The use of mimetic actions by deaf signers of British Sign Language: A corpus-based study

The aim of this project is to conduct secondary data analysis of the British Sign Language (BSL) Corpus, an existing digital video dataset of the signed language of the British deaf community - specifically, to study how deaf signers of BSL mimetically reproduce the actions, utterances, thoughts and feelings of themselves, other people, animals, and things in their conversations and personal narratives. These highly improvised mimetic actions are referred to here as enactments. For example, a deaf signer might produce signs (equivalents of words in spoken languages) with an enactment of herself as a young child to express the sense of surprise and wonder she experienced as she learned BSL for the first time. Proficient use of enactment in deaf signed languages, including BSL, is vital for understanding others and making oneself understood. Previous research on stories told by deaf signers has shown that enactment is integral to the expression of key plot events in storytelling. Signers often use enactment to detail aspects of their stories and narratives that are otherwise expressed using signs. Indeed, signers often rely solely on enactment to show and imply relations between participants and events in a story. However, the use of enactment in BSL is complex and has not yet been described using large amounts of natural discourse data, such as personal narratives or conversations between deaf signers. We also do not know much about what signers use enactment for, when they use it and why, or what happens to signs used during periods of enactment. The possible effects of variation due to social factors such as the signer's age, their age of signed language acquisition and geographical location (which affect other aspects of signed language use) are also unknown.

The primary aim of the project is to investigate patterns in the use of enactment within the British deaf community using existing conversation and personal narrative data in the BSL Corpus. The BSL Corpus consists of video data collected from 249 deaf signers of BSL from eight cities across the United Kingdom. The data are representative of a diverse language community, including men and women, deaf adults with deaf and/or hearing parents, signers who are young and old, and individuals from working and middle class backgrounds, as well as different ethnic groups. This consists of informal conversations between pairs of deaf signers, as well as spontaneous narratives told by individual signers to another signer. These conversations and narratives cover a wide range of topics, chosen by the signers themselves and reflecting their values and everyday experiences. Topics include reminiscences of growing up deaf and attending school, being a part of the British deaf community, relationships with family and friends, politics, sport, arts and culture. By analysing how deaf signers in the BSL Corpus use enactments in their conversations and narratives, we will gain a deeper understanding of the role of enactment in BSL. We will be able to describe the similarities and differences in how deaf signers mimetically reproduce actions, utterances, thoughts and feelings during their interactions. We will be able to determine if these similarities and differences are due to social factors that have been shown to influence other aspects of signed language use, such as the signer's age, or their age of signed language acquisition or geographical region, or whether they reflect more widespread and potentially universal patterns of face-to-face communication. This information will contribute to ongoing research on linguistic structure and use of BSL, as well as providing a benchmark for deaf children in bilingual English/BSL programs, and deaf and hearing adults learning BSL. These findings are essential for directly comparing the communicative strategies used by signers with those of speakers, and furthering our understanding of face-to-face communication in general.

Who will benefit: (1) Practitioners. Deeper understanding of deaf signed language use will lead to improved opportunities for training signed language teachers, interpreters and translators. Access to a systematic description of the use of enactment by native and near-native signers of BSL will lead to improved BSL teaching resources that accurately describe how the language is used by a range of subgroups within the British deaf community. (2) BSL learners. The benefit of BSL research to practitioners and professionals such as BSL teachers, interpreter trainers and other educators will have an immediate impact on those learning BSL from these educators. (3) Professionals working with deaf children (such as teachers of the deaf, speech and language therapists, interpreters). New, evidence-based insights from this project will enable professionals working with deaf children to understand the full range of communicative strategies used by deaf signers in more detail. This will allow them to better support the communication and language development of deaf children and their families, thus maximising their potential as deaf adults in the wider community. (4) Policy-makers. Improved resources for BSL teaching, learning and research will provide an evidence-base for policy-makers in supporting appropriate education, training and services for deaf children and adults. This will help close the gap in education, employment, and health between deaf people throughout their lifespan and their hearing peers. Findings about language use are crucial for language planning undertaken by policy makers in various government, education and third sector organisations. (5) Deaf people in society: A major social benefit will be in relation to equity and the status of deaf people in British society. More appropriate resources for signed language teaching and interpreter training will lead to improved quality of educational and interpreting services for deaf people and provide more opportunities for self-development and employment. Deaf people who can become more highly qualified and trained will be in a better position to contribute to society in different ways.

How they will benefit from this research: (1) Accessible online BSL corpus: The fact that the BSL Corpus (http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/data) is available online to the deaf community and the wider public, alongside publicly available online corpora of spoken languages such as the British National Corpus of English, will help justify and strengthen the linguistic status of BSL, thus supporting full participation of their users in British society. (2) Enactment information in BSL SignBank: Inclusion of a description of BSL enactment in the Reference Grammar section of BSL SignBank (http://bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk) and regular subsequent publicity on social media will ensure that the findings reach important stakeholders. (3) Knowledge exchange: Findings will be presented at workshops/events to both share findings and set the agenda for future work on the BSL Corpus. These workshops will help us target the wider British deaf community, as well as signed language teachers and interpreters, including the Association of BSL Tutors and Assessors, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters, Signature and iBSL (the two awarding bodies in the UK for qualifications in BSL and BSL/English interpreting). Findings will also be disseminated via the TedX-inspired BSL seminar series 'BSL-X' hosted by DCAL and scheduled to begin in 2018. Following the end of the project, an educational video resource will be produced outlining the research findings with examples from the BSL Corpus data. This will be hosted on the BSL Corpus website and available to educators, students and interpreters of BSL and related signed languages from anywhere in the world. Together these efforts will allow us to reflect to the deaf community their own language use, and allow for community-led language planning if so desired.