SIGN LANGUAGE

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Where Every Voice Is Heard
Where Every Sign Is Seen

OEFEN JOU GEBARE!

Gebaretaal Woordeskat #1:

THE HISTORY OF SA SIGN LANGUAGE

Gebare Taal Woordeskat #2:

Recognition

Sign language is mentioned in four South African laws, namely the Constitution, the Use of Official Languages Act, the South African Schools Act, and the Pan South African Language Board Act.

General Recognition

The Constitution states that a board named the Pan South African Language Board should be established to “promote, and create conditions for, the development and use of … sign language”. In terms of the law that establishes the Pan South African Language Board (Act 59 of 1995), the board may establish language bodies to advise it on “any particular language, sign language or augmentative and alternative communication”.   

In terms of the Use of Official Languages Act, Act No. 12 of 2012, all government departments and government entities must have a language policy that states which languages are considered the official languages of that entity, and each language policy must also specify how that department or entity intends to communicate with people whose language of choice is “South African sign language”.

Neither South African Sign Language nor any other sign language is an official language of South Africa. In 2008 the SASL Policy Implementation Conference gathered many key role players including scholars, researchers and teachers, policy makers, advocates and governmental bodies to promote South African Sign Language to become recognised as South Africa’s twelfth official language.

Educational Recognition

According to the South African Schools Act, Act 84 of 1996, all schools must have a language policy, and that when selecting languages for such a policy, a “recognised Sign Language” should be evaluated as if it has official language status along with the other eleven official languages.

According to the “Language in Education” policy in terms of section 3(4)(m) of the National Education Policy Act, Act 27 of 1996, the main aims of the Ministry of Education’s policy for language in education include “to support the teaching and learning of all other languages required by learners or used by communities in South Africa, including languages used for religious purposes, languages which are important for international trade and communication, and South African Sign Language, as well as Alternative and Augmentative Communication”.

South African Sign Language is accepted as one of the languages of instruction in the education of Deaf learners.

Fingerspelling

Fingerspelling is a manual technique of signing used to spell letters and numbers (numerals, cardinals). Therefore, fingerspelling is a sign language technique for borrowing words from spoken languages, as well as for spelling names of people, places and objects. It is a practical tool to refer to the written word.

Some words which are often fingerspelled tend to become signs in their own right (becoming “frozen”), following linguistic transformation processes such as alphanumeric incorporation and abbreviation. For instance, one of the sign-names for Cape Town uses incorporated fingerspelled letters C.T. (transition from handshape for letter ‘C’ to letter ‘T’ of both wrists with rotation on an horizontal axis).

The month of July is often abbreviated as ‘J-L-Y’.

Fingerspelling words is not a substitute for using existing signs : it takes longer to sign and it is harder to perceive. If the fingerspelled word is a borrowing, fingerspelling depends on both users having knowledge of the oral language (English, Sotho, Afrikaans).

Although proper names (such as a person’s name, a company name) are often fingerspelled, it is often a temporary measure until the Deaf community agrees on a Sign name replacement.

History Of Education For The Deaf In SA

Irish nuns start training programmes in sign language.Irish Sign Language, “originally heavily influenced by French Sign Language” is said to have had a noticeable influence in sign languages in the world, including in South Africa.

Grimley Institute for the Deaf and Dumb established by Bridget Lynne in Cape Town

In 1881 in Worcester, De La Bat school for the Deaf was established.

In 1884, Sister Stephanie Hanshuber, from Germany, introduced the oral method in South Africa.

Adoption of oralism in deaf schools

Separation between European and Non-European schools

First school “for the Black Deaf” established

Medium of education changed from vernacular (native tongue) to English in Department Of Education and Training schools

“Sign language” (but not specifically SASL) mentioned in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa as a language to be promoted

In 1888 “King William’s Town Convent School for the Education of the Deaf” was formally opened.

The origin of South African Sign Language (SASL)

Deaf people cannot perceive sound and that makes them different? Many would assume that deaf individuals take pity on themselves and hide from the rest of the world. Many would think that there is no hope and no future for these individuals. On the contrary, it is quite the opposite. In recent years more and more light has been shining on deaf people and their needs in South Africa. As a result of Mr Thamsanqa Jantjie ‘interpreting’ at the events of late former president Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in 2013. With the turning of events the world are now acquainted with Sign language and the needs of deaf people are not being taken nonchalantly any longer.

According to Lucas (2001: 29) most relatively educated and skilful deaf signers came from Germany, Hungary and European countries and as a result of their influence spread to countries that include South Africa. A more recent source also maintains that Irish Sign Language (ISL) has had a considerable amount of impact on SASL amongst other countries (Pfau et al, 2012: 935).

