Access through EFL to Multimodal Non-fictional Discourse

This chapter reports on an ongoing analysis of classroom research, using narrative and working within the framework of a didactics which is enabling in terms of identity construction. Through the medium of videotaped instances of non-fictional narrative Deaf Italian adult learners of English as a Foreign Language are introduced step by step to the viewing of self-contained videotaped excerpts in British Sign Language, with simultaneous subtitling in English, from BBC News 24 and SeeHear, which are both considered instances of visual narrative. The author’s purpose is to analyse how accessible regular English language television news programmes are to deaf EFL learners in comparison with special TV programmes for the deaf, offering coverage of topics of particular interest both to the d/Deaf in the UK and to the d/Deaf in other parts of the world. The learner data provided are small-scale examples of special EFL learners disclosing their attribution of salience from the perspective of their own culture and communicative angle.