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BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting Paper two: Sign Language in a Reconfigured Germany Jens Hessmann University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal This paper traces some of the changes that have affected the status of sign language and the Deaf community in a - albeit somewhat precariously-united Germany over the last decade. In some respects, this has been a story of success, and a substantial number of significant advances in such diverse areas as self-esteem and cultural productivity of the Deaf community, social legislation, training opportunities, service provision as well as the general level of awareness within the majority society have been made ever since the battle smoke of ideological clashes, provoked by an upsurge of linguistic awareness in the Deaf community in the early nineties, had settled. However, as a closer look will show, this is only one side of a story that can also be characterized by pointing out unrelenting opposing forces, vexing political obstacles, exasperating internal weaknesses, and daunting counter developments. The resulting picture is one of ambivalence, seriously qualified optimism, and, curiously, a noticeable lack of awareness concerning the wider European perspective. Certainly, sign language and the Deaf community in Germany might be well advised to place their cause within the context of a wider European 'agenda for change'. Paper three: Development and Status of Flemish Sign Language Mieke Van Herreweghe & Myriam Vermeerbergen University of Ghent Since the first "Signs Conference" in Ghent in 1979 (where the use of Signed Dutch was promoted for the first time), quite a lot has changed vis-à-vis the status of the sign language which is used in Flanders-Belgium (now called "Flemish Sign Language" or "Vlaamse Gebarentaal" or "VGT", but formerly called Flemish Belgian Sign Language or even Belgian Sign Language). In this paper, we would like to give a survey of the recent developments with respect to on the one hand its status and status planning activities and on the other hand corpus planning activities and the impact of sign language research on the language and its community. In order to achieve this we will focus on the development of sign language research in the last decade and the development of the status of VGT in the Deaf Community and in deaf education. Sign language research in Flanders is still in its infancy and as such quantitatively rather limited. It's only since the beginning of the 1990s that there has been sign language research. What's more, this has only been carried out by a handful of researchers. Nevertheless, there has always been close contact with the Deaf Community so that, a couple of years after the beginning of sign language research in Flanders, in 1996 the Flemish Deaf Community officially declared that they would start teaching VGT rather than Signed Dutch and as such recognized the fact that VGT is a fully-fledged language (whereas previously Signed Dutch was promoted). In deaf education the developments towards bilingual-bicultural education have progressed more slowly. In 1998 one school officially became a 'bibi" school with VGT as the first language and spoken/written Dutch as the second language. The 6 other schools allow for Signed Dutch and have some VGT projects, but would not call themselves bibi-schools. In a second part of the paper we would like to demonstrate the impact of corpus planning activities on the language itself with respect to its lexicon and even its grammar. In Flanders it is estimated that the Deaf Community consists of approximately 6,000 VGT-users. In such a small linguistic community both corpus and status planning activities seem to have a lot of impact. Paper four: Austria's Sign Language Policy Reviewed: History, status report, analysis and suggested reforms Verena Krausneker University of Vienna For the past 10 years the Austrian Deaf community has been communicating its wish for full recognition of Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS). This request has been formally denied on several occasions by the Austrian Parliament. The paper contains an in-depth analysis of Austrian Sign Language policy; language policy is understood as multi-layered and multidimensional and therefore all fields are considered that influence the status of ÖGS and its Deaf users. This includes, to name just a few, media-, educational-, and research-policies. For the analysis of the state policy towards ÖGS, historical facts as >well as the contemporary situation are taken into account and contrasted with the requests and wishes of the Deaf language minority. Then the present status of ÖGS is described and its effects on users of ÖGS are analyzed. King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 46 - September, 2004
BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting The many areas of (Deaf) life are discussed in which >language, access to language and information are relevant. The paper closes with practical suggestions concerning possible fields and levels of support for ÖGS and proposes measures to ensure a more successful Austrian Sign Language policy. Paper five: Sign Language Issues in the Netherlands Beppie v.d. Bogaerde and Trude Schermer University of Amsterdam/Hogeschool van Utrecht/Dutch Sign Center From the beginning of the 1980s, parents of deaf children began exerting pressure to effect a change in family counseling - they demanded more insight into the use of signs with their children. The KOMVA project was started (investigation of Nederlandse Gebarentaal: NGT) which was supported from the start by Prof. Ben Tervoort from the University of Amsterdam. Many students of general linguistics are interested in sign research. From 1985 / 1986 on the interest in signs also began to be manifest in special education. The introduction of signing children into the schools led to changes in the educational methods, at first in two school but spreading to all school towards the end of the 1990s. At the same time there was close cooperation between the UvA, the Dutch Deaf Council, and the NSDSK, who started communication courses and courses to educate deaf people to become teachers. In 1985 the Second European Symposium on Sign Language Research introduced deaf people in this country to general linguistics and to insights from sign language research. In 1995 the NEDO (Nederlandse Dovenraad, Dutch Deaf council) was officially founded to represent the deaf community in the Netherlands (from 1999 on: Dovenschap). One of the major goals was to obtain recognition for the sign language, Nederlandse Gebarentaal. The KOMVA project led to language planning and at the same time the development of dictionaries. In 1996 the Ministers of Education and Welfare instituted a national committee, which was to investigate how NGT could best be recognized within the language recommendations of the EU. The report of this committee appeared in 1997 (Meer dan een gebaar) and issued about 65 recommendations on the recognition of NGT. The main recommendations dealt with the implementation of bilingual education for severely hearing impaired and deaf children, the institution of a higher educational programme for teachers and interpreters NGT, and a general effort to make society as a whole more accessible to the deaf community. Between 1999-2002 a Covenant was made, in which three projects were to be realized: Standardization of a basic lexicon, a curriculum for Sign Language Teaching and Deaf Culture, and a CD-ROM for NGT grammar. This was a joint effort of the schools for the deaf, the FODOK (parents), UvA, NSDSK, Dutch Sign Center (NGc) and Dovenschap. Their task was to plan the standardization and its implementation. Despite the standardization of the basic lexicon as yet no official recognition of NGT has occurred, although some money has become available to assemble/research the lexicon further, and to give information to the public about NGT (via subsidies to the NGc) and further NGT curriculum development (via projects of the schools for the deaf and NGc). Most recently, a committee has been instituted (Sprong Vooruit) to advise the Dutch government on how to recognize the NGT as a language. A major new development is the impressive increase of the use of Cochlear Implants (CI) in young deaf children from the age of approx. 6 months and the increasing influence of medical staff on parent guidance. Medicalisation of parents of a deaf child is gaining ground, and together with the introduction of a new system of financial support for parents with handicapped children and third, the tendency to integrate deaf children (with or without a CI) into the regular (hearing) school system is undermining the implementation of bilingual programmes in the schools. Paper six: Norwegian Sign Language: "Interesting" Developments Irene Greftegreff Sør-Trøndealg University College, Trondheim There may have been a temptation in recent times in Norway to think that all was tranquil as regards reconfigurements in relation to Norwegian Sign Language, but the landscape has proven to be susceptible to sudden change. Two "interesting" developments have just occurred and will be examined further in this paper. First: The Ministry of Culture and Religion, no less, has commissioned a report on the legal status of Norwegian Sign Language, which is just being completed. The recommendation is to design a special law to ensure the rights of NSL users, and not to rely on existing legislation, which is insufficient. In King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 47 - September, 2004
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