Sign Languages Dictionary as a Tool for Language Education and European Mobility of Deaf Students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sign Languages Dictionary as a Tool for Language Education and European Mobility of Deaf Students

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The main goal of the project MobiDeafDict was to create a multilingual sign database including English in the form of a dictionary as an instrument for increasing language competences of the deaf, both as an instrument for the mobility of the deaf and for English language instruction of deaf learners. Thematically the sign database is related to academic environment, study and professional mobilities, and study materials for English language instruction of the deaf. Thanks to the project, a sign database is created in Slovakia and Austria, where it has so far not existed. The goal of the project was also the involvement of the two partners, through collaborative work on the creation of both the translation and monolingual parts of the dictionary with all the specifications normally included in dictionaries, then the partners can continue extending the dictionary after the project conclusion.
The distinct characteristics of the dictionary is its bidirectionality, linking with more language and its monolingual part including formal and semantic parts, which will increase the awareness not only of the deaf users about their sign language and enrich their vocabulary in the local spoken languages.

The main project outputs and activities were:
– an innovated online dictionary Dictio with translation and explanatory functions
– mobile version of the translation part of the online dictionary Dictio
– sign database consisting of 3 sign languages – Czech, Slovak and Austrian Sign Languages including 4 spoken languages – English, Czech, Slovak and German and also International Sign System in a small scale.
– e-learning course of the notation system SignWriting
– international conference

The existing Dictio dictionary is extended to include other language modules and a version for mobile devices. The sign database of all the sign and spoken languages includes several thousands of entries. The list of entries for the creation of the sign database is based on several thematic areas such as academic environment and study and professional mobility in the EU. An e-learning course enabled all the partners to acquire practical knowledge for the transcription of signs into the notation system SignWriting. The transcription of all signs allows for the bidirectionality of the dictionary, i.e. it is possible to look for the sign language itself and find its meaning in another language.

The participants involved in the project – employees are mostly deaf. They are mostly employees of the partner universities, the team was complemented with other deaf members from outside of the universities.
Although, the main target group of the project is deaf youth at universities, the benefits of the dictionary are far-reaching. The whole european community of deaf persons, sign language speakers, and all those who come into contact with these languages will benefit from the dictionary, whether it be on a personal or professional level. Namely, the users might be individuals, organizations, interpreters, (language) teachers, linguistics specialists and many other.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 333378,97 Eur

Project Coordinator

Masarykova univerzita & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• UNIVERZITA KOMENSKEHO V BRATISLAVE
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN