Impressions from the FEAST conference (6-8 August 2024)

8 August 2024, by Pamela Sundhausen

The FEAST (Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory) conference took place at the University of Michigan from 6 to 8 August. Prof. Dr. Liona Paulus and Janika Thies from the IDGS were there as participants.

Here are their personal impressions:

Janika Stille: “Among other things, I saw the lecture by Lorna Quandt, which I really enjoyed. She is a researcher at Gallaudet University and her lecture dealt with the topic of spatial perception and spatial processing. To investigate this, she carried out a comparative study with a group of Deaf people and a group of hearing people. All participants were competent in sign language. I found the results extremely interesting: those who had learned sign language from an early age had an enormous advantage over the other participants in terms of spatial perception. This was made clear by many of the results. In conclusion, she presented this advantage as a clear advantage, the so-called “sign language gain”, which people with early sign language acquisition enjoy. I will remember this wonderful conclusion for a long time to come."

Liona Paulus: "Among other things, I looked at the poster presentation by Kraus, Gagne et al. from Gallaudet University: “The effect of iconic vs. arbitrary teaching arbitrary teaching strategies on hearing non-signers' production accuracy and language attitudes”. This was about language acquisition in ASL. Differences between abstract and iconic video material in the classroom and their and their effects on the learning of sign language.

Methodologically, the participants in the study were shown a video in ASL, e.g. the sign COLD, which is identical to the sign KALT in DGS.

This was followed by an explanation of the iconic content of the sign in the same video, i.e. the person in the video showed how a person behaves without warm clothing, arms wrapped tightly around the upper body, fingers clenched into fists, shoulders hunched, shivering, teeth chattering.

In the other video, the same gesture was shown, but without any reference to the iconic content. Instead, there was a purely formal description of the gesture, i.e. which hand shape, movement and point of execution should be observed in the gesture. This meant that the sign was taught as arbitrary.

In the ASL course, a comparison of the two groups showed that the participants who had learned the sign as an arbitrary form were more precise in their reproduction, but still appeared unsure when signing. The participants in the other group, on the other hand, did exactly the opposite: they performed the sign more uncleanly, but appeared confident. Interesting results!"