Traditionally, labelling a person whom is Deaf, hard of hearing or hearing impaired was considered inferior to the general hearing society. Throughout history, the hearing society represented a mind-set that devalues deaf individuals (Leigh et al., 2012: 3) and still today the majority of South Africans perceive the deaf as inferior and disabled. Leigh et al. (2012: 4) has found that society still carries many negative connotations regarding the cultural associations of the deaf.

Furthermore, let us consider some legislative policies that South Africa has to say about the status of SASL in our country. According to Schoeman (2007), SASL has become recognized as well as protected in numerous governmental and legislative polices. Hence, SASL is also acknowledged as an equal language to the eleven official languages in South Africa. White Paper 6 (Anon., 2001) stipulates that SASL is to be used as the method of instruction in South Africa’s schools for the deaf.

According to De Beco (2014: 265 (Vol 32(3)) the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, implemented in 2008, Article 24 discusses the essence of Sign Language for deaf learners. In addition, Article 24 obligates participating governments to navigate the learning of its nation’s Sign Language and to encourage individuals to identify themselves with deaf communities of their choice.

Lucas (2001: 151) further suggests that participating governments must ensure employment for educators, especially deaf educators, who are qualified in Sign Language and eventually train all stakeholders to be competent in SASL. Moreover, Schoeman (2007) mentions that South Africa has approved the previous mentioned Convention and it appears that South African citizens are willing to work together to offer the opportunity for deaf children to grow and develop by means of Sign Language.

On the contrary, due to the shortage of trained educators and sufficient materials; the Convention is meaningless unless South Africa can recognize the importance of proper training in Sign Language, the development of materials and finally implement strategies for a better future (Schoeman, 2007).

Now, let us consider education for the deaf in SA. For decades there has been controversy regarding the method of instruction to be used in South African Deaf schools. Traditionally, the majority of schools used oralism to teach deaf learners. In an article of Dr W. Nah Dixon he agrees that still today many South African schools encourage learners to use oralism (Magubane, 2014).

Benedict (2003) claims that the deaf believes a bilingual bi-culture environment would be ideal for teaching deaf leaners in order for them to be bilingual in Sign Language and written English. Akach (2010) also agrees that approaches such as bilingual or multilingual teaching methods will resolve many barriers for the deaf. Thus, for deaf children to have multiple opportunities to communicate will only be beneficial to their future.

During the Apartheid era of South Africa discrimination, segregation and injustice was part of many peoples’ lives and still today influences many deaf individuals. Article 30 of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (Visual life, 2015) stipulates that people with disabilities shall be allowed, on an equal basis to select and support a specific culture and linguistic identity.

Article 30, paragraph 4 thus specifies that the Deaf culture is included and entitled to associate with their preferred culture and use SASL. Worldwide, basic human rights of deaf people have been blatantly violated in the past. Deaf people have been denied many rights such as the right to use Sign language, vote, marry and raise a family (Halpern, 1995- 1996) and South Africa is no exception.

According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) (Haualand & Allen, 2009) 93 countries, including South Africa ha recognized the importance of Sign language, deaf education, accessibility and qualification of Sign language interpreters. According to Reagan (2007: 166–167) cited by Akach (2010) SASL is in the minority when it comes to South Africa’s diversity although SA has a very rich diversity with many languages and cultural groups (Pereira, 2010).

As SASL has been accepted as part of our education systems for teaching and learning purposes, there has been a greater support and focus on Deafness in our country. This in turn has led to Deaf culture in South Africa becoming more popular. Akach (2010) maintains that during the end of the 20th century developments within our own country were not that different from other African countries but due the certain elements of Apartheid has taken SA onto another route.

As a result has demonstrated the unequal language policy, particularly with regards to education in SA. Supporting this view of Akach, De Kadt (2006: 42) points out that the unequal status of minority languages including SASL causes major issues because learners are regularly assessed in another language which they usually have low proficiency in.

Finally, the one element that differs greatly from other countries such as America, Australia and Great Britain is the fact that there is no uniform Sign language in SA, where as in the above mentioned countries each consist of a single Sign language (Simmons, 1994: 78).

During the past 100 years many Sign language systems have been established due to the many ethnic group in SA. SA is a rich in cultural diversity ranging from English and Afrikaans speakers to twelve different tribes of black Africans whom use Zulu, Sotho, Tswana etc.

Hence, Simmons (1994: 78) points out as a result the mother-tong language whatever it may be, the demographic and geographical location of people has greatly influenced the formation of SASL and Deaf Culture has not developed as strongly as it has in other countries.

 

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