In solidarity with British Sign Language users in the UK, Professor Graham Turner is subject to a self-imposed vow of silence. Can he remain speechless and last for an entire week in BSL? What will he learn from the experience? Living in Edinburgh, I can barely step out of my front door before someone’s playing […]
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Vow of Silence: Day 2
Surgery performed on Deaf people without their consent. Signers unemployed or under-employed, their talents wasted. Shockingly frequent mental health problems as Deaf people struggle to live within a hostile social system. Deaf children in classrooms where they can’t understand the language of instruction. Police, prisons, banks, Inland Revenue – an endless list of institutions not […]
Prof’s Vow of Silence
It’s going to be a quiet week in my office. This week is the British Deaf Association’s ‘Sign Language Week’ (http://www.bda.org.uk/). My contribution? I’m going to shut up. So if, when you see me this week, you cheerily wish me good morning and hear not a sound in reply, it’s not (just) because I’m a […]
Bouncing Ball Research
Is research more like a vase or a bouncing ball? Vases are pretty. They are wonderfully ornamental and can even inspire poetry. What they do not do, however, is leave a mark. They look good and are to be admired but that’s it. Vase-style research is similar. It is admirable, excellent and might even inspire […]
Insign: Breaking new ground in video remote interpreting research
Pioneered in Sweden, both video remote interpreting (VRI) and video relay service (VRS) platforms use web-based video technology to enable Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HoH) sign language users to talk to (hearing) non-sign language users using their preferred language (i.e., a signed language) via an interpreter, either with the interpreter situated remotely and the deaf and hearing person together in […]
Chances to Join LINCS
For over two years, LifeinLINCS has brought you news, views and discussion from the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies. Now, we would like to offer you two chances to join us. The first is our new advertisement for PhD scholarships. If you would love to study child language brokering, quality in Public Service Interpreting, […]
How Open is Research?
Back in May last year, I wrote the following words in a column in the ITI Bulletin, “Researchers could discover a way to double efficiency, win new clients and increase translators’ status but, unless those at the sharp end of the profession take an interest, none of this would ever filter down to practice.” Since […]
Interpreting for deaf jurors
http://youtu.be/_7uYtXD_J34 (BSL version) Jury service in adversarial court systems is an important civic duty and responsibility. Jurors have to understand and weigh up evidence presented, assess the credibility of witnesses and decide on the likelihood of certain events having occurred in the light of their own personal experiences. There has been increasing interest in whether […]
New Competition: Sign the Anthem
Today’s blog posting announces a competition being run by the Centre for Translation & Interpreting Studies in Scotland (CTISS), this Department’s longest-established research centre. It’s a translation challenge, and it’s open to all. Let me explain. In case you didn’t know, 2014 is a big year for Scotland. Of course, there’s the small matter of […]
Irish in a multilingual world
In my previous post, I mentioned that new speakers of Irish are bringing the language into new contexts. While some speakers still try to model their Irish on what was traditionally spoken in the Gaeltacht, many others deliberately move away from this model. They break the rules of grammar and adopt hybridized forms of language. […]