LEARN

HAVE FUN
 The Deaf of Colombia
The Colombian Sign Language Community
Deaf people in Colombia are a linguistic group, not an ethnic,

racial, or tribal group. Ethnically they reflect a similar mixture to

the general population: perhaps about 5% black, 20% white, and

70% mixed, and possibly 5% indigenous. There may be around

100,000 deaf people in the country (about 0.2% of the general

population, roughly 3 times the percentage for the developed

world) but no one knows for sure, because no government

agency counts the deaf.

They are found mostly in the lower socio-economic strata of

society. Due to very inadequate education, many deaf are

unemployed or under-employed and poor. Social pathologies of

all kinds are more common among the deaf than among the

general population: illiteracy, sexual abuse, divorce, teen-age

pregnancy, prostitution, and homosexuality.

Very few deaf have meaningful relationships with their families,

since few family members learn sign language. Especially in

rural areas, many deaf are effectively household servants in their

family homes.

Few deaf have any active spiritual life. Churches with

interpretation for the deaf are few, and deaf-led churches using

sign language are even fewer. The deaf are low-hanging fruit for

marginal groups. There are more deaf Jehovah’s Witnesses than

deaf Evangelicals.
 THE SOUND OF NOISELESSNESS

By Kristen Faber -February 27, 2013

All is quiet except for a groan breaking the silence and startling me back into the world of hearing. I rely on

my ears to understand what is taking place, but without words my other senses begin to kick in. I watch,

intrigued by the emotions.

The “speaker” is telling a story. I don’t need to hear his voice because through the flowing movement of his

hands and the expressions on his face, I see a story unfolding. The people around me watch, intent on the

outcome. His body moves into the story and hands go up waving in the deaf sign for clapping as the

audience responds with joy. We’ve all encountered the deaf, whether a small child in a shop pulling on your

pant-leg, a young person at Carrefour bagging groceries, or an elderly person begging on the corner

communicating only with deep guttural sounds.

Understanding those who cannot hear is an emerging culture in Bogotá. Misguided beliefs that deaf people

cannot contribute to a society are being challenged as awareness grows across all socio-economic lines.

Colombian law, grounded in an all-encompassing Constitution guarantees the right of all persons, especially

minors, to have access to education even if that means hiring specialized staff to teach sign language.

In Bogotá there are two schools dedicated to teaching sign language to the deaf. One school, Instituto

Nuestra Señora de la Sabiduría para Sordos (Institute of Our Lady of Wisdom for the Deaf) located on the

Calle 20 Sur No. 10A-51 has been at the center of a heated public debate ever since the Education Secretary

of Bogotá which had been subsidizing the specialized facility with 40 percent of its operating costs decided

to cancel the contract, worth some $480 million pesos, last month. Three hundred and fifty children had to

be relocated to district schools and an institution which had been running for 88 years is now on the verge of

closure.

Text taken from: https://thecitypaperbogota.com/living/the-sound-of-noiselessness/2276

The protests over the Education Secretary pulling its support of the school contrasts the efforts of the

national government in developing special job incentives and programs for the deaf. The presidency

has established a strict program which requires applicants to attend training, similar to a technical

college, and which would make them eligible for jobs. The training course prepares those with hearing

impairments to work in factories, in construction, as bakers and develop a work ethic important in

being a valued employee.

Each country has its own version of sign language. Mexican sign is different than Colombian, for

example, and culture is very important to each country’s development of the language. In 1996,

Colombian Sign Language (Lengua de Señas Colombiana or LSC) was recognized as an official

language. LSC’s origin is American Sign Language (ASL), but Colombian Sign Language has evolved,

changing many signs to be more culturally relevant. For example, the Colombian sign for “chocolate”

is rubbing the hands together as if frothing hot chocolate with a molinillo. It is not the same sign as in

the U.S., but it makes sense here.

Signs in Colombia tend to create a picture that demonstrates a word or concept similar to the game of

charades. The ASL sign for “mom” is made by placing the thumb against your chin with the hand open.

In Colombia the sign looks like you are holding a baby. Although LSC is a national language, there are

dialects between cities such as Cartagena and Medellín. Amanda Bloom works with the deaf in Bogotá.

Out of 2 million deaf in Colombia, only 50,000 use LSC.

Because the culture is in the developing stages she says, “The most difficult thing working with the

deaf here is that they are exposed to so much change that they are confused.” They rely on people

coming up to them to educate them on products, appropriate prices, religion and other pieces of

knowledge that hearing people understand because of the vast amounts of information we have to

process and make decisions. There is a trust that is often broken as people try to take advantage of them

or play on their emotions.

