Innovation & Impact

INNOVATIONS

Speaking in Sign Bilingual to Combat the Silence

Entrepreneurship Social Impact & Public Engagement

Innovations & Impacts

There is a long-established misunderstanding in the Hong Kong community that signing slows down the process of learning lip-reading and speaking among deaf children. It is as if by copying the speaking behaviour of the hearing children, the deaf children could become “normal” again. Sign language is not being encouraged and deaf children are frustrated in the process of learning by using languages which they could not wholly embrace.



Professor Gladys TANG of the Department of Linguistic and Modern Languages, with her research expertise in sign linguistics and language acquisition, has shown that optimal learning for deaf children’s spoken language and literacy development can be achieved through bimodal bilingualism, namely, the integrated training of signed language and spoken language. Professor TANG and her teammate launched Asia’s first deaf education qua research programme - Sign Bilingualism and Coenrolment Education (SLCO) for deaf and hearing students in mainstream education. Through innovative classes, the programme has not just improved the language development of deaf children and social integration between normal hearing and deaf communities, but also supported parents, educators and other professionals in learning and appreciating sign language.



The programme has been welcomed by relevant bureax and departments of the HKSAR Government (i.e., the Department of Health and Labour and Welfare Bureau), local and international educators (from countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia) and graduates of the programme for its impact on transforming the education sector and empowering individual beneficiaries. The programme’s experience has also been shared with international partners and replicated in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Fiji, Cambodia and Myanmar, with a view to shaping the new education and social inclusion model for the deaf.


From Research to Market

  • RESEARCH

  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  • SOCIAL IMPACT & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Professor TANG’s interest in sign language research took her to embark on a series of research projects in recent years on the linguistics of Hong Kong Sign Language, the acquisition of sign language and the development of deaf literacy by deaf children. In 2003, Professor TANG with Professor James WOODWARD and a group of postgraduate students and Deaf junior research assistants co-founded the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies in CUHK.

With the support of the Sustainable Knowledge Transfer Project Fund (S-KPF) from CUHK, SLCO Community Resources Limited (SLCO-CR) was established in 2016 as a Hong Kong-based social enterprise to provide self-sustainable community services based on linguistics research, empirical evidence and experience in frontline services. The vision of SLCO-CR is to promote sign bilingualism in communication, education and social inclusion; to create a diversified community without communication barrier.

SLCO-CR has received various funding sources as well as donations from both private and public sectors, including CUHK Alumni Charity Foundation, Billion Charity Fund, Deutsche Bank AG, Baring Private Equity Asia Ltd, DH Chen Foundation, Fu Tak Iam Foundation, HSBC Private Banking, SIE Fund, Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme, Partnership Fund for the Disadvantage, and Smile with us HK.

In addition to S-KPF, Professor TANG also received KPF for the project “Born to See: Living the Life of a Deaf Person” in 2019. For its social innovation in improving the social conditions of deaf people and sign language through sign linguistics, the social enterprise has received several prestigious awards and recognitions such as --

Innovative Practice Award on Education - Zero Project (2020)
Asia for Good Reader’s Choice Award - SVCA (2017)
Social Capital Builder Awards

In addition, SLCO-CR has also partnered with StoryTaler, another social enterprise supported by S-KPF, for the “Touch My Heart Project” to develop the first cross-disciplinary model of sign language bilingual mental health service to help innately deaf young people and adults who communicate in spoken or sign language to receive an appropriate psychological service.

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