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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When I visited Quweisma school for the Deaf several
years ago, there was certainly no sign language being used there, so this might
be a recent development, but I think it is more likely that a rather ad hoc
form of signed Arabic is meant here (which is often referred to in Jordan as
Total Communication, as Dan mentioned). To my knowledge, the only school in
Jordan in which experiments have been done with bilingualism using natural
Jordanian Sign Language has been the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf. Even
there, though, most teachers make up their own form of signed Arabic. In
2006 the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen, in co-operation
with the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf produced a basic course in
Jordanian Sign Language which is now being taught for those with the aspiration
to become interpreters. Hopefully this course can in the future also be
used to train teachers of the Deaf in using Jordanian Sign Language. This
is, however, the first course of its kind. Sign language courses in Jordan have
thus far mainly focused on teaching vocabulary, which means most teachers are
not aware of the fact that Jordanian Sign Language has a grammar that is
completely different to the grammar of Arabic and that speaking Arabic and
signing grammatically at the same time is not possible. However, if anyone knows
of schools which do use natural Jordanian Sign Language, I would love to
hear...</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Greetings,</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bernadet</FONT></DIV>
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