Sign language and Braille Books

Book SynopsisThis book introduces a new topic to applied linguistics: the significance of the TESOL teacher’s background as a learner and user of additional languages. The development of the global TESOL profession as a largely English-only enterprise has led to the accepted view that, as long as the teacher has English proficiency, then her or his other languages are irrelevant. The book questions this view. Learners are in the process of becoming plurilingual, and this book argues that they are best served by a teacher who has experience of plurilingualism. The book proposes a new way of looking at teacher linguistic identity by examining in detail the rich language biographies of teachers: of growing up with two or more languages; of learning languages through schooling or as an adult, of migrating to another linguaculture, of living in a plurilingual family and many more. The book examines the history of language-in-education policy which has led to the development of the TESOL profession in Australia and elsewhere as a monolingual enterprise. It shows that teachers’ language backgrounds have been ignored in teacher selection, teacher training and ongoing professional development. The author draws on literature in teacher cognition, bilingualism studies, intercultural competence, bilingual lifewriting and linguistic identity to argue that languages play a key part in the development of teachers’ professional beliefs, identity, language awareness and language learning awareness. Drawing on three studies involving 115 teachers from Australia and seven other countries, the author demonstrates conclusively that large numbers of teachers do have plurilingual experiences; that these experiences are ignored in the profession, but that they have powerful effects on the formation of beliefs about language learning and teaching which underpin good practice. Those teachers who identify as monolingual almost invariably have some language learning experience, but it was low-level, short-lived and unsuccessful. How does the experience of successful or unsuccessful language learning and language use affect one’s identity, beliefs and practice as an English language teacher? What kinds of experience are most beneficial? These concepts and findings have implications for teacher language education, teacher professional development and the current calls for increased plurilingual practices in the TESOL classroom.

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Book SynopsisThe aim of this pioneering volume is to advance our understanding of written language learning in instructed SLA by offering a collection of empirical studies in which the contribution of diverse theoretical perspectives to our understanding of L2 writing development will be explored. As such, the book represents a further attempt to situate written language learning at the core of applied linguistics research, in general, and SLA research, in particular, hence attempting to redress the oral bias of theoretical and empirical work in these fields. It adds a further building block onto recent TESOL initiatives aimed at understanding "development" in second and foreign language learning. Continuity from one chapter to another is provided by adherence to a consistent chapter model. The volume will be of great interest to academics in the disciplines of second/foreign language acquisition (SLA) and second/foreign language (L2) writing.

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Book SynopsisSign languages are non-written languages. Given that the use of digital media and video recordings in documenting sign languages started only some 30 years ago, the life stories of Deaf elderly signers born in the 1930s-1940s have – except for a few scattered fragments in film – not been documented and are therefore under serious threat of being lost.The chapters compiled in this volume document important aspects of past and present experiences of elderly Deaf signers across Europe, as well as in Israel and the United States. Issues addressed include (i) historical events and how they were experienced by Deaf people, (ii) issues of identity and independence, (iii) aspects of language change, (iv) experiences of suppression and discrimination. The stories shared by elderly signers reveal intriguing, yet hidden, aspects of Deaf life. On the negative side, these include experiences of the Deaf in Nazi Germany and occupied countries and harsh practices in educational settings, to name a few. On the positive side, there are stories of resilience and vivid memories of school years and social and professional life.In this way, the volume contributes in a significant way to the preservation of the cultural and linguistic heritage of Deaf communities and sheds light on lesser known aspects against an otherwise familiar background. This publication has been made possible within the SIGN-HUB project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

