Saturday, January 19th, 2008...8:04 pm
Edinburgh Evening News Article.
I read this article in the Edinburgh Evening News this morning:
“A NEW sign language designed to revolutionise the way science is taught to deaf children in schools has been developed in Edinburgh.
Teachers and language specialists have collated a glossary of more than 250 signs, which can be accessed over the internet.Under the £25,000 move, complex terms such as photosynthesis, density and bacteria will be explained by on-screen tutors.
Rachel O’Neill, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “The scientific vocabulary for deaf children has developed simply because we need it.”
This is fantastic news! In the past I have taught Biology and Science to very able pupils who have used sign language. The complex terminology used in the Sciences can be very challenging. There was no web address mentioned in the article, and after a bit of Google-ing, I can’t seem to find anything other than this more descriptive article in the Times.
However, this is one that I will add to my Glow wish list!
2 Comments
January 29th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Hi Tessa
Sorry it has taken me a wee while to find this blog - I’m a little new to blogging.
I attended the opening presentation of the BSL Science Glossary last week, as a Teacher of the Hearing Impaired who has supported the teaching of S1 and S2 science as well as Intermediate Chemistry to two Deaf pupils who relied on signs to help them relate to vocabulary and concepts. At the time however there were no resources to help assign appropriate signs. In light of this we would make up a sign between us, use abbreviated finger spelling or initialisation. The problems came when there was more that one word that started with the same letter, e.g. ‘solution’, ‘solvent’, ‘saturate’ – all come under ’s’. Pupils had to rely on lip reading to figure out which word they were expected to know. In addition the signs we used did not always clearly represent the word or concept it was supposed to convey.
The BSL Science Glossary is a fantastic breakthrough, which will be invaluable for teachers and pupils alike. While the panel who had been involved in its’ creation expressed similar problems to those I experienced they also discussed the issue of conceptual knowledge that should now be easier to put across to signing pupils. Often the pupils have difficulty understanding not only the vocabulary but also the concept behind it.
The Glossary has vocabulary for Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. When you chose the area you want to work in you will be presented with an A – Z list of drop down boxes with a list of available signed vocabulary. These are presented in video format as follows:
· The vocabulary signed in BSL,
· A definition in both BSL and written in English below,
(Not all vocabulary has a definition at the moment but they will be added as soon as possible)
· Some have an example whether in graphics or video,
· Finger spelling.
We have been informed this resource will continue to be added to hopefully up to exam level in the future. I hope that other curricular topics will also be presented in a similar way to enable all pupils using BSL to access learning to the best of their ability.
The link for the Glossary is – http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/BSL/list.html
Enjoy playing with it I did.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hi Kirsti.
Thanks for your comment. This is exactly the information that I had been looking for!
I am off to check out the link now.
Tess
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