PURPOSE: The purpose of the current study was to create a set of video-recorded real-sign-pseudosign pairs for Swedish Sign Language (Svenskt teckenspråk, STS). The pseudosigns should be based on the overall phonotactic structures of STS; each real-sign-pseudosign pair should be matched in terms of neighborhood density (ND) and phonotactic probability (PP); the real signs and pseudosigns should have similar distributions of ND, PP, and duration; and the set as a whole should have distributions of ND, PP, and (for the real signs) sign frequency (SF) similar to that of the STS. To achieve this, a secondary purpose was to develop algorithms to calculate ND and PP for STS and to investigate how the metrics correlate. METHOD: Based on publicly available data sources for STS, an initial data set was formed, which was utilized in an automatic algorithm to generate phonotactically feasible pseudosign candidates, as well as to calculate ND and PP values for both the real signs and the generated pseudosign candidates. The use of an automatic matching algorithm was followed by manual evaluation of the selected pseudosign candidates. The selected matching pairs of signs and pseudosigns were video recorded by four actors (two males and two females). RESULTS: Four hundred sixty-six sign-pseudosign pairs, matching in ND and PP, were video-recorded. The real signs and pseudosigns had similar distributions of ND, PP, and duration, and the distributions of ND, PP, and SF values in the recorded set were similar to those of the STS as a whole. CONCLUSIONS: The resulting data set has been made publicly available and is suitable for use in psycholinguistic experiments involving STS. The present work presents a new standard for estimation of lexical metrics in sign language that can be applied to other sign languages than STS in future studies. 

The role of fingerspelling or manual alphabet for reading among deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals has been of great interest in research. What can decades of research on fingerspelling and reading among deaf individuals tell us about how fingerspelling aids deaf children’s reading development? This scoping review was, therefore, undertaken to explore: (a) What is the relationship between fingerspelling and reading?, (b) In what ways do fingerspelling abilities promote reading skills?, and (c) What is known about using fingerspelling to teach reading? We identified 26 studies that were screened and summarized according to publication characteristics. The content and methods of these studies were briefly described. The results revealed a larger proportion of quantitative methods and ASL/English settings. A discussion and implications for future research are provided.

In the study of communication, meaning-making may be explained as a process consisting of collaborative and distributed actions between participants in interaction. This view is of special importance in communication with individuals living with deafblindness. Staff working in group housing for people with congenital deafblindness can be considered as communication partners. Using a qualitative and explorative design, 18 communication partners have been individually interviewed concerning their perceptions of strategies to facilitate social interaction with adults with congenital deafblindness. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. The analyses generated three categories of perceived strategies 1) having essential competence and qualities, 2) getting to know and understand each other, 3) use of facilitating techniques. The results indicate that staff continuity in homes for people with deafblindness is key for the well-being of the people cared for. Combinations of perceived experiences from interviews, and forthcoming video-ethnographic observations, may form the basis of training programs.

Introduction: People with congenital deafblindness (CDB) face challenges orienting themselves in time and activities. The aim of the current study is to identify and analyze how an adult with CDB and his support persons co-construct comprehensibility and predictability in his daily life. Method: The study consists of video recordings of everyday dyadic interaction from a residential home. Conversation Analysis was used to explore interactional practices that afford orientation in time and activities. Results: Results highlight several important practices: 1) repetitions of signs or other recognizable linguistic elements in a second turn to identify and confirm a reciprocally understood subject; 2) repetition of a sign placed first in the second part of a question-answer adjacency pair; 3) and the use of a visually based schedule to achieve mutual understanding. Conclusion: The practices identified and analyzed accomplish security, predictability, and comprehensibility for the person with CDB and his support persons.

There is a lack of tests available for assessing sign language proficiency among L2 learners. We have therefore developed a sign repetition test, SignRepL2, with a specific focus on the phonological features of signs. This paper describes the two phases of developing this test. In the first phase, content was developed in the form of 50 items with sentence lengths between one and three signs. Then, when a period of teaching revealed a ceiling effect in the first version, a second version was developed with 40 items varying between one and four signs. Test scores revealed increasing proficiency in Swedish Sign Language during education, and that mouth actions have a lower degree of accuracy than manual parameters. 

