German Sign Language and
Communication of the Deaf
Photo: UHH/Denstorf
13 June 2022
Photo: IDGS
On June 8th, the second international guest lecture took place at the IDGS. We invited Todd Czubek from Boston University, who gave a Zoom lecture that was interpreted from English into DGS and supported by a German (and English) PowerPoint presentation.
Prof. Czubek reported on the results of his dissertation, in which he studied the use of referential expressions in American Sign Language (ASL). Referential expressions can be used to talk about people or objects in the world and include, for example, nominal phrases, pronouns, and also classifiers and Constructed Action. ASL signers adapt their referential expressions to the information content of previous utterances. That is, if the interlocutor already has a lot of information about a referent, signers choose a referential expression with low information content, e.g., an index sign, or a null pronoun.
One goal of Prof. Czubek's research is to improve ASL-English instruction for deaf children at the K-12 level. His findings will be used to develop new approaches to teaching text production and narrative skills.
The presentation was followed by a vivid discussion and Q&A session; among others, IDGS faculty showed an interest in how such learning concepts could be implemented in the teaching of second language learners.