loss, down syndrome, diabetes, etc.). With the advancement of robotics technology, robots applications have been extended to more general-purpose practices in society such as: the use of robots in clinical and rehabilitation, nursing and elderly care, search and rescue operations, etc. However, for robotics technology to be successful in such environments it is necessary to gain new levels of strength, robustness, physical skills, and improved cognitive ability and intelligence. One faces many challenges on the path to design and construction of social-cognitive robots, the biggest is to build robots that comply with the needs and expectations of the human mind. How we communicate with machines with a higher quality physical and life-like appearance would differ with the way we interact with a computer, cell phone, or other smart devices. Therefore, as a follow up to the classical view of robotic systems, “socially interactive robots” with the capability of engaging social scenarios and interacting with humans have recently become a trendy and upto- date topic. In recent years, the impacts of employing social robots as teaching assistants on enhancing learners’ achievements notably in children with special needs were investigated by various researchers. In addition, these robots can be effectively employed in diverse healthcare applications. For instance, the positive effects of utilizing social robots in decreasing the distress level of children with cancer through establishing affective connection with patients was highlighted. Furthermore, they have been successfully utilized to improve the imitation skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which is known to be one of the core symptoms. In addition, social robots have been designed to play an assistive role in expanding the communication level of deaf and ordinary children in teaching them Sign Language. For instance, it has been noted that for social robots to achieve success in their mission, adaptive user interfaces lead to greater user acceptance and increased teaching efficiency compared to non-adaptive ones. Hence, one need to design and build a robotic architecture capable of simultaneously adjusting the robot’s teaching parameters according to both the user’s past and present performance, adapt the content of training, and then implement it on the social robot to teach sign language based on these parameters in a manner similar to a human teacher. On the other hand, empowering a robot to direct its attention to the most appropriate target at all times during multi-party interactions is another interesting and useful task to establish natural communication between the robot and users. Implementing a social gaze control system suitable for multiperson interactions with the social robot is another challenging topic, which may be done such that the system takes some important verbal and non-verbal social cues into account and at each moment enable the robot to decide socially at which human it should direct its gaze.

ON THE USE OF SIGN LANGUAGE IN TEACHING HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Teaching children with hearing impairment for a long time, mainly a verbal form of education is used in Kazakhstan, based on the development of auditory perception. Subsequently, along with a relatively small number of positive cases, we have a number of generations of deaf citizens who are not able to read and write correctly, express their thoughts, etc. Grown - up children with hearing impairment, despite the efforts of sign language teachers and teachers, still communicate with each other in sign language and use written speech when communicating with hearing people. At the same time, the role of sign language in teaching the deaf cannot be overestimated, since it meets the special educational needs of children with hearing impairment. This article discusses traditional and alternative approaches to teaching the deaf; provides a brief overview of the existing normative legal acts regulating the status of sign language; presents the results of a survey of teachers on the use of sign language in teaching deaf children; identifies strategic aspects and conditions for using of sign language in educational organizations.

Sign names in an intercultural classroom space: practices and perceptions of sign language teachers and students

ABSTRACT This study investigates practices around the bestowal of personal sign names to adult New Zealand Sign Language learners, from both teachers' and students' perspectives. Key findings include that, (1) learners receive similar types of sign names to deaf signers but in different proportions; (2) getting a sign name is regarded as a significant milestone and a valuable commodity in constructing an intercultural identity as a `new signer'; (3) deaf teachers experience pressure of student expectations and cultural sensitivities in negotiating sign names in a classroom context. These findings can inform teacher practices and learner expectations regarding sign name acquisition.

Teaching Chinese Sign Language with a Smartphone

BackgroundThere is a large group of deaf-mutes in the world, and sign language is their major communication tool. Therefore, it’s necessary for the deaf-mutes to communicate with hearing-speech people and the hearing-speech people also have needed to understand sign language, which produces a great demand for sign language teaching. Even though there have already been a large number of books for sign language, it is low efficient to learn sign language with books, even teaching videos. To solve this problem, we develop a smartphone-based interactive Chinese sign language teaching systemfor sign language learning. MethodsThe system provides a learner with some kinds of learning modes and captures the learner’s actions from its front camera of the smartphone. Right now the system provides a vocabulary set with 1000 frequently used words, and the learner can evaluate his/her sign action by subjective or objective comparison. In the mode of word recognition, the users can play any word within the vocabulary and the system will turn the top three retrieved candidates, so it can remind the learners what the sign is. ResultsThis system provides interactive learning for a user to learn sign language high efficiently. The systemadopts an algorithm based on point cloud recognition to evaluate a user’s sign and costs about 700ms inference time for each sample, which meets the real-time requirements. ConclusionThis interactive learning system decreases the communication barriers between the deaf-mutes and hearing-speechers.

