Ricerc@Sapienza

The recent legal recognition of Italian Sign Language (LIS) has started a new era in Italian sign language teaching and learning. Whereas worldwide second language courses in Sign Languages have developed across the spectrum of educational contexts from elementary schools to university degree programs, in Italy most LIS courses have flourished in various contexts, such as associations or institutes for the deaf and much rarely within the universities. Sapienza is the first, and so far, the only, university to have launched a vocational degree in LIS interpreting, this is why it is so important to keep track of the pioneering pathways that are in place in classes where LIS is taught: such data can serve as a basis, as a learning corpus for research in sign language teaching. For these reasons, the MEMOLIS project aims at recording, tracking, and analyzing methodologies and good practices for 1 / 14signed and spoken languages teaching, within a constantly evolving landscape of linguistic and educational research. Through the ethnographic observation research method in educational research and the comparison with the other spoken languages involved, many hours of LIS teaching will be recorded and investigate using appropriate analysis tools. Specifically,

the project aims:

A) to map the methodologies and approaches currently used in teaching Italian sign language in various contexts.

B) to compare teaching practices used for spoken languages with those observed in LIS teaching.

C) to collect and disseminate empirical data on signed and spoken language teaching. The study of LIS teaching can also provide important insights into the teaching of spoken languages, the multimodal, pragmatic and paralinguistic aspects (gestures, facial expression, etc.) that are often neglected in the teaching of vocal languages. A comparative analysis of signed and spoken languages from a semiotic and functional point of view can only enrich the teaching of both types of languages.