CULTURE AND DEAFNESS

The course Culture and Deafness is part of the Master's Degree in Language Sciences. It is held in the first part of the academic year.
The aim of the course is to provide students with useful skills to explain the consequences of deafness related to language and culture of the majority. The final aim is to develop an awareness in order to direct the inclusion of the people with linguistic disability and in order to understand how to interpret various linguistic and cultural phenomena connected to deafness.

The outcome of the course is that the students will have an understanding of:
• the phenomena of written language as a technology that determined a different approach to culture;
• the difficulties of deaf people regarding language acquisition, the linguistic competence of Italian Sign Language and the linguistic competence of a foreign oral language;
• the consequences of hearing loss from a social, linguistic and cognitive point of view;
• the peculiarities of languages that have no written form as Italian Sign Language;
• the possible use of Italian Sign Language in communicative disabilities;
• the meaning of linguistic accessibility and text legibility;
• the meaning of poetic production in Sign Language

As regards applying knowledge and understanding, students will also have acquired skills necessary to:
• to use the linguistic terminology correctly;
• recognize and describe the characteristics of languages that have no written form and identify some of them in sign languages;
• identify the contexts in which the use of Sign Languages is considered to be appropriate to resolve problems inherent in communicative disabilities, through participation in internships and job training programs (in schools, special needs institutions, care homes for the elderly, etc.), and subsequently report back on their experiences;
• integrate the knowledge provided during the course with further research connected to issues relating to language, culture, education and the application of LIS in different areas;
• identify the inaccessible linguistic elements in a text in case of linguistic disability.

The student will be able to obtain research material autonomously, to formulate hypotheses, and express their opinions on specific themes included in the course. Moreover, they will be able to consult the literature present in the texts and articles and search for new sources, identify research lines, apply the method of critical thinking, and produce a text on their academic and/or practical experience on a specific theme

Knowledge of Italian Sign Language, even if only at beginner lever, is preferred.

The lessons will be conducted in the form of seminars for each topic.

1. Oral language and written language: correlation with cultural elements.
2. Language and thought. People without words are without thought?
3. From gestures to the signs
4. Acquisition of language in case of deafness.
5. The comprehension of Italian language and written non standard production, Together with evaluation problems.
6. Linguistic and communicative accessibility in school, work and in everyday life.
7. Study and teaching of foreign languages to deaf people
8. Use of LIS for other disabilities
9. Traditional Italian cultural production and deafness (songs, farytale, books…)
10. Deaf testimonies and oral history.

A list with the topic of each lesson with respective bibliographies will be provided.

Bertone C. (a cura di) 2013, Pinocchio in LIS. Edizioni Cafoscarina (VE)
Cardinaletti A. Branchini C. (a cura di) 2016, "la lingua dei segni nelle disabilità comunicative". FrancoAngeli.
Chesi C. 2006, Il linguaggio verbale non standard dei bambini sordi, Roma E.U.R.
Fabbretti D. Tommasuolo E. 2006, Scrittura e Sordità, Carocci
Halliday M. 1985, Lingua parlata e lingua scritta, La Feltrinelli.
Ong W. J. 1977, Oralità e Scrittura, Il Mulino
Radutzky E. 2001, Dizionario bilingue elementare della Lingua Italiana dei Segni, Ed. Kappa.
Trovato S. 2014, Insegno in segni, Raffaello Cortina Ed.
Shaller S. 1991, A man without words, New York : Summit Books.
Volterra V. 2007, Le lingue dei segni, Carocci ed.
DVD, "Pa-Pa" (Cultura Sorda, Ironia, Barzellette e Storia dei sordi), il monologo di Gabriele Caia
DVD, la lingua dei Segni Italiana: corso elementare. http://www.deafmedia.eu/dvdshop/lis1/lis1.html

A list with the topic of each lesson with respective bibliographies will be provided.

Students will be evaluated on a research paper (about 10 pages) and on a discussion inspired by a topic derived from the course. The final score will take in account skills in speaking ability, research for sources, reflections and methodological issues.

Lectures and linguistic practices directed to individuals and groups. An extensive range of video recorded linguistic material will be used. The students can produce text in LIS that will be corrected.

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development