Teaching English to deaf adults: "SignOnOne" - An online course for beginners

Abstract

A basic knowledge of English is indispensable nowadays. While there are many courses for hearing people, there are few aimed at deaf people who use a national sign language as their first or preferred language. This paper describes "SignOnOne", a two-year Grundtvig project which is a follow-up to "SignOn!" (Internet English for the Deaf). "SignOnOne" teaches English for beginners with sign language as language of instruction. This allows the deaf users to access the course directly (the written language of their country is often a first foreign language). The target group are deaf adults, who can use the course in class but also explore English on their own. This online course will be accessible free-of-charge via the Internet homepage of the project without any log-in or download. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.