“Sign languages for pupils: Thinking about grammar” aims at fostering language awareness.
Language awareness
Language awareness
What does language awareness mean?
Language competence encompasses language awareness. This involves having explicit knowledge of the structural features of one or more languages.
Language awareness enables people to
- consciously reflect on language(s) and be sensitive to them;
- adopt a distanced perspective on a language and to recognise it both as a means of communication and as an object that can be analysed, observed, manipulated and researched.
Another term for language awareness is meta-linguistic awareness.
For the deaf community the following is relevant:
- Deaf people who learn a sign language are usually multilingual with typically at least one signed and one spoken/written language. Their multilingualism has some unique characteristics: Sign languages are minority languages, and they have no written form for everyday use. Deaf people must constantly decide which language to use in which situation and with whom.
- Language awareness supports sign language acquisition and the identity of deaf people – as well as the intercultural competencies of hearing people.
Why foster language awareness?
School should foster language awareness by encouraging pupils to think about the language(s) they use on a daily basis. Pupils learn to consciously label language rules by using technical terms.
Language awareness is particularly helpful for pupils in multilingual contexts in order to
- recognise similarities and differences between different languages. It supports language learning by fostering an understanding of the structure and function of languages;
- develop cognitive flexibility, e.g. when differentiating and switching between languages;
- develop (inter)cultural competencies, and to
- gain a positive attitude and self-esteem by experiencing the value of different languages.
An example
When telling the story “Snow white and the seven dwarfs”, the teacher signs in DGS: “The dwarfs walk in a row.” The teacher uses the two 
-hands.
A pupil interrupts her and corrects her by saying that there are seven and not eight dwarfs. The teacher replies: “You’re right that there are seven dwarfs. However, you have two options for realising the signs:
- You can just express the plural: You use the sign WALK IN A ROW with the two -hands. This expresses plurality, but does not name a specific number of people.
- If you want to emphasise that there are exactly seven dwarfs, you can also use exactly seven fingers. Each finger then stands for a dwarf. To do this, you combine the
-hand with the 
-hand.”
The teacher then asks the pupils if they know other signs with one or two i -hand shape shapes (in DGS that would for example be INTERVIEW).
This is a good example of how a teacher encourages pupils to think about the different functions, meanings or images underlying the -hand shapes. This is an example of fostering language awareness.
Recommended reading
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy & Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Meulder, M., & Murray, J. J. (2024). The Illusion of Choice in Inclusive Education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(6), 753-767.
Freel, B., Clark, M., Anderson, M., Gilbert, G., Musyoka, M. M. & Hauser, P. (2011). Deaf Individuals’ Bilingual Abilities: ASL Proficiency, Reading Skill and Family Characteristics. Psychology, 2(1), 18-23.
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Humphries, T., Kushalnagar, P., Mathur, G., Napoli, D. J., Padden, C., Rathmann, C., & Smith, S. R. (2012). Language Acquisition for Deaf Children: Reducing the Harms of Zero Tolerance to the Use of Alternative Approaches. Harm Reduction Journal, 9:16.
Jessner, U. (2017). Language Awareness in Multilinguals: Theoretical Trends. In J. Cenoz, D. Gorter & S. May (Eds.): Language Awareness and Multilingualism (S. 19-29). Cham: Springer Nature.
Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
MacSweeney, M., Capek, C. M., Campbell, R., & Woll, B. (2008). The Signing Brain: the Neurobiology of Sign Language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(11), 432-440.
Torregrossa, J., Eisenbeiß, S. & Bongartz, C. (2023). Boosting Bilingual Metalinguistic Awareness Under Dual Language Activation: Some Implications for Bilingual Education. Language Learning, 73(3), 683-722.