Form, frequency and sociolinguistic variation in depicting signs in New Zealand Sign Language

The lexicons and grammars of most signed languages include the use of productive, partly conventionalised semiotic resources, including depicting (‘classifier’) signs. Depicting signs are challenging to annotate and analyse in a corpus, and have to date been mainly described based on experimentally elicited datasets rather than in samples of natural discourse. This study contributes evidence on the distribution and variable use of depicting signs in a socially stratified sample of conversational discourse of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Our investigation examines frequency, form, and correspondence with mouthing. Corpus-based evidence about distributional and usage characteristics of depicting signs has application to the design of reference materials, sign language teaching curricula, and interpreting. We also analyse whether usage of depicting signs varies by social factors of age, gender, ethnicity, finding that the use of depicting signs is more frequent and more diversified among younger signers than older signers, indicating generational change in the language.

Development of an Android-Based Sign Language Education Game Using a Scrum-Game Approach

Sign language is used as a communication tool for deaf children. It is also used by non-disabled as a way of communicating with them. However, not all non-disabled understand sign language since knowledge of sign language is required. Based on interviews among non-disabled and deaf people, including relatives and teachers, they experience miscommunication due to the lack of communication skills using sign language and rely only on lip movements. Sign language is applied to a subject in the State Special School of Banjar City, consisting of BISINDO and SIBI with conventional learning. This research to produce game products for learning sign language can help deaf children learn sign language in schools, especially non-disabled who want to learn sign language. The method used for developing games sign language education uses the SCRUM-Game approach, UML models, BlackBox testing, and usability testing. The sprint iteration consists of two sprints that produce educational sign language games: Alphabet SIBI and BISINDO. Educational game testing uses BlackBox testing with the conclusion that all functionality valid. Usability testing of student deaf responders and non-disabled respondents for efficiency, memorability, and errors is categorized as good. Aspect satisfaction and learnability get an excellent score. Overall, the resulting educational games get a good score. Therefore it is proper to be used .

On the acquisition of complex classifier constructions by L2 learners of a sign language

Sign language learners with a spoken language background face the challenge of acquiring a second language in a different modality. In the course of this endeavor, one of the modality-specific phenomena they encounter is the use of classifier predicates, also known as depicting signs. Classifier predicates contain a meaningful hand configuration that refers to an entity, denoting a salient characteristic of this entity (Zwitserlood, 2003). The use of a classifier predicate allows the signer to indicate the location, motion and orientation of a referent. If two classifier predicates are used simultaneously, the signer can represent the spatial arrangement of both referents (Schembri, Jones and Burnham, 2001). This visual representation is new for learners with a spoken language background. Since there is a paucity of literature on second language (L2) sign language acquisition, there is no empirical evidence on the developmental stages that L2 learners go through in acquiring the devices to produce such visual representations. In this study, we followed 14 novel learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) over a period of two years. The learners were asked to produce sign language descriptions of prompts containing various objects (e.g. cars, bicycles, trucks, human beings and animals) that could be depicted by a classifier predicate. Analyses show that after a year of instruction, the majority of learners are capable of producing scene descriptions featuring two classifier predicates to denote the spatial layout of the objects. The first classifier predicates appear in the data at an early stage, suggesting that the strategy of denoting an object with a meaningful handshape representing the object is not difficult to learn. Furthermore, the data show that learners initially struggle with the orientation of objects and handshape selection. This study is the first to systematically elicit classifier predicates from novel learners for an extended period of time. The results have important implications for the field of sign language pedagogy and teaching.

Development Of A First-Person View-Based Korean Sign Language Education System Using VIVE Hand Tracking

In this study, using VIVE and Tracking, we developed a ‘first-person view-based Korean sign language education system’ that guides sign language handshapes using a 3D virtual hand from the user's point of view and then evaluates the accuracy of the handshapes that learners perform. The learning effects of a Korean sign language education system that guides sign language handshapes using 3D virtual hands in a virtual space and a system that only learns with a teacher's lecture video in a virtual space were compared and analyzed. The number of times the two groups of participants tried to make the sign language correctly was measured. Then, the measurement results were compared and analyzed and interviews also conducted. As a result of the experiment, the ‘first-person view-based Korean sign language education system’ demonstrated that some sign language handshapes, which are not easy for participants to make, were implemented faster and more accurately than traditional learning methods. Therefore, if this system is used, it is expected that sign language learners will be able to learn more intuitively through the first-person perspective. Furthermore, it is expected that learning effects can be improved through the ability of being able to judge whether users are making the correct shapes with their hands. In addition, since it is possible to evaluate the accuracy of the hand shapes, it is believed that single-person learning, which was not easy in the existing sign language education paradigm, will become possible. However, for the sign language examined in the experiment, some showed significant differences while others were less meaningful. These were analyzed because the difficulty of the learning contents used in the experiment was not high. In future research, in order to more accurately verify the effectiveness of the sign language education system using hand tracking and 3D virtual hand guidance, we intend to conduct an experiment implementing learning content with more complex sentences

The effectiveness of visual materials in teaching vocabulary to deaf students of EFL

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using visual materials in teaching vocabulary to deaf students of EFL. For this purpose, 80 deaf students from a state special education vocational high school in Turkey contributed to this study. All students had first English classes in their lives and they are at the starter level of English, thus pre-test for their English proficiency was not given. The students were randomly divided into two groups to form the experimental group and the control group. 10 vocabulary items per week were taught to the students, and 50 target vocabulary items in total were taught during the whole study. To the experimental group, the vocabulary items were taught via visual materials together with the sign language. The control group was not presented with any visual items during the teaching process of the experiment, only sign language instruction was used for them. After the treatment, a vocabulary test was given to each group as an immediate post-test to measure the impact on learning. Six weeks after the immediate tests, delayed post-test was given to the groups to test long term retention. The results of the two post-tests were analyzed through Independent Samples t-test and Paired Samples t-test calculations to investigate the effectiveness of visual materials. According to the results of the study, visual materials were found to be more effective than using only the sign language that does not contain any visual items in teaching vocabulary items to deaf learners who learn English as a foreign language.

A mobile learning application for Malaysian sign language education

Malaysian Sign language is the primary means of communication among the deaf-mute community in Malaysia for many years since it was first created in 1998 when the Malaysian Federation of Deaf was first established. Although Malaysian Sign Language is widely used among the deaf-mute community, hearing individuals often have little or no exposure to the usage of sign language due to the lack of pervasive environment for the usage of sign language. There is also a lack of effective mobile learning application that encourages and facilitates the learning of sign language. This creates a communication gap among the deaf-mute community and the hearing individuals. The objective of the project is to design a mobile application that can facilitate the learning of sign language and ultimately bridging the gap between deaf-mute communities and hearing individuals. A survey was carried out to elicit the requirements of potential users. The sample population was drawn from Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIMMFD) Facebook group and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) students. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions, open-ended question and dichotomous questions which can be logically divided into demographic questions, questions on the experience of a participant on sign language, preferred learning methods and the preferred features of the application. The findings show that there is a need for an effective and interactive mobile application for learning sign language. Most of the respondents agreed that video tutorials are their preferred learning method as it is more dynamic than learning via images or books. A majority of the respondents also have no experience in using a sign language learning application due to the lack of availability on the market. Moreover, most of the participants also show interest in using a mobile application in learning Malaysian Sign Language. Some respondents also requested the feature of a built-in dictionary. Thus, the findings validate that SLEM has its demand and potential to provide a more accessible and user-friendly means to learn Malaysian Sign Language. The application has the potential to be commercialized to industries and communities such as sign language learning institutions, the public and individuals who are related to deaf or verbally challenged individuals. This paper provides directions and guidance for further development of this educational mobile application.

