Target group: deaf students or deaf people interested in sign language lexicography
Prerequisites: courses A1 and A2; course A4 is recommended
Type of course: seminar
Level: intermediate
Language of instruction: German Sign Language
Length: 2 weeks, 7 hours of instruction daily
Total hours: 70
Proportion of independent work:B appx. 50%
The goal of the seminar is to offer a closer look at the planning, the design, the development and the technological requirements of producing a sign language dictionary. It is necessary that the participants have previous technical experience (computer, video) as well as that they are familiar with the basics of sign language linguistics and lexicography.
The development of multimedia sign language dictionaries requires complex conceptional, organizational and technological processes. The tasks of realizing these processes are generally divided among the co-editors. The production goes through several planning and development phases. A target group profile is necessary for the conception of a sign language dictionary. The other processes can be supported by the use of a planning model.
Methods and problems of collecting data are closely bound to questions of resource development and organization (documentation and processing of sound, text, picture and video materials). The goal is to optimize the greatest part of the time-consuming manual work.
The actual form of a sign language dictionary depends on many factors -- design, functions, target group, evaluation, for example. Design models offer different ways of meeting the demands of the editors and users.
Today, editors of multimedia sign language dictionaries have many possibilities at their disposal. For this reason one part of the seminar will deal with the establishment of the targetgroup profile and with the characteristics of the different levels of development and what they should achieve.
The lastpart of the seminar will offer an overview of the technical equipment and methods designers and developers of sign language dictionaries sign language dictionaries have available. The basics of lexicography and different approaches will also be covered.
The seminar has the following points of emphasis:
Instructors' qualifications:
The seminar will be led by deaf and hearing instructors who have experience in the production of sign language dictionaries.