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Book SynopsisThis English version of A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language, which received the Bahat Award for most outstanding book for a general audience in its Hebrew edition, is an introduction to sign language using Israeli Sign Language (ISL) as a model. Authors Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler offer a glimpse into a number of fascinating descriptions of the ISL community to which linguists and other researchers may not have access. An underlying premise of the book is that language is a mental system with universal properties, and that language lives through people.A clear and engaging read, A Language in Space addresses relevant aspects of sign language, including the most abstract questions and matters related to society and community. Divided into three parts, the book covers: the linguistic structure of Israeli Sign Language; the language and its community; and a broad depiction of ISL and the contribution of sign language rTrade Review"A superb book from every point of view...The book is clear, extremely readable, and fascinating...from a perspective that is well developed, theoretically deep, and informed by the most up-to-date research in the field."—Yosef GrodzinskyMcGill University "This original and timely book will definitely be an important addition to LEA's growing list in signing and deaf studies."—Dan SlobinBerkeley "A superb book from every point of view...The book is clear, extremely readable, and fascinating...from a perspective that is well developed, theoretically deep, and informed by the most up-to-date research in the field."—Yosef GrodzinskyMcGill University "This original and timely book will definitely be an important addition to LEA's growing list in signing and deaf studies."—Dan SlobinBerkeley Table of ContentsContents: Israeli Sign Language: Language and People. The Basic Components of the Word in Sign Language. Vocabulary. Grammar in Space: The Pronominal System. Grammar in Space: Verb Agreement. Tenses and Aspects. Shapes, Locations, and Motions in Space: Classifier Constructions. Word Order. Negative and Interrogative Sentences. Beyond the Hands: Facial Expression as Intonation in ISL. The History of the Deaf Community in Israel. The Emergence and Development of ISL. Voices From the Community. Similarities and Differences Across Sign Languages. The Contribution of Sign Languages to Linguistic Research. Appendix A: List of Handshapes of Israeli Sign Language. Appendix B: Main Places of Articulation in Israeli Sign Language. Appendix C: Notational Conventions.

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Book SynopsisOne of many natural sign languages in use around the world, British Sign Language (BSL) operates as a fully-fledged semiotic system in the visual-spatial modality, through the simultaneous use of embodied articulators. Filling a gap in current research, this book investigates visual-spatial communications from a functional perspective.Presenting a description and analysis of BSL from the perspective of Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, Luke A. Rudge explores how BSL users make meaning from three different yet interrelated perspectives:- How exchanges of information are managed at a social level (the interpersonal metafunction)- How experience is encoded in the language (the experiential metafunction)- How communications are organised into coherent parts and wholes (the textual metafunction) Examining these perspectives both separately and together, Exploring British Sign Language via Systemic Functional Linguistics places them within the context of current observationsTrade ReviewA truly impressive contribution to an unfortunately neglected field of study, this volume provides insight into British Sign Language (BSL) from the perspective of functional linguistics. It represents the first major publication to offer a functional description of BSL within Systemic Functional Linguistics. Not only does it provide an important foundation for future work on BSL but also an opening on broader linguistic typological issues and extensions to existing linguistic theory. This is a very important volume for all interested in sign languages and perhaps even more so for anyone working with modes of expression very broadly, including embodied communication. -- Lise Fontaine, Reader in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy, University of Cardiff, UKAn important and timely analysis of signed languages, especially with respect to multi-channel simultaneity. The systemic functional grammar framework used in this volume offers a coherent alternative to formal approaches in sign linguistics and complements recent neo-Peircean approaches to the semiotics of multi-modality in all languages, signed or spoken. -- Trevor Johnston, Honorary Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, AustraliaTable of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1. Introducing British Sign Language: A Sociocultural and Linguistic Overview 2. Contextualising British Sign Language within a Systemic Functional Framework 3. Exploring the Interpersonal Metafunction 4. Exploring the Experiential Metafunction 5. Exploring the Textual Metafunction 6. Combining the Metafunctions: Analysing BSL from Three Perspectives 7. Looking Back and Looking Forward References Index

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Book SynopsisExplore Native American culture and learn Hand Talk, also known as Plains Indian Sign Language, Plains Sign Talk, and First Nation Sign Language. In Talking with Hands, professional Native American dancer, storyteller, and educator Mike Pahsetopah reveals the beauty of Plains Indian Sign Language, which was once used as a common language between the Indigenous peoples of the region now generally known as the Great Plains of North America. The language was used for trade, but also for storytelling and by the Deaf community, making it a very common and useful tool in society. Today, only a few native speakers remain. This beautifully designed book makes practicing Plains Indian Sign Language easy and engaging. Learn the proper positions and motions of this now-rare language with photos and descriptions throughout the pages. Follow along with diagrams to perfect your abilities. Learn how to use your hands to convey the meanings of over 200 common words. In this detailed guide, you will learn to sign words like: Hungry Camp Evening Angry Fire Owl Together Brave And more Honor and carry on the culture of the Plains peoples by learning the sign language they shared.Table of ContentsA Brief History of Hand Talk Personal Reflections on Hand Talk Basics Using One Finger Counting Up to One Hundred Time & Tenses Celestial Bodies Time of Day Seasons Years & Age Weather Animals Earth Family Directions Action Words Health Time to Eat Modern Life Descriptions Emotions Questions Basic Phrases Council Meetings References Photo Credits Index Acknowledgments About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis text explores American culture from the mid-19th century to 1920 through the lens of one episode: the campaign led by Alexander Graham Bell and other prominent Americans to suppress the use of sign language amongst deaf people.

