Strong Language

Background

The programme is principally designed to interest, engage and teach hearing viewers about some of the issues faced by deaf people.

If you have partially deaf or deaf students in your class it is crucial that they are comfortable with the use of the programme and with any activities that may follow. To assess this, talk through each activity with deaf students beforehand, and be led by their feelings as to whether or not the activity is appropriate and whether or not they wish to be involved.

The Deaf Community

In the UK there are about 50,000 members of the deaf community. The community has its own centres, clubs, associations, youth groups, training schemes and campaigns. Some deaf children are educated in mainstream schools; others may be placed in units located in mainstream schools, with specially trained teachers; others may be placed in special schools for the deaf.

While deaf people live in hearing neighbourhoods, work alongside hearing colleagues, socialise with hearing friends, and usually have hearing families, they need to belong to a group of people like themselves with whom they can identify and communicate easily, without the need to conform to a stereotype of a deaf person.

Deaf people are often not concerned with the degree of deafness of other members of the deaf community as their chosen means of communication is silent. At the core of the deaf community is British Sign Language (BSL). BSL belongs to deaf people and carries deaf heritage and culture, and as such is an integral part of deaf people’s identity. Many deaf people marry each other and see deaf children as the future of their community, preserving their language and culture. There is often a real sense of pride in being deaf and many deaf people would not choose to be hearing. Deaf people can be very demonstrative, view other deaf people as ‘family’, and may go to considerable lengths to spend time together. The film contains illustrations of this in the use of terms such as Deaf Pride, Deaf Heart and Deaf Culture.

British Sign Language (BSL)

BSL consists of signs, facial expressions and body language. A sign has five separate elements:

• hand shape
• movement
• location
• palm orientation
• use of space

Change even one element of, say a hand shape, and you change the sign. It means something different.

BSL has its own grammar and structure with direct parallels with spoken languages, such as the use of tenses, plurals, adjectives and verbs. In 1988, The European Parliament officially recognised the sign languages of member states and called upon the governments of these countries to do the same. BSL is recognised as a language by linguists and researchers and can be studied at university level.

Approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Ninety percent of deaf children are integrated into mainstream schools where the main language, obviously, is spoken English. Access to language remains a crucial issue.