It takes a lot of time to develop a relationship and trust within the deaf community. Working with a

group of deaf people will include a variety of levels and needs to be met. One person may be educated

and employed where another person only speaks “home sign language.”Daisy, 23, is one such person.

Having attended school, but with no one trained to teach the deaf, she was simply given a notebook to

copy things off the blackboard with no comprehension of how symbols combined to form words and

ideas. She never learned to read or write. Daisy’s family created a combination of gestures to

communicate in their own home sign language.

Amanda began her work with Daisy on the simplest thing – her name. From there she taught Daisy the

alphabet just as you would teach a child. Amanda used pictures and drawings to teach abstract concepts

such as emotions and ideas – forgiveness and love. “There is some benefit to this because there is less

confusion in identifying personal emotions,” says Amanda, “but in the older generation there is a lot of

bottled-up anger because they grew up with no way of communicating.”

Text taken from: https://thecitypaperbogota.com/living/the-sound-of-noiselessness/2276

 Change takes time. The deaf have come a long way in the Colombian acceptance of their disability,

although the further you travel from a large city the less opportunity there is to move out of generational

stigmas. People like Daisy have a changed life because of a few people who cared enough to work

against common public perception and offer her the opportunity of communication.

Text taken from: https://thecitypaperbogota.com/living/the-sound-of-noiselessness/2276

HOMEWORK
Watch the video below and take notes to discuss in class.

Making Education Accessible to Deaf Children | Nyle DiMarco |

TEDxKlagenfurt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Q7axl4oXY

"Opening our Ears to the Deaf" Pamela Weisman at TEDxCoMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6srfOyIVpQ

After reading the texts and watching the videos above, identify 5 problems that deaf-mute
people have. Then, create a list and choose one you'd like to research about.

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 LET'S COMMUNICATE WITH
OTHERS
Welcome to CLS club! In this part of the module you are going to learn how to
comunicate by sign language in Colombia. Along this section we are going to
develop different competences and learn about different topics that will

help you to understand the importance of learning signs to communicate

with those who can't hear.
The most important part of this section is having fun and to be willing to
learn, to make mistakes and correct them to get better not just in our English
communication skills, also in the way that we are living our lives.
Here it is important for you guys to understand that the process of learning a
foreign language such as English goes further than learning by heart some
grammatical structures, it includes to be able to talk and understand about
everyday topics of general interest, cultures, ways of thinking and living. We
are going to understand better the world and some dynamics in the world
that will allow us to live in harmony and coherence with all the beings that
habit the planet, respecting all with which we live. Besides, we are going to
learn to communicate a lot of things about this matter in English, but here it
is important that you are confident of the things, the words and the
structures that you already know, try to participate and willing to push
yourself to improve your English skills: speaking, writing, reading and
listening.
We hope you guys enjoy and love this process as much as we do, remember

that we (your teachers) are here to guide you and help you to make it better
and better every time, we are going to take advantage of all the knowledge
that you have and convert it into a great experience talking and learning in
English.
Warmly
English Team.
 COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS
Did you know sign language is different around the world? If you didn't
know, the answer is yes, the sign language changes depending on the
country, for example in France there is one, in Spain, in the United
States and even here in Colombia we have our own sign language. The
purpose of this project is to strengthen the English communicative
skills through different tools which are focused on developing
different competences such as: to understand the main ideas of a text
related to everyday situations, helping with the integration and
peaceful coexistence within your group, to participate in conversations
that take place in everyday situations, to describe situations and
events in a spontaneous and clear way, and finally to produce simple
text using all learnt, as well as to able to communicaty a new way.

The development of this project is quite important, being that it is a

way how you can help other people and learn more English, if you
know how important is to include others in education and daily
activities, you can purpose something to improve people's lives, being
aware of its importance. On this module, you are going to find four
stages: the first is to create a problem question which and its
hypothesis keeping in mind your context, the second one is to purpose
the project's objetives, the third one is to write the reason why you
are going to research about this (justification), the fourth one is to
explore some information about the problem and purpose the steps to
solve it and finally to analyze the information you have read to write a
essay based on it, giving a solution to the project's question also, you
have to create a tool that can help deaf people, it could be a campaign
that helps others to understand the importance of learning sign
language, or a magazine or whatever tool you want, as long as it
contributes to the community.
 What do I need to What concepts will How will I apply What knowledge can
What must I achieve? know before I begin? those concepts??
I apply? I share?