Nothing about us without us: Deaf education and sign language access in China

ABSTRACT This empirical qualitative study aims (1) to understand the Chinese context in promoting accessible high-quality education for deaf communities and (2) to create an opportunity for deaf experts to contribute to sign language research, instruction, interpreting programmes, and deaf education in China. Using a focus group methodology, we gathered data from 48 participants from four different stakeholder groups (10 teachers, 16 administrators/researchers, 6 interpreters, 16 community members) identifying concerns and solutions to achieving educational access. Video recorded discussions were transcribed, analysed and consolidated into themes. Results show a fragile trust between deaf and hearing professionals, a need for continued investigation on sign language standardisation and preservation, and a desire for worldwide collaboration and inclusion of deaf and hearing scholars in establishing a deaf university in China. This participatory, community-based research method yielded insights toward improving deaf education and sign language training within Chinese special education and toward the design, implementation and establishment of a future university serving only deaf students in China.

The Current Status of Research on English Language Teaching for Deaf Students - A Visual Analysis Based on CiteSpace Software

This article is in line with the initiatives of “supporting the disadvantaged” and “developing the cause of persons with disabilities” proposed by UNESCO. With using “deaf students” and “English teaching” as the key research terms, efforts are put into searching research in the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database from the year 2000 to 2020. The index results are sorted by publication years, authors, institutions, sources and keywords. Then these statistics are visualized by CiteSpace software in five aspects, including authors, institutions, journal sources and keywords. In total, there include 4866 articles abroad in this study. The number of articles published at home and abroad show an increasing trend. These collected researches focus on the teaching method, teaching strategy, cognitive condition, sign language teaching, and cochlear implant in English teaching for deaf students. The foreign ones emphasize on ability of deaf students themselves and influence force of auxiliary tool. The overall research on English language teaching for deaf students is on the rise, and the research contents and hot topics international literature are somewhat overlapped while somewhat different. The team cooperation and international exchange should be strengthened while complementing each other, in order to promote the overall development of this field.

Literacy Learning of Deaf and Hearing Preschoolers in a Sign Bilingual, Coenrollment Setting in Hong Kong.

The study investigated the literacy-learning conditions of a group of deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) and hearing preschoolers in a mainstream kindergarten sign bilingualism and coenrollment (SLCO) program. The data came from the children's scores on tests of Chinese vocabulary and written Chinese grammar, and questionnaire responses on literacy-learning conditions at home (from parents) and in school (from teachers). The d/Dhh children's performance on the two tests, when compared with that of their hearing peers, suggested that adding sign language and Deaf teachers to the SLCO classroom did not adversely affect the d/Dhh children's literacy learning. Responses to the two questionnaires indicated that parents' and teachers' efforts to organize literacy resources and activities interacted with the children's vocabulary development. These preliminary results encourage more research to elucidate further the relationship between environmental factors and d/Dhh children's literacy development.

Brazilian Sign Language teaching in undergraduate nursing courses.

to characterize the Brazilian Sign Language teaching in undergraduate nursing courses. a cross-sectional study, carried out on the curriculum matrices of 553 higher education nursing courses. Data collection took place through access to the websites of the Ministry of Education and educational institutions. the nursing courses that offered Libras were located predominantly in the Southeast (36%), coming from private institutions (87.2%). Most Libras courses (82%) were offered on a mandatory basis in the second half of the course (46.7%). The semester in which the offer was most frequent was the eighth (15.9%). There was an association (p <0.001) between the offer of course and the variable "public or private category". there was a predominance of Libras course in private institutions, in the Southeast region, with a 40-hour workload, offered in the second half of the course.

Türkiye’de 21. Yüzyılda Kamusal Alanlarda Sağlanan İşaret Dili Çevirmenliği Hizmetleri

This paper explores the current state of sign language interpreting (SLI) services provided in the Turkish public service domains with reference to the studies that focus on the professionalization of public service interpreting. The paper first reviews the history and current status of Turkish Sign Language (TİD) and deaf education in Turkey in order to give the readership an insight into the relevant social and linguistic context. Then, following an evaluation of the interpreting training and certification regimes, the in-person and video interpreting services offered in public service settings are explored. In addition, the private sector’s recent technology initiatives that aim to assist the Deaf and hard of hearing with their communication problems are addressed as part of the increased awareness about SLI in the Turkish private sector. Lastly, under the light of the general picture presented, the current status of SLI in Turkey is discussed with its pearls and pitfalls. The paper concludes that SLI in Turkey can be regarded as a “semi-profession” (Bontempo, 2013) despite the advances made in recent years by the government’s interpreting initiatives and the integration of web-based communication technologies to interpreting solutions available for the Deaf community. It is noted that not only interpreter training and certification regimes, but also deaf education require reforms in order to increase the accessibility and comprehensiveness of the SLI services in Turkey.

