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Deaf Sign Language Teachers Have a Standard Like the CERF and a Are Native Signers and Learned to Sign Be- Platform to Exchange Our Views/ Fore Their Fourth Birthday

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Deaf Sign Language Teachers Have a Standard Like the CERF and a Are Native Signers and Learned to Sign Be- Platform to Exchange Our Views/ Fore Their Fourth Birthday Sign Language Teaching In Europe Report & Recommendations Editor Liesbeth Pyfers Published by European Union of the Deaf (EUD) Brussels Belgium ISBN 978-2-9601505-4-4 Date September 2017 Project number KA2 2014-1-NL01-KA200-001279 Duration September 2014– August 2017 Website www.signteach.eu Copyright Pragma, Hoensbroek NL All requests concerning the reproduction or translation of all or part of this document should be addressed to Pragma, [email protected]. Photos © UCLan, pages 112, 119, 121 © L.Pyfers, all other photos The SignTeach Project has been funded with sup- port from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 3 Table of Contents Foreword ........................................................... 4 0. Summary ........................................................ 6 1. Introduction .................................................. 8 2. Sign Language: Everything you’ve always wanted to ask…. .......................................... 12 3. SignTeach: the Project ................................. 17 4. SignTeach: the Survey ................................. 20 5. Country Reports .......................................... 26 5.1 Belgium ................................................. 27 5.2 Czech Republic....................................... 42 5.3 Germany ............................................... 53 5.4 Iceland .................................................. 69 5.5 Italy ....................................................... 80 5.6 the Netherlands .................................... 90 5.7 Norway.................................................101 5.8 United Kingdom ...................................108 6. Conclusions & Recommendations ..............126 SignTeach Consortium ...............................131 TOC 4 Foreword by Markku Jokinen As the President awareness of the need for such research of the European to reinforce the importance for the pro- Union of the Deaf fessionalisation of jobs revolving around (EUD), I am de- sign language teaching. The work com- lighted at the opportunity to introduce pleted in this book is essential, as to this publication to you. compare the results from the partici- This is probably the first book that focus- pating countries and to analyse, or even es on sign language teaching on a Euro- one step further, opinions expressed by pean level, through bringing many teach- various experts as done in these pages, ing experts from various European coun- will bring the profession of sign language tries together in partnership to gather teaching one step further. experience and materials, which formu- I am confident that many users will find lates the basis of this book. various uses of this book and that it can This field is not unfamiliar to me, indeed, serve as a useful tool for all stakeholders I have researched this field in depth dur- at all levels, whether at the EU level or ing my studies at the University of Roch- on a national level. But, more important- ester (postgraduate work in Linguistics, ly, a tool that we wished to have earlier, a Psycholinguistics, and Sign Language Lin- tool which will be the working basis for guistics). In addition to this, I am current- the next generation of sign language ly working on a national level doing advo- teachers. cacy work as Director of the Finnish Asso- ciation of the Deaf, together with the Dr. Markku Jokinen, President, European Finnish authorities we are working on Union of the Deaf (EUD) the ‘Language Policy Programme of Na- 29 September 2017 tional Sign Languages in Finland’. I am very aware of the importance of car- rying out research such as the work com- pleted in this book. The key is raising 5 6 0. Summary This report is one of the outputs of For each country, you will find a short the SignTeach project, a European pro- historical overview, some infor- ject funded under Erasmus+. SignTeach mation about the training of sign lan- was a project for and by sign language guage teachers, accreditation, and teachers. It was a 3-year project that more. We included short interviews with started in September 2014. experts from each of these 8 countries. In this report, you will find some back- For each country also: some results of ground information about the Sign- the SignTeach Survey. More results and Teach project (Chapter 3) and the Sign- interviews can be found on the Sign- Teach Survey (Chapter 4). Teach website. You are reading this publication, so In the final and most important chap- you are interested in sign language. ter of this report, Chapter 6, you will Maybe you are a sign language user, a find our conclusions recommendations. sign language teacher, or a sign language For 3 years, SignTeach partners met bi- interpreter. However, we hope that annually to develop new resources for many people with little