HeSLEx: A novel online questionnaire for heritage sign language research

Khristoforova, Evgeniia | Poryadin, Roman

Volume:: Proceedings of the LREC2026 12th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Language in Motion
Venue:: Palma, Mallorca, Spain
Date:: 16 May 2026
Pages:: 248–255
Publisher:: European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Licence:: CC BY-NC 4.0
sign-lang ID:: 26050
ISBN:: 978-2-493814-82-1

Abstract

In this paper, we present Heritage Sign Language Experience (HeSLEx), a novel online sociolinguistic questionnaire adapted from the heritage spoken language survey HeLEx (Tomić et al., 2023) to provide a standardized community profile prior to data collection. Heritage sign languages are minority sign languages used by Deaf signers in migration contexts and thus offer a unique window on bilingualism in the visual modality. HeSLEx is designed to be visual-first: most content is delivered as videos featuring signing in Russian Sign Language (RSL) by community member in a JavaScript/jsPsych interface. To accommodate heterogeneous RSL comprehension, each video includes optional Russian and German text hidden behind a "Show text" button. HeSLEx adds sign-specific modules, including participant and parental hearing status; modality-appropriate proficiency ratings (signing/comprehension for RSL and German Sign Language; reading/writing for Russian and German); educational histories and language(s) of instruction; interactional contexts central to Deaf life (including Deaf clubs); and Deaf-centered identity and language-attitude measures. Many items use slider scales to yield continuous predictors. The tool is designed to be adaptable to other sign language pairs in the framework of heritage language research and beyond.

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Citation in ACL Citation Format

Evgeniia Khristoforova, Roman Poryadin. 2026. HeSLEx: A novel online questionnaire for heritage sign language research. In Proceedings of the LREC2026 12th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Language in Motion, pages 248–255, Palma, Mallorca, Spain. European Language Resources Association (ELRA).

BibTeX Export

@inproceedings{khristoforova:26050:sign-lang:lrec,
  author    = {Khristoforova, Evgeniia and Poryadin, Roman},
  title     = {{HeSLEx}: A novel online questionnaire for heritage sign language research},
  pages     = {248--255},
  editor    = {Efthimiou, Eleni and Fotinea, Stavroula-Evita and Hanke, Thomas and Hochgesang, Julie A. and Mesch, Johanna and Schulder, Marc},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2026} 12th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Language in Motion},
  maintitle = {15th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2026)},
  publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}},
  address   = {Palma, Mallorca, Spain},
  day       = {16},
  month     = may,
  year      = {2026},
  isbn      = {978-2-493814-82-1},
  language  = {english},
  url       = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/26050.html}
}