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Book SynopsisAccompanied by a DVD, this collection of essays brings a view of the literary, social, and performative aspects of American Sign Language to a wide audience. It presents the work of a renowned and diverse group of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing scholars who examine original ASL poetry, narrative, and drama.Trade Review"Signing the Body Poetic should receive a deafening ovation. It is the first major scholarly work to celebrate and theorize American Sign Language artistic expression ranging from poetry, to theater and film. A must for anyone interested in contemporary poetry, drama, or literary theory." - Lennard J. Davis, editor of The Disabilities Studies Reader "This collection is as unique as ASL, merging linguistics, nonverbal communication and performance in both the content of the chapters as well as in its form (text and DVD). Unlocking the performative dimension of ASL, it merges disciplines, communicative forms, and channels while demonstrating that our ability to communicate is not limited by the organs we use to do so but only by our ability to perform." - Michael L. Hecht, editor of Redefining Culture: Perspectives across the Disciplines"Table of ContentsContents of the DVD Foreword--William C. Stokoe Preface: Utopian Gestures--W.J.T. Mitchell Acknowledgments Users' Guide 1. Introduction H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Jennifer L. Nelson, Heidi M. Rose PART ONE: FRAMING ASL LITERATURE 2. Face-to-Face Tradition in the American Deaf Community: Dynamics of the Teller, the Tale, and the Audience--Ben Bahan 3. The Camera as Printing Press: How Film Has Influenced ASL Literature--Christopher B. Krentz 4. Deaf American Theater--Cynthia Peters PART TWO: THE EMBODIED TEXT: "WRITING" AND VISION IN ASL LITERATURE 5. Getting out of Line: Toward a Visual and Cinematic Poetics of ASL--H-Dirksen L. Bauman 6. Textual Bodies, Bodily Texts--Jennifer L. Nelson 7. The Poet in the Poem in the Performance: The Relation of Body, Self, and Text in ASL Literature--Heidi M. Rose 8. ASL Literature Comes of Age: Creative "Writing" in the Classroom--Liz Wolter PART THREE: THE POLITICAL TEXT: PERFORMANCE AND IDENTITY IN ASL LITERATURE 9. "If there are Greek epics, there should be Deaf epics": How Protest Became Poetry--Kristen C. Harmon 10. Visual Screaming: Willy Conley's Deaf Theater and Charlie Chaplin's Silent Cinema--Carol L. Robinson 11. Hearing Things: The Scandal of Speech in Deaf Performance--Michael Davidson Afterword Carol A. Padden Appendix A: Time Line of ASL Literature Development Appendix B: ASL Video References Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis text offers a unique approach to using American Sign Language (ASL) and English in a bilingual setting. Each of the 25 lessons involves sign language conversation using colloqualisms that are prevalent in informal conversations. It also includes practice tests and a glossed alphabetical index.