Avaliação do perfil linguístico de crianças surdas na escola

Neste artigo, discutimos a avaliação do desempenho de crianças surdas em língua de sinais na escola. As crianças surdas oriundas de famílias ouvintes têm, geralmente, um perfil linguístico específico, devido à pouca exposição à língua de sinais na infância. Para que a escola institucionalize programas de aquisição e de ensino da língua de sinais como primeira língua, é necessária uma avaliação adequada de perfil linguístico do aluno surdo e, em alguns casos, o estabelecimento de intervenções específicas. Apresentamos três instrumentos de avaliação brasileiros, relacionados aos aspectos linguísticos da língua de sinais, considerando as etapas de aquisição, e às habilidades funcionais da criança, considerando a língua em uso e a língua de sinais atípica.

A IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DAS AÇÕES INCLUSIVAS PELO NAPNE E A CAPACITAÇÃO POR MEIO DOS CURSOS DE LIBRAS

RESUMO&#x0D; &#x0D; Pensando na acessibilidade e na inclusão de surdos nas dependências do Instituto Federal do Pará (IFPA) – Campus Santarém, buscamos desenvolver um Projeto de Extensão para o ensino da Língua de Sinais Brasileira nas dependências do instituto no período de 2018 à 2019, cujo público alvo foram servidores e alunos do IFPA, além de vagas ofertadas para alunos e professores externos à nstituição. O trabalho teve como objetivo contribuir com o ensino e aprendizagem da Língua de Sinais Brasileira, assim como sua estrutura gramatical e sua funcionalidade na sociedade. O projeto foi desenvolvido obedecendo a um cronograma de execução. Inicialmente levantamos o número de pessoas interessadas, em seguida a disponibilidade de dias e horários para que pudéssemos organizar o cronograma dos encontros, de acordo com a disponibilidade do instituto e dos interessados. O resultado foi satisfatório pelo número de participantes, fazendo-se necessária a repetição do projeto nos próximos anos.&#x0D; &#x0D; Palavras chaves: Libras. Educação. – Inclusão do surdo. Libras – Capacitação.

Prática pedagógica intercultural

Neste estudo, analisam-se os métodos de ensino utilizados por uma professora ouvinte de Libras no ensino superior. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, com base na teoria da interculturalidade. Realizou-se entrevista individual e semiestruturada. Os dados foram organizados em categorias: i) Formação docente; ii) A Libras no ensino superior. Os resultados apontam: o ensino de Libras dar-se em um viés crítico; há o uso de uma perspectiva dialógica; há utilização de uma concepção de educação nos princípios da alteridade; a Libras é articulada ao contexto cultural dos diferentes sujeitos. Conclui-se que compreender o outro como um sujeito que nos constitui, é um traço intercultural na prática pedagógica da professora de Libras.

The Order of Signs: Perspectives on the Relationship between Language and Thought during the First Century of Widespread Sign Language Teaching

While current debates oppose the cochlear implant's privileging of speech acquisition to teaching sign language, nineteenth-century debates, in contrast, opposed those who saw sign language as a tool for learning to read and write, and those who saw in it an autonomous language for organizing thought itself. Should the order of gestural signs follow written syntax? Or should it have its own coherence, that is, possibly a different syntax and order of enunciation? Starting with these questions, distinct teaching legacies developed, specifying which kinds of signs to use in which context and what role signs were to fulfill. This article focuses on French deaf and hearing teachers whose positions were influential throughout Europe and the United States, moving from Abbé de l'Epée's 1784 method to Rémi Valade's 1854 publication of the first sign language grammar.

Gesture identification in testing mode in the integrated sign language training system

The structure of an integral sign language teaching system based on a 3D computer character, which allows demonstrating fingerprints and words of a sign language using an avatar, is considered. The system provides the test mode when the user must demonstrate the word or fingerprint indicated by the system. The user feedback with the system is carried out using a standard webcam. The problems of gesture localization and identification in user testing mode are considered. The features of this mode are determined during the system operation. The algorithm for quick identification of human hand gestures is proposed. The method based on the signs, which are two-dimensional projections, is used for gesture identification. The projection recognition features are considered, the similarity metrics are analyzed, and three stages for match decision are identified. The experimental results show the stable operation of this algorithm in various lighting conditions and at the place where the gesture was shown.