These materials are from the archive of the SSC Website and may be outdated.

 

University of Edinburgh
 

Supporting Deaf Pupils in Secondary Schools

Presented on Wednesday 28 September, 2011

Using the Science Signs Glossary: An Online Bilingual Resource for Deaf Learners

Rachel O'Neill
Collaborators Dr Audrey Cameron Science advisor
Gary Quinn - Heriot-Watt University, Linguistics advisor

Overview of talk

  1. How we developed the glossary
  2. Using the glossary in your work with signing deaf pupils
  3. Future subject areas

Initial project: web development

  • Maths pilot by Dr Brennan and G Hughes in 2004
  • Aim to produce 250 science signs
  • Intermediate level (ages 11–14)
  • Chemistry, Biology and Physics
  • Definitions in BSL - very important

Project development

  • 2007: £25,000 from Scottish Government
  • Team developed over 250 signs for SSC website

  • 2008: Evaluation with pupils and teachers
  • Science shows start

  • 2009: Science shows and presentations

  • 2010: Feasibility study for SQA centrally produced science exams

  • 2011: Added to Biology and Chemistry terms and definitions as a result of SQA project - to SG Credit level
  • Successful bid for Physics/CDT with funding from Royal Association Engineering

  • 2012: Further fundraising
  • We hope to run pilot science exams for SQA

Other science vocabulary sources

  • Dundee school website - science signs
  • Wolverhampton university website - science and technology signs
  • Cath Smith books – line drawings
  • American site: Lang et al (2006)
  • No BSL definitions
  • Method not published
  • Deaf people's involvement

BSL vocabulary for specialist areas

  • BSL and technical signs
  • In the past, deaf people were excluded from professional jobs
  • Vocabulary develops when deaf people work together
  • Eg; Deaf printers vs deaf dental technicians
  • Parallels with other languages – eg; Gaelic
  • The productive lexicon (Brennan, 1992)
  • Sandwich of several signs
  • Simplification may follow
  • Eg; non-terminating decimal: http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/bsl/bslnon.html

Our principles

  • We didn't want to use initialised signs
  • Eg; EXOTHERMIC, ENDOTHERMIC
  • Deaf children's bad experiences with initialised signs across the curriculum

Assembling the team

  • John Brownlie (BSc in Physics): a multimedia specialist working with a Deaf organisation
  • Dr Audrey Cameron (PhD in Chemistry): a school teacher of hearing children
  • John Denerley (Dip SW): owner of a wildlife park, deaf from a deaf family
  • Dr Colin Dunlop (PhD in Physics): an astronomy researcher
  • Gerry Hughes (BSc in Mathematics): involved in the mathematics project and a school teacher of deaf children
  • Dr Mark Fox (PhD in Chemistry): a chemistry researcher
  • Mary Frances Dolan (BSc in Chemistry): a school teacher of deaf children
  • Claire Leiper (BA in Biology and English): a freelance trainer
  • Gary Quinn (MA in Linguistics): sign advisor for the project
  • Derek Rodger (BSc in Chemistry, MEd deaf education): a school teacher of deaf children
  • Eileen Burns (Teacher of Deaf Children and Physics teacher)
  • Rachel O’Neill's previous experience with CD-ROM Project Maths and IT (Microbooks)

Method of work

  • First stage: Collecting English science terms
  • Second stage: Checked existing science signs (Dundee and Wolverhampton)
  • Third stage: Subject group discussed which to keep
  • Fourth stage: Subject group discussed if they had another sign. Creation of new sign if needed.
  • Fifth stage: Creation of draft signs on internet
  • Sixth stage: Making definitions in BSL
  • Seventh stage: Signs and definitions on internet to check
  • Eighth stage: Translation of definition to English
  • The Chemistry group: lab videos

Issues that arose about definitions

  • Using technical terms in definitions of other signs
  • Creating a web of ideas
  • Deaf children can build concepts independently
  • We need to be more systematic about using our own signs

Evaluation of the project

  • Evaluation funded by Learning Teaching Scotland in 2008
  • Questionnaire for teachers
  • Interviews with deaf children
  • Interviews with project team members

Deaf children's comments

  • Good and useful website - all in BSL
  • Would like subtitles for the scientific terms
  • Need more science terms
  • More images
  • More examples and lab movies
  • Too many signs to learn
  • Some definitions missing
  • Some definitions need more explanation
  • Teachers hadn't told them how to get on the site

Using the Glossary site

  • Teachers of deaf children preparing to teach a new topic
  • CSWs/interpreters preparing before class
  • Referring to the site in tutorial
  • Encouraging deaf pupils to use it at home for independent study
  • Introducing parents to the site

Temporary signs

  • ToDs, CSWs and deaf pupils often make temporary arrangements
  • Problem is no standardisation
  • Beginner users of BSL don't understand sign morphology well enough to create signs

Collecting existing signs

  • Schools and colleges could run similar projects rather than waiting for the SSC to cover all subject areas
  • Please try to follow the same principles of Deaf leadership
  • Examples: printers, fishing, car maintenance, history

Conclusion

  • Glossary project is a long-term one
  • Only used by small number of deaf pupils, but these pupils need much better access to the curriculum
  • Signing levels of ToDs, CSWs and support staff need to be NVQ 3 minimum
  • Across Scotland we can do a lot more sign collection in a range of subjects, but we need to work using the same principles

References

Brennan, M (1992) The visual world of BSL in Dictionary of BSL/English (ed Brien, D). London: Faber& Faber

Lang, H, Huppa, M, Monte, D, Brown, S, Babb, I & Scheifele, P (2006) A Study of Technical Signs in Science: Implications for Lexical Database Development. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2007 12(1):65-79.

Smith, C & Ingle, C (2008) Let's Sign Science. Cambridge: Widgit.

Our contacts Dr Audrey Cameron audrey.m.cameron@ed.ac.uk

Gary Quinn G.A.Quinn@hw.ac.uk

Rachel O'Neill rachel.oneill@ed.ac.uk