Dtlls (L119) - Teaching a Specialist Subject - British Sign Language
- Submitted by: sammytinks
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- Date Submitted: 05/13/2012 10:27 AM
- Pages: 6
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My subject specialism is British Sign Language (BSL) and D/deaf Awareness. I am currently teaching this as a Level 1 course with a consistent group of Heath and Social care students as enrichment for their course and for next years UCAS applications. In this assignment I will address the key aims and issues in my specialist area of BSL and look particularly at the issue of inclusion in teaching my subject specialism.
The formal teaching of British Sign Language is a relatively new phenomenon, as sign language only became an officially recognised language in Great Britain in 2001. Sign language was viewed less as a language and more as a pantomime or system of gesturing believed to be incomparable to a spoken or written language. (Sutton-Spence, Woll, 1998) There have of course been classes of some description as long as there has been a signed language but the formalisation of this has caused a lot of confusion and uncertainty in the subject itself. It seems that every few years the subject is completely overhauled and the entire way it is taught and evaluated reassessed. Because of this, it is an ever-changing and often confusing subject to teach. I am currently teaching Level 1 BSL so this is noticeable to a lesser degree and I am also creating my own course as I am teaching enrichment as part of an health and social course so these changes effect me somewhat less. However, starting from scratch and knowing so many peoples negative experiences of being taught sign language because of its constant up-dating and ever-changing nature means I have very little solid ground on which to form my own course and delivery. This is a major issue for me and for my colleagues also teaching sign language. We all experienced complicated and completely diverse delivery and assessment and so basing our teaching on role models is nearly impossible. We have all spoken to current professionals in our subject areas to get their views but even so, the delivery is so varied that we...
The formal teaching of British Sign Language is a relatively new phenomenon, as sign language only became an officially recognised language in Great Britain in 2001. Sign language was viewed less as a language and more as a pantomime or system of gesturing believed to be incomparable to a spoken or written language. (Sutton-Spence, Woll, 1998) There have of course been classes of some description as long as there has been a signed language but the formalisation of this has caused a lot of confusion and uncertainty in the subject itself. It seems that every few years the subject is completely overhauled and the entire way it is taught and evaluated reassessed. Because of this, it is an ever-changing and often confusing subject to teach. I am currently teaching Level 1 BSL so this is noticeable to a lesser degree and I am also creating my own course as I am teaching enrichment as part of an health and social course so these changes effect me somewhat less. However, starting from scratch and knowing so many peoples negative experiences of being taught sign language because of its constant up-dating and ever-changing nature means I have very little solid ground on which to form my own course and delivery. This is a major issue for me and for my colleagues also teaching sign language. We all experienced complicated and completely diverse delivery and assessment and so basing our teaching on role models is nearly impossible. We have all spoken to current professionals in our subject areas to get their views but even so, the delivery is so varied that we...