Teaching and Learning a Second Sign language

INTRODUCTION

Hearing people often learn a second (third, fourth) spoken language online. Because they want to study or work abroad, or because they are going on holiday in a foreign country. 

Many Deaf people learn a second (third, fourth) sign language. To work or study abroad or because they are going on holiday in a foreign country. Or  because they have relocated to a new country as asylum seekers. 

Usually, Deaf people learn a new sign language AFTER they've moved to a new country. They learn by 'immersion': they meet sign language users in the new country and learn the new sign language, informally.

The SignTeach Online team wanted to answer 3 questions:

1. Can Deaf learners learn a second (third, fourth) sign language online? 

2. How is teaching a second sign language to Deaf learners online different, from teaching hearing people a first sign language?

To explore these questions, Valeria Giura and Luigi Lerose offered the Deaf partners in the consortium a short (5 lessons) online course in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Interesting also, because Sign Language teachers switched perspective: for a few online lessons, they became Sign Language learners! 

At the consortium meeting in Preston (UK) in January 2023, the partners discussed this experiment and filmed their findings and comments.