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Book SynopsisIn Deaf in the USSR, Claire L. Shaw asks what it meant to be deaf in a culture that was founded on a radically utopian, socialist view of human perfectibility. Shaw reveals how fundamental contradictions inherent in the Soviet revolutionary project were negotiatedboth individually and collectively by a vibrant and independent community of deaf people who engaged in complex ways with Soviet ideology.Deaf in the USSR engages with a wide range of sources from both deaf and hearing perspectivesarchival sources, films and literature, personal memoirs, and journalismto build a multilayered history of deafness. This book will appeal to scholars of Soviet history and disability studies as well as those in the international deaf community who are interested in their collective heritage. Deaf in the USSR will also enjoy a broad readership among those who are interested in deafness and disability as a key to more inclusive understandings of being human and of languaTrade ReviewA compelling study of the Soviet deaf community.... Deaf in the USSR deserves to be widely read and suggests ways for the experiences of other minority and marginalized Soviet communities to be re-examined. * Times Literary Supplement *A landmark in the history of disability and the Soviet welfare state. A stunning first book, it covers the entire Soviet experience from a thought-provoking perspective. * AUSTRIAN TIMES *Shaw traces how deaf individuals challenged prevailing notions about their abilities and legal competence while also participating in the underlying goal of the Soviet project to transform "backward" masses into productive and literate citizens.... An important scholarly contribution to the field of deaf history. * Choice *Shaw's approach is, first and foremost, historically rigorous. With this, the first definitive account of deaf political advocacy throughout the Soviet twentieth century, Shaw has proffered a fertile platform for further scholarship. * Slavic Review *An outstanding work. [Deaf in the USSR] will be of considerable interest to a number of different kinds of readers. For historians of the Soviet Union, it addresses a little-known but potentially quite important aspect of Soviet history. For those interested in the history of deafness and the deaf, it offers fascinating insights into the unique case of deafness in post-revolutionary Russia.... The volume is well-written, cogent, and thoroughly grounded in both historical and archival sources. It is a significant contribution to the literature on the history of deafness and Deaf identity, and we have much for which to be grateful to Shaw. * Sign Language Studies *This is an important book for not just historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, nor only scholars of deafness and disability, but for researchers in all of these fields and beyond. * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *One of the strengths of Deaf in the USSR is its identification of—indeed, emphasis on—tensions that remained unresolved throughout the Soviet era. It is a testimony to Shaw's analytical rigor that she can keep all these dialectical balls in the air without succumbing to incoherence. * American Historical Review *Deaf in the USSR succeeds best in offering a deaf-centered, unique overview of the development of political identity of deaf people in urban Russia under the Soviet system, and is a significant contribution to the fields of Deaf Studies and Soviet History. * The Russian Review *Claire Shaw's excellent monograph traces a history of deafness—attitudes toward deafness, experiences of deafness—across the Soviet century. It is, above all, a history of shifting discourses about the senses... This is a valuable corrective to oversimplified narratives of Soviet ideology. -- Emma Widdis * KRITIKA *

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Book SynopsisThis practical manual systematically presents the steps necessary to design a curriculum for teaching training interpreters. It is updated and revised to reflect the significant gains in recognition that deaf people and their native language - American Sign Language - have achieved in recent years.

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Book SynopsisFrom the authors of ?Baby?s First Signs? and ?More Baby?s first Signs? come two new brightly colored board books depicting the recognizable character with the hat signing all the primary and secondary colors and familiar animals and insects such as ?dog,? ?cat,? ?butterfly,? and ?squirrel.?

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Book SynopsisEvolving Paradigms in Interpreter Education brings together a cadre of world-renowned educators and researchers who conduct a rich exploration of paradigms, both old and new, in interpreter education. They review existing research, explicate past and current practices, and call for a fresh examination of the roots of interpreter education. Expert commentary accompanies each chapter to provide a starting point for reflection on and discussion of the growing needs in this discipline.

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Book SynopsisAddresses the effects of a range of modern scientific and social developments - such as cochlear implants, genetic engineering, and educational mainstreaming - on deaf culture. This book splits into three sections, the first focusing on culture and identity, the second on language and literacy, and the third on American Sign Language in the arts.

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Book SynopsisSub-Saharan Africa is one of the most linguistically, culturally, and geographically diverse regions of the world. As in the rest of the world, deaf people live throughout sub-Saharan communities. This is a research on sub-Saharan signed languages and deaf community - organizing has created the opportunity to gather together the perspectives presented herein. Eighteen contributors illuminate the circumstances pertaining to cross-border, cross-regional, and global engagements in sub-Saharan deaf communities.

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Book SynopsisReflecting the exponential growth of college courses offering American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language, high schools have followed suit with significant increases in ASL classes during the past two decades. Despite this trend, high school ASL teachers and program administrators possess no concrete information on why students take ASL for foreign language credit, how they learn new signs and grammar, and how different learning techniques determines their achievement in ASL. This new book addresses these issues to better prepare high schools in their recruitment and education of new ASL students. Author Russell S. Rosen begins with the history of ASL as a foreign language in high schools, including debates about the foreign language status of ASL, the situation of deaf and hard of hearing students in classes, and governmental recognition of ASL as a language. Based on his study of five high school ASL programs, he defines the factors that motivate students, including community and culture, and analyzes strategies for promoting language processing and learning. Learning American Sign Language in High School provides strategies for teaching ASL as a second language to students with learning disabilities as well. Its thorough approach ensures the best opportunity for high school students to attain high levels of achievement in learning ASL.

