iSLanDS Institute awarded prestigious €1.16 million grant for groundbreaking research into multilingual signing

The iSLanDS Institute has been awarded a prestigious research grant by the European Research Council (ERC), which will fund a 5-year project on ‘multilingual behaviours in sign language users’.

This will be the first ground-breaking step in opening up a new sub-discipline of multilingualism studies. The research, led by Professor Ulrike Zeshan, will showcase people’s linguistic capabilities and will involve international participants from a wide range of countries. The project consists of three individual studies which can be described under the newly coined terms:

• ‘Cross-signing’ – the development of improvised communication between users of different sign languages in language contact situations
• ‘Sign-speaking’ – the simultaneous production of sign and speech, where the different structures of both languages are kept largely intact
• ‘Sign-switching’ – code-switching between sign languages in multilingual sign language users

The new area of research emerging from this project – Sign Multilingualism Studies – is virtually non-existent at present, and this is the first time researchers have ever investigated a complex range of multilingual behaviours in sign language users. A better understanding of sign multilingualism can lead to better training for sign language interpreters working in international contexts, as well as improve services for deaf people who move abroad.
Professor Zeshan, Director of the International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies comments: “We are thrilled to have been awarded such a highly competitive and prestigious grant from the ERC. This project will have a huge impact on the international deaf researchers and communities who will work with us, especially those from developing countries. Rather than being concerned with deaf people’s challenges and problems, this project showcases people’s high-level linguistic abilities. We are delighted that the ERC recognised the value of this research.”

16 December 2010