With this icon you You will apply those You could have a
will find the concepts by using simple
The present simple,
purposes for each the four conversation with
the present Language signs,
workshop you will communicative a person who has
continuous, past passive and active
do. skills answering the different linguistic
tenses, modal voice, and
problem question conditions (deaf
verbs, perfect conditionals.
and by sharing people),
tenses,
knowledge with contributing to a
conditionals. .
your classmates and inclusive education
teachers. in the country,

PURPOSE

This project's purpose is to help you to improve your

English communicative skills through different tools
related to the environment care that will increase your
vocabulary, will improve your reading comprenhension,
your writing production and your speaking and listening
skills.

Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

 Project

Write your project's title.

WORKSHOP 1
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After reading the texts ____
and watching the videos above,
choose one problem of deaf-mute people and think about
something you'd like to research.
QUESTION

Based on the topic you decided to research, write a hypothesis.

HYPOTHESIS
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 WORKSHOP 2
COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS

Here write the general objective and the specific ones for your
project. Remember to use infinitive form of verb to write them.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
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SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

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 JUSTIFICATION
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

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"Sign languages are an extremely important communication tool for many

deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Sign languages are the native
languages of the Deaf community and provide full access to
communication" Anonymous.
Taken from: shorturl.at/kmuxT
 ABILITIES I WILL DEVELOP

To communicate
assertively using the
hand and gestures
language to create
more bridges with
other people.

To explore a very
interesting aspect
of the cultural,
cognitive, creative
and linguistic
diversity of the
human being.
To generate a
more inclusive
and accessible
world for those
who can't use
the five senses.
 WORKSHOP 3
INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY
1. Search on internet how to express greetings and
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07 farewells in sign language, then draw pictures which
represent them.

Taken from: shorturl.at/fhmoE

Hello!
 READING AND SPEAKING
2. Read the text below, create questions
and answer your teacher´s and
classmates' questions orally. Then
answer the questions below.
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

Signed languages and spoken languages

Signed languages are obviously different from spoken languages in some ways, but both
modalities are equally valid means of communication. It is not justifiable to regard one
modality of language as inferior or superior to the other.
An unfortunate misconception about signed languages is that they only use gesticulation,
or pantomime. This is not the case – as with spoken languages, signed languages draw
from a conventionalised vocabulary, and have been shown to have complex grammatical
systems. Natural signed languages are not invented by anybody, but have evolved among
deaf people. Equally, a signed language is not a visual representation of a spoken
language. Sign languages do not entail spelling all words on the hands letter by letter, and
often use different orders to spoken language words. Signed languages are not lacking in
anything, and can be used to express any conceivable concept or idea. In that sense,
signed languages do not need to be developed.

Spoken languages and signed languages differ from each other in the modality that
they use. Spoken languages use the auditory–vocal channel, while signed languages are
visual–gestural languages. Just as the words of a spoken language can often be divided
into smaller units (for example, the sounds of speech) signs are made up of smaller
structural units, such as the handshape, orientation, movement, and place of articulation
of the sign, as well as non-manual elements such as facial expressions. The grammars of
signed languages make use of facial expressions and body movements, and use the
space in front of and around the person who is signing in special ways. Signed languages
should not be changed to fit into the structure of a spoken language. Signed languages
should be respected as natural languages on their own terms.

Deaf people and sign languages

Sign languages are the natural first language of deaf people, and because of this,
deaf people have the right to express themselves in signing, and should not be
forced to use oral language. Some deaf people around the world do not know sign
language, and those who do use sign language often lack information about their

Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

language since most deaf people have hearing parents who have no signing skills
and no knowledge about sign languages. The deaf child might grow up without access to
a sign language, and sign language may not be used or allowed in school. It may also not
be taught as a subject in school. Through Sign Language Work, information about sign
language can be made accessible to the Deaf Community. Also hearing society gains from
access to information about sign language and its importance for the Deaf Community.
The different sign languages used by Deaf Communities around the world are equally
valid means of communication, and should therefore be used and respected.
This means that care should be taken not to import foreign sign languages or
International Sign into a community where indigenous sign language(s) already
exists. The ownership of a sign language belongs to the Deaf Community where the
language is used. This language has been transmitted from one deaf generation to
the next – and therefore judgements about acceptable or intelligible usage of the
language remain within the community. Deaf or hearing people from outside the
community have no right to impose or suggest changes to these natural sign languages.

Sign language use and variation

Signed languages do not have a common written form – and it should be noted that
the majority of spoken languages in the world also have no written form, and exist
only as spoken languages. If a signing deaf child has access to education, s/he learns
to read and write in school, in a language other than sign language. For a hearing
child, it is possible – though by no means necessary – that the language s/he speaks
at home is the same as the language s/he learns to read and write in school. Some hearing
people have a signed language as their first language. Those are hearing children of deaf
adults. The deaf parents’ choice to use sign language with their hearing children should
be respected. Hearing children brought up using signed and spoken languages have
been shown to benefit linguistically from their bilingual upbringing. There are several
countries that have more than one sign language. There might be a majority sign
language and one or more minority sign languages. Furthermore, each sign community
features linguistic variation. There are often several different signs that correspond to a
single word in a spoken language. Sign language use may vary according to factors such
as gender, age and region, as is the case with spoken languages.

