Read the text. Sign language is an integral part of the deaf community; there would not be deaf culture without sign language

Sign language is an integral part of the deaf community; there would not be deaf culture without sign language. Many hearing people want to learn sign language. It is possible to tell stories and poetry in sign language. Hearing parents use sign language with hearing babies. Plus, sign language is used to teach deaf and hearing children.

In linguistic terms, sign languages are as rich and complex as any oral language, despite the common misconception that they are not " real languages". Professional linguists have studied many sign languages and found them to have every linguistic component required to be classed as true languages.

Sign languages are not pantomime - in other words, signs are largely arbitrary and have no necessary visual relationship to their referent, much as most spoken language is not onomatopoeic. Nor are they a visual rendition of an oral language. They have complex grammars of their own, and can be used to discuss any topic, from the simple and concrete to the lofty and abstract.

Sign languages, like oral languages, organize elementary, meaningless units (phonemes; once called cheremes in the case of sign languages) into meaningful semantic units. The elements of a sign are Handshape (or Handform), Orientation (or Palm Orientation), Location (or Place of Articulation), Movement, and Non-manual markers (or Facial Expression), summarised in the acronym HOLME.

Common linguistic features of deaf sign languages are extensive use of classifiers, a high degree of inflection, and a topic-comment syntax. Many unique linguistic features emerge from sign languages' ability to produce meaning in different parts of the visual field simultaneously. For example, the recipient of a signed message can read meanings carried by the hands, the facial expression and the body posture in the same moment. This is in contrast to oral languages, where the sounds that comprise words are mostly sequential (tone being an exception).

A common misconception is that sign languages are somehow dependent on oral languages, that is, that they are oral language spelled out in gesture, or that they were invented by hearing people. Hearing teachers of deaf schools, such as Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, are often incorrectly referred to as inventors of sign language.

The manual alphabet is used in sign languages, mostly for proper names and technical or specialised vocabulary. The use of fingerspelling was once taken as evidence that sign languages are simplified versions of oral languages, but in fact it is merely one tool among many. Fingerspelling can sometimes be a source of new signs, which are called lexicalized signs.

On the whole, deaf sign languages are independent of oral languages and follow their own paths of development. For example, British Sign Language and American Sign Language are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of Britain and America share the same oral language.

Similarly, countries which use a single oral language throughout may have two or more sign languages; whereas an area that contains more than one oral language might use only one sign language.

Gesture is a typical component of spoken languages. More elaborate systems of manual communication have developed in situations where speech is not practical or permitted, such as cloistered religious communities, scuba diving, television recording studios, loud workplaces, stock exchanges, in baseball, while hunting (by groups such as the Kalahari bushmen), or in the game Charades.

Russian Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf community in Russia. It has a grammar unlike the (spoken or written) Russian language, with much stricter word order and word formation rules. Russian sign language belongs to a family of French sign language and is similar to American sign language. Vocabulary from Austrian sign language also heavily influences Russian sign language.

Conversational Sign Language has its own grammar and is used in everyday communication among the deaf. However, there is a " signed Russian" which is mainly used in official communications, such as sign language lectures at universities, conference papers, and in the past it was used on television in interpreted news programs. It uses elements of fingerspelling to indicate word endings and suffixes.

The Moscow Bilingual School for the Deaf, which uses Russian Sign Language in classrooms, was opened in 1992.

Much of the early research on Russian Sign Language was done by Galina Lazarevna Zaitseva, who wrote her 1969 PhD thesis on spatial relationships in Russian Sign Language, and in 1992 devised the now standard term for Russian Sign Language. Ongoing research into the language takes place at the Centre for Deaf Studies in Moscow.

Active status of Russian sign language is as follows:

The Russian Federation provides services for sign language for rehabilitation measures.

The current status of Russian Sign Language is extremely low. According to article 14 of the Russian Federal Law, entitled " Social protection of the disabled in the Russian Federation", sign language is recognized as a means of interpersonal communication. Although it is recognized, there is no state support, despite Articles 3, 5, 14, and 19 of the Russian Federal Law, which claim to provide necessary services to the deaf.

There are several problems concerning the study and application of sign language in Russia, which Valery Nikitich Rukhledev – President All-Russian Society of the Deaf cited:

The instruction of sign language interpreters is an old, long-established program, and they study some gestures, which have long fallen into disuse or have changed in meaning or form. Because of this, interpreters have difficulty understanding the deaf, who try to use their services.

Until 1990, the sign language interpreter trade unions had 5, 500 translators, of whom 1, 000 worked in the system of our organization. Now, thanks to the federal target program " Social Support of Disabled, " we manage to keep translators at 800. But the shortage of interpreters remains at about 5, 000 people.

Today, the Russian Federation only trains sign language interpreters with the issuance of state diplomas from the inter-regional center for the medical rehabilitation of persons with hearing disabilities center in St. Petersburg. Eliminating the existing deficit of sign language interpreters in a country like Russia is impossible with only one training center. It is necessary to train more specialists and to have them in distant regions of the country.

However, there is hope that the situation can change. On April 4, 2009 at the Russian Council on The Disabled, President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the issue of the status of sign language in Russia. In his closing remarks, the President of the Russian Federation expressed his opinion:

" There is indeed, a distinct lack of sign language translators. This level of need necessitates changes. There are considerations and proposals for implementation to resolve the need of training sign language interpreters to provide translation services. But I agree with what has been said: it is necessary to reconsider the preparation of the interpreters at the Ministry of Education Institutions and universities. These teachers should be prepared in virtually every federal district, because we have a huge country and it is impossible to imagine having all sign language interpreters trained in Moscow, for example, and this is the only way we can solve this problem. I am glad that the State Duma supported the initiatives of the President, so we will continue to work in the same unity, in which we have previously worked to resolve this issue."

III.1.Answer the questions:

1) How does sign language benefit deaf hearing people?

2) Is there a difference between teaching a hearing child sign language and teaching a deaf or hard-of-hearing child to sign?

3) What are the common linguistic features of deaf sign languages?

4) What are the problems concerning the study of sign language in Russia?

 

2.Make the plan of the text. Here are the titles in the wrong order. Make the order correct:

1) Linguistics of sign.

2) Russian Sign Language.

3) Sign language as an integral part of the deaf community.

4) Problems concerning the study and application of sign language in Russia.

5) Active status of Russian sign language.

6) Gesture as a typical component of spoken languages.

 

3. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1) Not everyone who uses sign language is deaf.

2) Many hand gestures commonly used in society are similar to signs.

3) Sign language has its own grammar and syntax.

4) Chimpanzees and gorillas can’t learn sign language.

5) Sign language teaching is a respected profession.

6) Sign language plays an important role in educating deaf and hard of hearing children who are being taught with the help of sign language.

 

4. Find the synonymous words in the text:

- to explain,

- at the same time,

- hand,

- in force, effective,

- in spite of.