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Book SynopsisWhile many deaf organizations around the world have adopted an ethno-linguistic framing of deafness, the meanings and consequences of this perspective vary across cultural contexts, and relatively little scholarship exists that explores this framework from an anthropological perspective. In this book, Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway presents an accessible examination of deafness in Nepal. As a linguistic anthropologist, she describes the emergence of Nepali Sign Language and deaf sociality in the social and historical context of Nepal during the last decades before the Hindu Kingdom became a secular republic. She then shows how the adoption of an ethno-linguistic model interacted with the ritual pollution model, or the prior notion that deafness results from bad karma. Her focus is on the impact of these competing and co-existing understandings of deafness on three groups: signers who adopted deafness as an ethnic identity, homesigners whose ability to adopt that identity is hindered by their difficulties in acquiring Nepali Sign Language, and hearing Nepalis who interact with Deaf signers. Comparing these contexts demonstrates that both the ethno-linguistic model and the ritual pollution model, its seeming foil, draw on the same basic premise: that both persons and larger social formations are mutually constituted through interaction. Signing and Belonging in Nepal is an ethnography that studies a rich and unique Deaf culture while also contributing to larger discussions about social reproduction and social change.

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Book SynopsisIn Understanding International Sign, Lori A. Whynot examines International Sign (IS) to determine the extent it is comprehended by signers from different countries. She focuses exclusively on expository lecture IS used in conference settings and presents the first empirical research on its effectiveness for communicating rich information to diverse audience members. International Sign is regarded as a lingua franca that is employed by deaf people to communicate with other deaf people who do not share the same conventionalized local sign language. Contrary to widely-held belief, sign languages are not composed of a unified system of universal gestures rather, they are distinctly different, and most are mutually unintelligible from one another. The phenomenon of IS has emerged through increased global interaction during recent decades, driven by a rise in the number of international conferences and events and by new technologies that allow for enhanced global communication. IS is gaining acceptance for providing communicative access to conference audience members who do not have knowledge of the designated conference languages, and it is being recruited for use due to the prohibitive expense of providing interpreting services in numerous different sign languages. However, it is not known how well audience members understand IS, and it may actually limit equal access to the interpreted information. Whynot compares IS to native sign languages and analyzes the distribution of linguistic elements in the IS lexicon and their combined effect on comprehension. Her findings indicate that audiences with diverse sign languages understand much less of IS presentations than has been previously assumed. Whynot's research has crucial implications for expository IS usage, training, and interpreting and sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses inherent in cross-linguistic, signed contact settings.

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Book SynopsisAugmentative and alternative communication concerns the use of non-speech communication modes for people unable to use speech and for augmenting communication for people with limited spoken language. This book focuses on the use of manual and graphic communication systems for clinical populations with developmental disorders of speech and language, including children, adolescents and adults with autism, dysphsia, intellectual impairment and motor impairment. Among the topics covered are: augmentative and alternative communication in Europe; joint attention and communication; implications for assessment and alternative language intervention in autism and related disorders; language input and attention strategies; communication functions in aided language use; being an interesting conversation partner; a neurolinguistic approach to graphic language intervention; augmented telecommunication for people with intellectual impairment; improving communication and language skills of children with cerebral palsy; the social world of non-speaking people; and the psychology and sociology of introducing augmentative and alternative communication in Hungary.Table of ContentsContributors. Introduction. Chapter 1 Preliminaries to a comprehensive model of augmentative and alternative communication, Stephen von Tetzchner, Nicola Grove, Filip Loncke, Sarah Barnett, Bencie Woll and John Clibbens. Chapter 2 Situating augmentative and alternative communication interention, Harald Martinsen and Stephen von Tetzchner. Chapter 3 Joint attention and alterantive language intervention in autism: Implications of theory for practice, Encarnacion Sarria, Juan Carlos and Javier Tamarit. Chapter 4 Words and strategies: Conversations with young children who use aided language, Stephen von Tetzchner and Harald Martinsen. Chapter 5 Referring expressions in conversations between aided and natural speakers, Sarah Collins. Chapter 6 The twopword stage in manual signs: Lanaguage development in signers with intellectual impairments, Nicola Grove, Julie Dockrell and Bencie Woll. Chapter 7 The medium or the message: A study of speaking children using communication boards, Martine M. Smith. Chapter 8 Sounds and silence: Interaction in aided language use, Erland Hjelmquist and Annika Dahlgren Sandberg. Chapter 9 A psycholoinguistic approach to graphic language use, Erland Hjelmquist and Annika Dahlgren Sandberg. Chapter 10 Being an interesting conversation partner, Norman Alm and Alan F. Newell. Chapter 11 A Semiotic analysis of the possibilities and limitations of Blissymbols, Serenella Besio and Maria Grazia Chinato. Chapter 12 Augmented telecommunication for people with intellectual impairment - a preview, Jane Brodin and Stephen von Tetzchner. Chapter 13 Enhancing communication skills with children with Down syndrome: Early use of manual signs, Kaisa Launonen. Chapter 14 Early development of symbolic communication and linguistic complexity through augmentative and alternative communication, Margriet J.M. Heim and Anne E. Baker-Mills. Chapter 15 Allowing for developmental potential: A case study of intervention change, Susanne Moller and Stephen von Tetzchner. Chapter 16 Supporting graphic language acquisition by a girl with multiple impairments, Carman Basil and Emili Soro-Camats. Chapter 17 Cleaning lades an broken buses - A case study on the use of Blissymbols and traditional orthography, Manfred Gangkofer and Stephen von Tetzchner. Chapter 18 Improving communication and language skills of children with developmental disorders: Family involvement in graphic language intervention, Lourdes Lourenco, Joaquim Faias, Rosa Afonso, Ana Moreira and Jose M. Ferreira. Chapter 19 Collaborative problem solving in communication intervention, Eva Bjorck-Akesson, Mats Granlund and Cecilia Olsson. Chapter 20 From system to communications: Staff training for attitude change, Elisabete Mendes and Jorge Rato. Chapter 21 Psychological and sociological aspects of introducing augmentative an alternative communication in Hungary: Tales, facts and numbers, Sophia L. Kalman and Andras Pajor. References and citation index. Subject index.

