news from India and an appeal...

[Ulrike Zeshan]

Dear colleagues and friends on the list,

this is to let you know about important new developments in sign language
research in India. As some of you are aware, I have been working on the sign
language used in India and Pakistan for several years, including my PhD
thesis. My aim has always been that ultimately, the local deaf community
should benefit from my research. So in between two other research projects,
I have come back to India again for five months to try to ensure that work
on sign language will go on and that Indians themselves will be involved in
sign language research.

To this effect, we have just formed a Sign Language Research Group at the
Linguistics Department of Delhi University. At the moment, the team consists
of myself as an external advisor, a sociolinguistics professor as head of
the research group, a deaf research assistant, a deaf sign language model,
and a hearing MA student of linguistics. Initially, our work focusses on
applied research. We are producing bilingual educational materials on video
(in Indian Sign Language with English voiceover): a basic course teaching
Indian Sign Language to hearing people, and a basic course in English
grammar taught in the sign language, for deaf students. Production of
further similar materials is planned, and the linguists at Delhi University
will test the efficiency of the materials (i.e. the progress of learners)
with standard linguistic methods. The plan is to document the efficiency of
bilingual education for the deaf and thereby help to bring about a change
towards bilingualism in deaf schools and in government policies.

To ensure that sign language research can go on, I am applying to the German
Embassy here for funding of a video laboratory to produce professional video
materials. The video lab will be located in the Linguistics Department, and
it seems likely that our application will be successful. I am also doing a
lot of teaching and tutoring to get across as much sign language linguistics
expertise as possible in the short time I am here. Fortunately, I do have
talented and committed people to work with here, especially my deaf research
assistant.

However, there is not a single book about sign language linguistics at Delhi
University. I have donated copies of my own three books on Indo-Pakistani
Sign Language, but this is not enough to run a research group. Therefore, I
would like to appeal to all of you to donate books on sign language,
especially sign language linguistics. Maybe you have some spare author's
copies of your own books sitting around on a shelf, or an older edition of a
book that you are not using any more, or a couple of older journals you
could donate, or offprints of your own articles. Please have a look through
your personal libraries, and if you feel you could donate anything, please
get in touch with me at this email address. Thank you very much for your
help. I can assure you that any help will bear ample fruit in our large
Indian deaf community. I will personally stay in permanent close contact
with the research group and will put my heart and soul into advancing sign
language research here. Sincere thanks to all like-minded people among you.

Regards,

Ulrike




Ulrike Zeshan
Research Fellow
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology
La Trobe University VIC 3086
Australia