What is deaf culture?

The world’s cultures differ from each other in many ways – communities may use different
languages, eat different food, wear different clothes and practice different religions. Deaf
Communities around the world are defined by their cultural values, beliefs and practices,
and there is an intricate relationship between deaf culture, sign languages and the
identities of deaf individuals.
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07
 Communication using a sign language is characteristic of the culture
of Deaf Communities. The use of sustained and unhindered eye
contact during a discussion is crucial. Enough light is needed in
order for a discussion to be unrestricted, and in the darkness the
discussion might be done in tactile form – which also is the preferred
communication form for some deaf-blind persons. When deaf people
sign in larger groups, people often stand or sit in a circle to enhance
visibility. Where deaf people gather at international events such as
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07
sports games (e.g. Deaflympics), and international conferences

or congresses, there is often intense interaction, and when the

event has finished, this transient ‘bubble’ of signed
communication disappears, as people return to their home
countries.

There are differences between the cultural practices of

different Deaf Communities, but several practices are typical of
many Deaf Communities, and this unites deaf people from Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

around the world.

Although sign languages are mutually unintelligible, they ‘look’ similar in certain ways – they
use manual articulators, facial expressions and eye contact, and space is used for grammatical
effect. Therefore, even though sign languages are different from each other, the use of a signed
language unites deaf individuals from different parts of the world.
Taken from: shorturl.at/jlt07

3.What does the author mean when he says there is a misconception about sign language?
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4. Write below five characteristic of sign language.

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5. Do all deaf people know the sign language? Explain your answer based on the text.

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6. Why can sign language vary?

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7. Search on internet about Deaf culture in Colombia and in a paragraph sum up telling how it is.

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 LISTENING

8. Watch the video below "Protecting and Interpreting Deaf Culture |

Glenna Cooper | TEDxTulsaCC" then, participate in the classroom
discussion with your classmates and teacher.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io7z5PftOU4

9.Write the message the previous video leaves you.

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10. How would you feel if you were deaf and why?

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 WORKSHOP 4
Here think about the
steps you need to solve
the problem, then write
them below in order.

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 Here think about the
resources you will need to
solve the problem, then write
them.

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Based on your reasearch, write on the next two pages an essay in which you show
a possible solution to your question.
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 MY TOOL
On the square below write your tool's
purpose
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NOTE: The next empty sheets are to

design your tool.

Remember! the tool you are going to create

must be meaningful for deaf people and your
community.You can create, a training to teach
about sign language, a magazine, or whatever
tool that contributes to your community.
 ASSESMENT RUBRIC

LEVEL LOW BASIC OUTSTANDING ADVANCED

The question is not The problem doesn't It responds to a

It responds to a
related to the context, respond to your current problem in its
current problem in its
Question 10%
either its estructure. current context and its context but lacks
context and is very
approach is greater clarity in its
well structured.
confuding. approach

The formulation of

The objectives are not The objectives are The objectives are objectives facilitates the

Objectives 10% well structured and well structured and well structured and control and evaluation

are not related to the but they are not but they don't allow to of the results, allowing

question. related to the question. control and evaluate to verify the level

the results. reached.

It presents the motives

It presents motives and reasons for which

It doesn't presents the and reasons for which the investigation is

It presents motives
motives and reasons the investigation is carried out, showing
Justification 10% and reasons for which
for which the carried out but it the aspects of the need
the investigation is
investigation is carried doen's show its for its realization in
carried out and shows
out. significance. concrete and
its significance.
convincing terms.

It presents relevant
It presents irrelevant, It presents the relevant
information, although It presents the relevant
disorganized information, well
with significant information, well
information, with organized, supported
problems in its organized, supported
significant errors. The with arguments. The
organization. Its with arguments. The
chapter is poorly investigation is
arguments do not chapter is organized
organized and does organized according
contribute to the according to the
Final document 20% not have a clear to the objectives,
understanding of the objectives and the
Oral presentation 50% relationship with the it provides an
results. The chapter is theoretical approach
objectives and overview of the main
poorly organized that supports it,
theoretical approach. findings and presents
according to the although it has small
There are no clear a properly stated
objectives of the work deficiencies.
conclusions. overall assessment.
and the theoretical

approach.