Heriot Watt University is trailblazing a new course to increase the number of British Sign Language translators.
When the National Records of Scotland released long-awaited data from the 2011 census this autumn, including figures on language skills and language use across Scotland, almost all of the media focused on the relative ups and downs of percentages in relation to Scots English, Scots, Gaelic and relative newcomers such as Polish. Almost overlooked in the report was that some 13,000 people in Scotland use British Sign Language (BSL) at home.
BSL makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head but, unlike “signed English”, isn’t simply a sign-to-word translation of a vocal or written language; BSL has its own grammar and vocabulary. While some users are not deaf themselves, using it to communicate with deaf relatives and friends, for a significant proportion of those 13,000 people in Scotland, BSL will be their first and preferred language. Which, given the general ignorance of BSL in the wider community, means they can face real communication barriers at school, in shops and at work.
This situation isn’t helped by the small number of BSL interpreters currently available in Scotland. Attempting to help change this is a new course recently launched at Heriot Watt University, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The new programme–officially entitled “British Sign Language (Interpreting, Translating and Applied Language Studies)”–is, according to programme leader Gary Quinn, the first of its kind in Scotland and, in some key aspects, is unique in the UK.
“This is a Scottish Government-supported initiative which aims to address the severe shortage of BSL-English interpreters in Scotland,” Gary explains. “It is a four-year course, with a placement year in the third year, providing students the opportunity to mix with the deaf community and apply the theoretical and practical knowledge the course has provided. BSL is studied to professional level. Students are trained to work as BSL/English Interpreters and Translators, and to use BSL proficiently in related professional areas.”
This October saw the course’s second intake of students. “The cohorts are diverse, ranging from those who have just completed their Highers to others who are seeking a career change or to extend their professional skills,” Gary adds. “Some students started the programme with absolutely no knowledge of BSL, whilst others had previous contact with the deaf community through family or work and BSL skills equivalent to Highers.”
The range of students–there are currently places for up to 20 each year–isn’t the course’s only special feature, however. “All those who pass the programme will be fully qualified and registered interpreters,” Gary points out. “This is the unique feature of this programme–no other undergraduate HE programme in the UK automatically enables successful candidates to gain fully qualified status. Consequently, many of the students are aiming to become interpreters on completion.
“However, this is an exciting and developing field and other graduates may seek employment in one of the many deaf-related fields such as education, social care, media and the arts,” Gary insists. “Key attributes of potential new students are people who are interested in the deaf community and its unique culture, and who have a passion for learning sign language.”
The course’s first cohort will graduate in 2016 and, on starting their second year, are full of praise for both the programme and its teaching. Scott Ellerington, 30, is one of two call handlers at NHS24 who took up the opportunity to train as a BSL interpreter, with the aim of eventually providing in-house BSL-English interpretation for the out-of-hours health care service. “I am originally from London and was used to seeing large groups of Deaf people signing in public places. I was always fascinated watching them talk but, aside from teach myself the alphabet, I never took any steps to learn BSL.
“Before meeting Gary Quinn, I had never considered that my teacher would be Deaf,” he admits. “I felt a little intimidated at first because the majority of the other students had already studied BSL to some degree but Gary made sure I wasn’t left out and was excellent at making me feel comfortable and quickly helped me gain confidence, so much so that within two weeks of starting the course I went to a night out with many Deaf people and managed to hold conversations.”
Jude Caldwell is among the older members of the first cohort, and came to the course with several years’ experience of working in the Deaf community in East Anglia. Nevertheless, she’s been pleasantly surprised. “The course has blown my expectations out of the water!” she says. “I thought I knew what I was doing, but they have developed a course that teaches BSL in a very different way; not ‘this is the word for that’ but a much more organic and natural way with the grammar involved from the beginning, not bolted on as a separate entity. All I know is that a man who couldn’t even fingerspell when he arrived stood up in front of the group six week later and made a presentation in BSL!”
She also believes that the diversity of students, in terms of age and background, has been invaluable. “I have life experience that young Sam–who was 17 years old when we started–could never have,” she says. “By the same token he knows things that I would otherwise have no hope of understanding. I have access to youth culture, and they have access to my life experience.”
Samuel Rojas agrees. “The whole class has bonded and we all get on very well,” he says. “My French class is a lot more of what you’d expect from a typical student class, comapared with the diverse age range with the BSL course. Some of my friends find that a bit strange but I really love it and I myself have been surprised by how well it has worked.
“Many have quit jobs to come and study; others are going to university for the second time and do not get their tuition fees paid for them, so it is very expensive,” he says of his fellow BSL students. “Because of this, I feel that they see more motivated and driven to work hard than many other students. In addition, the class had a diverse range of skills when it came to BSL itself, and this has been good for learning from those who are better than I am, and helping those who need it.”
The strength of the group is important in another respect, not least when it comes to “immersing yourself” in a new language. “If you’re learning French or Spanish, you can go on holiday to France or Spain,” Jude points out. “You can’t go on holiday to Deaf.” So, while they have already spent time among Deaf people in social situations–down the pub, for example–spending time together has been invaluable.
“The numbers of people at Deaf clubs are going down, and the people who are there are usually a lot older, and using older signs; there are hardly any teenagers,” points out Lisa Li, who travels daily from Fife to attend the course. “We’ve found that when we gathered together outside class time, we practising, we’re discussing work, and talking it over. One person could pick up something different from the others, and that way we’ve learned a lot more.”
Marie Elliot had started learning BSL at night classes, but felt she was only learning the language, and nothing about the culture or history of Deaf people, which is why she applied for the course at Heriot Watt. “One of the most important things for me is that Gary actually forced us to be out in the open, we actually had to let everyone else see our project filming, we had to stand up in front of the class and sign as well–or as badly–as we could. That was something that could have been avoided, but instead we were actually throwing light onto it and forced to do it. That’s so important for me, because it actually improved my confidence. It was terrifying to start with, now I just don’t care.”
Marie aims to become “a high quality interpeter who understands more about the people I am working with,” while Jude has her heart set on working in the arts. “Because I’m a bit of a show off, I really want one of my first official jobs to be interpreting a pantomime!” she says. “I think our Professor, Graham Turner, is also very keen that we go out into the outside world as ‘ambassadors’ for Deaf equality, BSL and to promote the course in general.”
“We have bonded very closely over the first year and it is an amazingly supportive and tight little group,” she adds, “and I feel very fortunate to be, as the Chancellor called us, the ‘Trailblazers’ in this area.”
For more information on the Heriot Watt BSL Interpreter course, visit: www.undergraduate.hw.ac.uk/programmes/Q196/
First published in The Scots Magazine (December 2013).
