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 […]
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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. […]
An Irish of the future
A few weeks back I uploaded some information on the upcoming round of WorkGroup Meetings as part of the COST EU Action on “New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe“. The meetings which will be held at Heriot-Watt between 6-7 March 2014. The project involves researchers from some 17 European countries. In the project we are interested in finding […]
Do "new speakers" of English in the UK face exclusion?
Just before Christmas the UK government announced that migrants will only be able to claim benefits if they pass a series of tough new tests. One of these includes a check on their fluency in English. These tests are now to be done without the assistance of a translator or interpreter. There are also talks of […]
New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: 1st Round of Workgroup Meetings
EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COST Action IS1306: New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges 1st Round of Workgroup Meetings Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 6-7 March 2014 OPEN CALL YOU ARE INVITED TO the 1st Round of Working Group Meetings of the “New Speakers” network which will take place in Edinburgh in […]
New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe
The recent resignation of the Irish-language commissioner in Ireland, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, featured strongly in the Irish media just before Christmas. Irish is the official language of the Republic of Ireland. It is one of the only minority languages in Europe and perhaps in the world to have this level of official status. However, despite this apparent protection […]
Sign language brokering experiences in the Deaf community
Many people will have seen the video of the cute young girl Claire Koch singing Christmas carols and simultaneously signing the songs in American Sign Language for her deaf parents that went viral in December 2013. The general response was the feel good factor – how amazing, considerate and talented this little girl is. Children like […]
BSL Highlights
As the year draws to a close, here are 10 highlights from the work of the British Sign Language team at Heriot-Watt University. We have grown significantly during 2013. New additions to the family include Professor Jemina Napier, plus Clare Canton, Yvonne Waddell and Stacey Webb. This means we now have six PhD students working […]
Professor Graham Turner: 10 lessons from the tale of the ‘fake’ interpreter | The Limping Chicken
It’s rare that LifeinLINCS points you to another blog but whenone of our contributors posts an incredible post on a leading website, well, we just can’t resist! If you have seen the furore over the fake interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s funeral, you will want to read this! Professor Graham Turner: 10 lessons from the tale […]