British Sign Language (BSL): Guide

Dani Sive (Headteacher Frank Barnes School) and Catherine Drew (Key Stage 1/2 Team Leader Frank Barnes School) | View as single page | Feedback/Impact
British Sign Language (BSL)
Background
Context
Interventions and Resources
Case Studies
Evidence
History of BSL
Using BSL with Deaf Children
BSL Curriculum
BSL Corpus project (DCAL)
Sign Language
British Deaf Association
BSL in Schools
BSL Media
BSL in Teaching
Sign Language Assessment
BSL as a language
Interpreters and CSWs
BSL Books
BSL in guided reading
Bilingualism
Why BSL?
BSL in employment
Learning BSL
BSL in social contexts
Working with BSL and English
 
Strength of Evidence
Transferability
Editors' Comments
Areas for further research
Online community

BSL as a language

British Sign Language is a bona-fide natural language.  It was recognised by the UK government as an official minority language on 18th March 2003.  BSL is used as a preferred language by around 145,000 people who are deaf (2011).  BSL has its own vocabulary, grammatical structure and syntax that is independent of English, although the fingerspelling of words and some of the mouth-patterns used in BSL follow the mouth-patterns used in English, as well as some signs which are based on English words.  BSL uses handshapes, hand movements, gestures, body language and facial expression to communicate in the same way that English uses speech and vocalisations to communicate.

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