Det råder stor brist på bedömningsmaterial när det gäller färdigheter i svenskt teckenspåk för andraspåksinlärare. Mot denna bakgrund har vi utvecklat ett teckenspåkstest, SignRepL2, som har ett särskilt fokus på teckens fonologiska egenskaper. Den här artikeln beskriver hur testet har utvecklats i två faser. I den första fasen tog vi fram 50 objekt, bestående av meningar av varierande längd; 30 enstaka tecken och 10 meningar med två respektive tre tecken. Testet implementerades och användes för att testa teckenspåksutvecklingen hos studenter som studerade svenskt teckenspåk som andraspåk. Då konstaterades att testet inte räckte till eftersom en taknivå uppnåddes efter en tids undervisning. Därför vidareutvecklades testet i en andra fas. I denna fas reducerades antalet enstaka tecken till 10 och 10 meningar innehållande fyra tecken vardera lades till så att testet istället kom att bestå av 40 objekt med mer varierande meningslängd. Resultaten fån testet visade hur studenternas kunskaper i svenskt teckenspåk utvecklades under utbildningen. Dessutom konstaterades att icke-manuella munrörelser är svårare att producera korrekt jämfört med tecknens manuella parametrar.

This article highlight and discuss the complex situation when deaf adults who are emergent readers learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish in parallel. As Swedish appears primarily in its written form, they also have to develop reading and writing skills. Study data comes from ethnographically created video recordings of classroom interaction and interviews with teachers and participants. The analysis reveals that while the migrants successively learn basic STS for interacting with other deaf people, learning Swedish takes a different path. The migrants struggle with learning basic reading and writing skills, vocabulary, and grammar. Furthermore, the instruction is highly repetitive, but unstructured and sprawled, using STS to explain and connect signs with written equivalents. The teachers testify in interviews that it seems very difficult for the emergent readers to learn Swedish on a level good enough to cope in Swedish society, which, in turn, puts them in a vulnerable position.

This presentation will highlight and discuss the complex situation when deaf adults who are emergent readers (i.e., with limited or no previous knowledge of print literacy) are expected to learn two new languages in parallel: Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish. Swedish appears primarily in its written form for this group, and therefore, they, apart from learning a new language, also have to develop reading and writing skills. In the hearing context, such learning of print literacy in adulthood is a process that is proven difficult by research (e.g., Bigelow & Vinogradov 2011). In addition, literature on literacy development of deaf children, frequently report obstacles with the learning of print literacy for many students even if many become successful readers (e.g., Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris 2014). Our study indicates that this is even more complicated for adult deaf emergent readers.Data comes from ethnographically created video recordings of classroom interaction and interviews with teachers and participants representing this group. The analysis reveals that while the migrants successively learn basic STS skills that allow them to interact with other deaf people in the personal domain and communicate their needs, learning Swedish takes an entirely different path. The migrants struggle with learning basic reading and writing skills, vocabulary, and grammar. Furthermore, although the instruction is highly repetitive, using STS to explain and connect signs with written equivalents, it is unstructured and sprawled without a clear red thread. The teachers testify in interviews that it seems almost impossible for the emergent readers to learn Swedish on a level good enough to cope in Swedish society, which, in turn, puts them in a very vulnerable position. The presentation will conclude with a discussion connecting the results to the Crip Linguistic framework and mark the importance of further research on adult deaf emergent readers.

This study presents a corpus-based investigation of self-repairs in hearing adult L2 (M2L2, second modality and second language) learners of Swedish Sign Language (Svenskt teckenspråk, STS). This study analyses M2L2 learners’ STS conversations with a deaf signer and examines the learners’ self-repair practices and whether there are differences among learners of different proficiency levels. This provides a description of characteristics of self-repair made by M2L2 learners as well as the frequency and distribution of self-repair categories. The results show that the frequency of self-repair decreases with increased proficiency, at least after the initial stage. Furthermore, the self-initiated repair categories of the beginners are often phonological repairs, while intermediate learners tend to carry out self-repairs at the lexical and syntactic level. The results also reveal a specific type of STS repair linked to fingerspelling repairs. We discuss the effects of second modality learning as well as the relationship between monitoring and language proficiency.

In the last decade, Sweden has received many deaf migrants with very diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds. When arriving in Sweden, they are expected to learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish. For this study, we have used data from project Mulder, a four-year research project that aims to generate knowledge about deaf migrants' multilingual situation in Sweden. In this article, we describe how adult education for deaf migrants is organised in Sweden and examine how translanguaging practices are formed there. We found that translanguaging is a natural and common part of the multilingual classrooms, but also that the opportunities to translanguage depend highly on the individual's repertoires and whether particular individuals have one or more languages in common or have a lingua franca. We also found that translanguaging is not always helpful in learning contexts if the teachers are not conscious and insightful when they mix languages.