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Book SynopsisSign language interpreter education is a relatively young field that is moving toward more theory-based and research-oriented approaches. The concept of sharing research, which is strongly encouraged in this academic community, inspired Christine Monikowski to develop a volume that collects and distills the best teaching practices of leading academics in the interpreting field. In Conversations with Interpreter Educators, Monikowski assembles a group of 17 professors in the field of sign language interpretation. Through individual interviews conducted via Skype, Monikowski engages them in informal conversations about their teaching experiences and the professional publications that have influenced their teaching philosophies. She guides each conversation by asking these experts to share a scholarly publication that they assign to their students. They discuss the merits of the text and its role in the classroom, which serves to highlight the varying goals each professor sets for students. The complexity of the interpreting task, self-reflection, critical thinking, linguistics, backchannel feedback, and cultural understanding are a sampling of topics explored in these exchanges. Engaging and accessible, Monikowski's conversations offer evidence-based practices that will inform and inspire her fellow educators.

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Book SynopsisSamar Sinha presents pioneering research into the grammatical properties of Indian Sign Language (ISL), a language used by members of the Deaf community in India. This detailed and well-illustrated study describes the grammar of ISL and is supplemented by comparative and theoretical analyses in the core areas of sublexical structure, morphology, and syntax. Sinha offers a field-based, comprehensive analysis that covers topics such as sign formation parameters, syllable structure, sonority hierarchy, semantics of space, pluralization strategies, phi-features, indexing and localization, agreement, and word order. He provides a description of the Indian Deaf community that serves to frame his analysis of ISL and highlights the need for greater awareness and acknowledgment of the language and its users. The lack of research on ISL in Indian academia has slowed efforts toward the standardization of ISL and the development of pedagogical materials. This work adds to the growing understanding of natural human language in general and ISL in particular. It also contributes to the empowerment of the Deaf community in India and will strengthen the efforts carried out by d/Deaf activists and researchers.

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Book SynopsisThe Second International Symposium on Signed Language Interpretation and Translation Research was a rare opportunity for hearing and Deaf students, researchers, educators, and practitioners to come together and learn about current research in Interpretation and Translation Studies. These selected papers are comprised of research conducted in places such as Australia, Flanders, France, and Ghana, creating a volume that is international in scope. Editors Danielle I. J. Hunt and Emily Shaw have collected papers that represent the advances in the depth and diversity of knowledge in the field of signed language interpretation and translation research. Chapter topics include the use of haptic signals when interpreting for Deafblind people, the role of French Deaf translators during the 2015 Paris terror attacks, and Deaf employees’ perspectives on interpreting in the workplace. Signed chapter summaries will be available on the Gallaudet University Press YouTube channel upon publication.

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