or no previous colleagues in Europe, but also to discuss experience with sign languages will read current and future barriers that sign lan- this publication too. For them, we in- guage teachers and sign language learn- cluded Chapter 2 with everything you’ve ers have to deal with, not just in our always wanted to ask about sign lan- countries, but across Europe. And may- guage. be globally. Although sign languages are generally recognized as a valued and vi- The main part of this publication are the tal element of European culture, they country reports (Chapter 5) with cur- are in need of support and protection. rent information about sign language By whom, and how? This you can read in teaching and the training of sign lan- Chapter 6. guage teachers in the 8 European coun- tries that participated in the SignTeach project. In alphabetical order: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK. 0 7 8 1. Introduction Frankie Picron and David Hay, EUD, language and to give sign language an summarized chapters of this report in official status. International Sign. You can access Recently, November 2016, the European the online signed summaries by clicking Parliament adopted a resolution on Sign on the David‘s picture; or click here for Languages and professional Sign Lan- the online version of this report. guage Interpreters (2016/2952(RSP). It The sign languages of the EU are recog- includes (item 24) a call on the Member nised as fully fledged indigenouslan- States "to encourage the learning of sign guages of the European Union (Leeson, language in the same way as foreign lan- 2006) and are an important part of guages." Europe's multilingual diversity. For deaf sign language users to be able to work and learn in their preferred lan- guage - a sign language - profession- al sign language teachers are needed to teach sign language to parents of deaf children (most parents of deaf chil- dren are hearing, with no previous knowledge of sign language), other fam- It is estimated that there are approxi- ily members, friends, teachers, col- mately 750.000 deaf sign language users leagues, as well as for the training of in the EU (Sign Language Legislation in professional sign language interpreters. the European Union, 2012); the total The SignTeach project number of sign language users In 2014, 11 organisations from 8 Europe- (including hearing people) is several an countries joined forces to develop an times larger. Open Educational Resource for sign lan- In order to ensure that deaf people guage teachers: the SignTeach website are able to work and learn in their pre- (www.signteach.eu). The project was ferred language, the European Commis- funded under the Erasmus+ Programme sion, in concert with the European Par- (KA2 2014-1-NL01-KA200-001279). liament, has taken steps to promote sign 1 9 Objectives than as a profession and a viable ca- reer option. Many sign language teach- One of the objectives of the SignTeach ers work on their own, without or with project was to find out more about sign only occasional contacts with other sign language teachers and sign language language teachers. teaching in Europe. At the start of the project there was little or no collabora- In this report, you can find some of tion between sign language teachers the results of the Survey and the inter- across borders, or even nationally. It views that we had with experts. On the was—and still is—unknown how many SignTeach website, you will find more sign language teachers there are in each information as well as videos of sign lan- country, who they are, how they are guage teachers at work trained, and how and where they work. (www.signteach.eu). What are their wishes? What are the New developments barriers that they have to deal with? Since the start of the SignTeach pro- What are good practices that they want ject in 2014, there have been some to share with their colleagues? promising developments, for instance, The SignTeach Survey the international Lesico conferences for The SignTeach Survey - an online survey sign language teachers and the recently published in written English and Interna- established European Network of Sign tional Sign - tried to find answers to Language Teachers (www.enslt.eu). these questions. At the same time, we see major Results threats. Although we do not have hard data to support this, most experts who What we found was not encourag- we consulted agree that fewer and few- ing. Many sign language teachers have er people learn sign language as a first had little or no formal or even informal language. Without native signers, sign training for teaching a sign language. languages are at risk of soon being Teachers report that they develop 50% taught as ’dead’ or extinct languages, or more of the materials that they like Latin. use, themselves. In some countries, sign language teaching is considered more And in the longer term, of not be- like a hobby or voluntary work, rather ing used and taught at all? 1 10 Overview (UK). In the next chapter, you will find We compared the data of these 8 coun- some background information about tries with the average data of all coun- sign languages, and what YOU can do to tries.
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