English for Specialized/Specific Purposes and the Deaf professional: the SignMedia Project

In our present day and age, with the steady growth of English as a global language, a working knowledge of English is becoming increasingly necessary for communication with foreign peers, whether it is for travelling or for professional advancement. This is not only true for hearing people but also for the d/Deaf. In most countries associated with Braj Kachru’s ‘expanding circle’ (1985), where English is taught as a foreign language, school syllabuses aim to achieve at least an intermediate level of English. In contrast, in the so-called ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ circle countries, where English is acquired or learnt as either a native or a second language, the knowledge level is clearly higher thanks to greater contact with the language; however, Deaf people experience difficulties in reading and writing the language, especially in fields requiring specific terminology associated with technical and/or professional matters. Consequently they often find themselves marginalized in the workplace owing to limited language skills Solutions are being sought for this problem in the form of face to face and online language courses but they often do not go further than the fledgling stages because of the relatively low number of prospective users and a lack of funds. SignMedia, which is at present being developed as an EU Leonardo Lifelong Learning project, aims to address the intermediate English language needs of Deaf students/operators in the present-day multimedia multilingual community where English is used as a lingua franca. Through this online course Deaf learners can reinforce their intermediate English skills through linguistic input by actors using the local sign language.