It was with great enthusiasm our merry band assembled this morning for the final module of our BSL course, most of last week’s anxiety has now gone although we still don’t know the outcome of our 102 assessment.

This week we ran over some familiar territory. I always seem to be lulled into a false sense of security at the beginning of the session, ‘ah yes I remember those signs, it’s all coming back.’ Then new bits of vocabulary slowly pile in and my brain turns to noodles. I think I am just about keeping up and it is great to see how everyone’s confidence has flourished.  Any fear of group humiliation has pretty much disappeared. I have certainly found that I don’t learn if I’m not prepared to just give it a go.

It is a curious position to be in, going from a familiar and extensive vocabulary to that of a child. The frustration of knowing what you want to say yet not having the tools to do it in anything more than the most basic form.

I also found more interesting BSL research this week that suggests people who have learnt sign language have a tendency to use more gestures after they have finished their studies. I certainly find the odd sign sneaks in now but I had assumed that was because I am consciously trying to practice. I have a certain childlike joy when I come across a word in conversation and am able to think I know the sign for that! It seems I am not unusual in this. The researchers suggest there are three possible reasons for this:

1. Students may have become accustomed to moving their hands when communicating, and this carries over into monolingual speech environments
2. Learners of ASL (it was an American study) become accustomed to signing and speaking at the same time and this behaviour, which is true of many hearing people who sign, not just learners, simply carries over into speech
3. The students’ repertoire of conventional gestures (akin to crossing your fingers for “good luck”) may simply have been increased by bringing in new gestures

After a slightly stressful morning of taking our BSL 102 assessment, this really me made me smile. It felt like a celebratory video was in order!

As some people will know I am a bit of a geek when it comes to wanting to research things I am involved in. I am fascinated with the how and the why as well as the what. BSL has been no exception and I have been reading some research papers on the neuro/science of learning a second language, and sign language in particular. In some ways it has been reassuring to understand the process of acquisition a little more and appreciate that I am struggling with the same  language attainment issues others have faced.

It would appear that for a while researchers thought that the learning and brain activation of an audio-visual language (spoken English) would be different to that of a visual gestural language (BSL). In case you are not already aware BSL is a visual gestural language that consists of three main parts:

• Fingerspelling – used to spell words letter by letter
• Word level sign vocabulary – the main communication form
• Non manual features – facial expression and tongue, mouth and body position

The assumption had been that in BSL because of the perceived emphasis on the visual it would be processed differently by the brain. However, researchers found that the two areas of the brain associated with audio-visual language

• Broca’s area of the brain, which is thought to be related to speech production and
• Wernicke’s area, associated with comprehending speech;

are utilised in a similar way regardless. There is now some evidence that Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are tied to language irrespective of how it is produced.

It suggests the brain is organised for language not for speech. Prof Karen Emmorey

It may sound silly but this has helped me to know that while learning BSL feels like a very different language sometimes, I do have the tools I need to learn it. It would seem that successfully learning BSL goes back to an earlier more fundamental post – practice, practice, practice…!!!