Sociolinguistic Situation of the Dominican Republic Deaf Community

1
Sociolinguistic Situation of the Dominican
Republic Deaf Community

• Holly Williams
• SIL International
• 17 December 2009
• SIGN4 New Delhi, India

2
Special Thanks to

• Dominican Republic Deaf community for
  volunteering their time to share about their
  language and life.
• Jason and Elizabeth Parks for helping gather,
  analyze and document information about the
  Dominican Republic Deaf community.

3
Dominican Republic Survey
4
Dominican Republic Survey

• General population
• 9.5 million
• Deaf population 18,000?
• October 2008
• 3 surveyors
• 3 weeks in country
• 7 cities
• Why 7 cities?
• Largest cities with large Deaf populations
• Geography
• Contacts

5
Dominican Republic Survey

• Rapid appraisal survey investigates and gathers
  information to provide an overall perspective of
  the language community situation in a relatively
  short amount of time
• Research tools
• Participant observation
• Informal interviews
• Sociolinguistic
• questionnaire (SLQ)

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Dominican Republic Survey

• SLQ
• Questions 1-11 basic demographics of the Deaf
  community
• Questions 12-19 metadata
• Questions 20-40 language use and attitudes
  specifically among the Deaf community

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Dominican Republic Survey

• Research questions
• What is the sociolinguistic situation of the Deaf
  community in the Dominican Republic?
• What is the language attitude of the Deaf
  community in the Dominican Republic towards
  American Sign Language (ASL)?

8
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Sociolinguistic Factors
• Education
• Organized social groups
• Religious groups
• Social access
• Language use

9
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Education
• 1967 National Deaf School
• 1970s Total Communication
• 2008 oral education but transfer to sign
  language if not succeeding orally
• 600 students
• Teachers no deaf education training available
• 10 satellite schools with goal of a school for
  Deaf people in each of the 31 provinces

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Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• 1973 Instituto de Ayuda al Sordo Santa Rosa (Help
  Institute for the Deaf in Santa Rosa)
• Oral
• 400 students
• Students required to have at least 60 decibels of
  hearing
• Sign language used outside of classroom
• 1980s Religious deaf schools
• 10 schools throughout the DR
• Less than 40 students at each school

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• 21 cities with at least one deaf educational
  center (2008)

12
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Organized social groups
• 1982 Deaf Club (est. 15 yrs after deaf school)
• 2000 National Deaf Association
• Informal gatherings in smaller towns

13
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Religious groups
• Protestant 1980s
• Interpreted and Deaf-led services
• Yearly camp 300 attendees
• Sign language class
• Connections to USA, Panama and Puerto Rico
• Jehovahs Witness
• Deaf camp
• Mostly led by hearing individuals

14
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Social access
• Employment
• Education certificate
• Typical jobs
• CASS
• Communication
• Cell phones
• Internet café
• Interpreters
• No professional interpreters
• Goal establish interpreters association

15
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Language use
• History
• Trujillo (1930-1961)
• Sign language development started in 1967 with
  founding of the national deaf school
• ASL introduced in 1970s

16
Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Sign Language Variation
• Geographical region
• More similar along middle (main services offered)
• Desire for standardization while respecting
  different cultures
• Deaf women may have limited vocabulary due to
  less interaction outside of home

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Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Language attitudes
• Sign freely in public
• ASL is prestigious
• Importance of characteristics for a leader in the
  Deaf community

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Dominican Republic Deaf Community

• Sign Language dictionaries
• ASL dictionaries
• Easily accessible
• Used in schools
• Dominican Sign Language dictionary
• Produced in 2008
• Disagreement
• Spanish initialization of ASL signs (eg
  WATER/AGUA)
• Signs borrowed from other Spanish speaking
  countries
• Goal Dominican Sign Language dictionary
  including regional signs

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Conclusion

• The Dominican Republic Deaf community is unified
  in pursuit of a better life and identify the
  following needs
• Bilingual situation retaining ASL while
  developing their indigenous Dominican Republic
  Sign Language materials
• Better educational opportunities (Spanish
  literacy)
• Deaf education training for teachers
• Training for hearing parents of Deaf children
• Equal employment wages
• Interpreter training

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• Unpublished document is available.
• Contact
• Holly_williams_at_sil.org
• Or
• Liz_parks_at_sil.org