Review
of Final Year Project
Sign
Language
Temasek Polytechnic
Introduction
Students
with hearing impairment communicate in most parts of the world as well as in
Singapore using sign language. There is no such thing as a universal sign
language. Signs are only called a
language when it has syntax and sentence structure with grammar which is unique
to the language. Otherwise, it is only a
gesture.
Each country has its unique
sign language system it has evolved from and adopted. For example most American Deaf people use
American Sign Language (ASL), British Deaf people use British Sign Language and
Chinese Deaf people living in the north of China use Shanghai Sign
Language. The American Sign Language is
actually adopted from the French Sign Language. The importance of the sign language parallels
the economic success of the country it is from.
The prevalence of usage is also dependent on the emphasis of education
in the Deaf Community.
Language is fluid and ever
changing. So is sign language. It undergoes
modification not only according to the colloquial application, it is also
dependent on the social status of the Deaf Community. Thus a sophisticated
community will have more signs than a community which requires basic signs to
communicate.
Singapore Sign Language
The
history of sign language which is adopted in Singapore by those using sign
language to communicate parallels the economic growth of Singapore as well as
its emphasis on education and academic qualification. When Singapore became independent, there were
2 system of education very similar to the normal schools. Deaf students have the choice to be taught
using Chinese sign language or American sign language. As Singapore grew economically, the emphasis
on English was evident. Sign language
also followed suit as the Chinese system was phased out and students were
mainly taught using English as the medium.
In the eighties, it
was noted that American Sign Language was insufficient to help the average Deaf
student cope with the demands of good English in order to get higher education
qualifications. ASL relied on concepts
rather than “grammatically correct”. In
the mid eighties, Singapore Association for the Deaf decided to adopt Sign
Exact English (SEE) as the language to be used in the schools in order to teach
Deaf students so that they can keep up academically with the mainstream
students. Subsequently, Total
Communication or a system to make use of all possible forms of communications
including signs, gestures, body language, etc was adopted in the school system.
Other students with hearing impairment
Not
all students with hearing impairment use sign language. Some of them decided to
be taught the Aural way which is to learn to listen and lip-read. This system
unfortunately is dependent on the person to interact directly with the person
spoken to. With the education system keen for mainstreaming, less and less
students are taught sign language which may help them better understand the
community they live in or an additional mode of communication as well as obtaining
information from a different source.
There are also those
who have hearing impairment, but have never gone to school. They rely mainly on
gesturing in order to communicate their thoughts and wishes.
Where are the needs?
a)
Deaf students need supplemental
coaching besides that taught in the school.
A multi-media way may beneficial so that slow students can learn sign
language at their own pace.
b) Deaf students who
eventually go to mainstream secondary schools may want their normal friends to
learn sign language so that they can communicate with one another.
c) Deaf students
need a sign language dictionary that is regularly updated as new signs are
introduced. This will be essential for
Deaf adults who have left school for many years and want to be kept updated.
d) Deaf students who
are taught the Aural way may want to learn sign language to communicate with
their friends who use sign language
e) Parents and
siblings want to learn sign language to communicate with their Deaf child or
sibling.
f) Normal people who
want to help Deaf people or work with them need to be efficient in sign
language to communicate with Deaf people.
Program Criteria
a) Sign language is
motion. The program should have moving
pictures of the signs.
b) We should try to
standardize the sign language we want to use in Singapore viz Sign Exact
English
c) Some of the signs
are related. Explanations, other than just the word of the sign, including
related signs can be included. For
example breakfast, lunch and dinner. The signs are “B”, “L” and “D” to the lips
respectively.
d) SEE includes
grammar. The program should help the
user to differentiate the difference in the sign between “see”, “seeing” and
“saw”.
e) The program
should try to get the user not only to improve vocabulary, it should help the
user to form sentence structures. Eg “ I am going to school to learn English”
f) The program
should not only act as a teaching tool, it should be a dictionary. For example
if I want to see the sign of “elephant”, I don’t have to go to “animals” and
scroll down to elephant. I should be able to type elephant and it shows me the
sign.
g) Total
communication includes using all types of communication. It is not enough to
show the sign. The program should also give the user the sound. It will benefit
the Deaf person who has residual hearing and also encourages normal people to
vocalize besides just using the sound.
The facial expression also is important as it conveys the feeling of the
word. Examples are “happy”, “ sad”, “ frightened”.
h) The program must
allow the data bank to expand as more words are included in the program.
Perhaps the user can use a web cam to record the motion and allow text to be
typed.
14th
November 2001
Teacher in charge
(Attn : Lye Sau Lin)
Learning Sign Language
Temasek Polytechnic.
Dear Sir,
Final Year Project:
Learning Sign Language
I
would like to congratulate you and the group of students who came up with this
good piece of project. I can see a lot
of potential using it in the Deaf Community in Singapore.
The positive points of
this CD are:
a) User Friendly.
b) Pleasant music to
accompany the user as he goes through each lessons
c) Friendly looking
model and very clear pictures with arrows to show directions
d) Good introduction
to sign language for the new comer to the Deaf Community
e) Exercise at the
end of each lesson so as to help the user revise what he has learnt
My points against its limit
of use is :
a) It is more to
learn vocabulary than the complete use of sign language to communicate
b) It does not teach
the user how to communicate
c) The number of
vocabulary in the program is limited, thus it is neither a dictionary
I would say that the program fails
to completely fulfil the needs. I guess
it only introduces basic sign language to the hearing person who is curious to
know a little about sign language. The user can learn some sign language in
order to inform the Deaf person that he is keen to know more.
I have included in this
letter, an introduction of Sign Language and its usage in Singapore. This
program has a lot of room for improvement.
It can be a valuable tool for the Deaf Community to :
a) Sign Language
education for the Deaf
b) Sign Language
education for the hearing
c) Sign Language
Dictionary
Currently we are dependent on sign
language teachers to run tedious courses on the expense of their time. Within a class of students, each student
learn at different speed. A good program will be to supplement such language
classes so as to improve their grasp of sign language skills. The user should be informed that it is not
only just vocabulary that is needed in communication, it is also grammar and
sentence structure.
I do look forward for the
group to be able to improve the program.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Dr Victor Keng
Chairman
Education Sub Committee
Singapore Association for the Deaf
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