A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

In this section we illustrate and discuss the concrete actions put forward by public and private institutions and organisations with respect to DGS and the community of its users in Germany. Language policy is commonly differentiated into activities related to (a) status planning, (b) corpus planning, and (c) acquisition planning. Status planning comprises all activities pertaining to the status of the language in a given social context, including the status of the language in legislation, the dissemination of knowledge about the language and its visibility in the public space. Corpus planning comprises activities regarding the codification of the language as well as measures taken toward its standardisation. Finally, acquisition planning concerns activities affecting the vitality of the language, its maintenance and use.

Although the language planning activities sketched are commonly related, the manner in which they are orchestrated in a given social space depends on several factors, such as the legislation upon which they are based, and the stakeholders involved. Language policy targeting DGS in Germany needs to be understood against the backdrop of the federal organisation of the country. Basically, this means that decision-making processes are determined partly at the federal, that is, national level and partly at the regional level of the individual federal states. The sixteen states (Länder) have legislative and executive responsibility for a wide range of matters, notably education. Decentralised administration and local self-government in Germany are also reflected in the decentralised structure of non-governmental organisations involved in the demand for and implementation of activities related to sign language policies and planning.

Language policy and language planning activities targeting the status of DGS have been driven by different actors (social agents) and stakeholders and different views of the language. Activities undertaken by deaf associations and related interest groups, have been guided by the view of DGS as a minority language and its users as members of a linguistic minority group. At the institutional level, by contrast, the status of the language has been addressed in terms of a supportive means to overcome the accessibility barriers deaf people face owing to hearing loss.

Over the last decades, DGS has not only become a symbol of identity for its users. The provision of sign language interpretation in the public space and the offer of DGS courses for second language learners in schools for adult education have contributed to an increased public awareness of the language in the society at large. National and regional deaf associations, non-governmental interest groups such as the Bundeselternverband gehörloser Kinder e.V. ('National federation of parents of deaf children') as well as research groups have been instrumental for the evolution of the status of DGS. In particular, they have promoted

• its legal recognition and increasing visibility in the public space
• its inclusion in sign bilingual education programmes
• the dissemination of the knowledge about its properties
• the development of qualifications, trainings, and materials available.   

Knowledge gathered on theoretical and practical issues in all sign language related research areas is disseminated through the journal Das Zeichen ('the sign'), published three times per year by the Society for Sign Language and Communication of Deaf Individuals (Gesellschaft für Gebärdensprache und Kommunikation Gehörloser) since 2003. The journal is the reference publication in Germany for research on DGS and the linguistics of sign languages, Deaf Studies, deaf education, and sign language interpreting. 

Other journals are focused on deaf pedagogy, such as Hörgeschädigtenpädagogik ('hearing impaired pedagogy'), hörgeschädigte kinder ('hearing impaired children') and Forum. Contributions cover a broad range of issues in the domain of deaf education including sign bilingual education which remains an exception in Germany.

As of the 1980s the status of DGS has been affected by the rising academic interest in its linguistic properties, and the way it is acquired and used. For example, research groups at the universities of Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne and Aachen have been dedicated to the study and the teaching of DGS. In addition, scholars engaged in activities oriented toward the recognition of the language in legislation, and its inclusion in deaf education, service provision etc. thereby promoting the status of the language.

The professionalisation of sign language interpretation in Germany since the 1980s has led to the establishment of various sign language interpreter education programmes with different degree options (bachelor, master, diploma). Hamburg University was the first to offer a DGS interpreter education programme in 1993, followed by the universities in Magdeburg (1997), Zwickau (2000), Berlin (2003), Landshut (2015) and Cologne (2017). Further education courses, particularly designed for interpreters that have been in the profession for a longer time, are offered at Fresenius University in Idstein and the GIB Institute in Nürnberg. There are also private language schools offering sign language interpreter trainings that are not always officially recognised. A further education programme for deaf sign language interpreters is offered at Hamburg University.

Quality standards were elaborated by the national association of sign language interpreters (Bundesverband der GebärdensprachdolmetscherInnen Deutschlands, BGSD) in collaboration with the German Federation of the Deaf (Deutscher Gehörlosenbund). Independently of the training, interpreters can be certified through the state at the state examination offices (staatliche Prüfungsämter) in Darmstadt and Munich. Deaf sign language interpreters may also be certified through the state in Darmstadt.

Though still limited, the presence of sign language interpreters in the media in Germany contributed to an increase of the visibility of DGS in the public space. Granting deaf sign language users accessibility to information is a crucial issue, in particular regarding information on public health issues, emergencies, and other news.

DGS is used in two different types of TV programmes. In DGS-interpreted public broadcasters’ programmes a picture-in-picture window is superposed on the original programme to provide a video of a sign language interpreter. This is the case of the daily news programmes Tagesschau and heute journal broadcast live on phoenix, a public TV channel operated jointly by public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF that has broadcast programmes with signing since 1997.

Programmes broadcast in DGS, by contrast, involve the use of DGS as the main language of communication (at times, they are produced with additional sub-titles in German). Such programmes remain an exception. This is the case of Sehen-statt-hören, a weekly magazine produced for the deaf community broadcast on regional channels for more than 25 years. Only few programmes produced by public national and regional broadcasters are interpreted into DGS. The nationwide broadcasters ARD and ZDF offer some news programmes, weekly news magazines, children’s programmes (e.g. Sendung mit der Maus, Sandmännchen) and talk shows with DGS interpretation. These are not broadcast live with DGS interpretation, but are available via the TV channels’ websites or hybrid digital TV HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV). Parliamentary debates with simultaneous DGS interpretation are streamed during the live debates on the national parliament’s (the Bundestag) website.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has provided new opportunities to use and disseminate knowledge about DGS and its users. Online portals dedicated to the dissemination of the latest news on deaf issues, such as Taubenschlag, cover a wide range of areas including education, media, politics, and interpretation.  Programmes in DGS are being produced and disseminated by DGS users on digital platforms in the internet. The Fingerzeig talk show is produced monthly and shown twice from Tuesdays to Saturdays on Alex TV.

Information in DGS is included on the official websites of public institutions following the Ordinance on the Creation of Barrier-Free Information Technology in Accordance with the Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons (Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung – BITV). The decree, whose goal is to guarantee a barrier-free design of information and communication made available to the public by the authorities and public institutions, stipulates that the homepage of a public webpage has to include information in DGS on the main contents of the site, indications on the navigation and other information available in DGS on this site.

DGS corpus planning activities involving documentation, standardisation and modernisation are carried out with a view to expanding the language and its social functions [see  Socio-Historical Background 4.3.].

Founded in 1987, the Centre (now Institute) of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf (Institut für Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Kommunikation Gehörloser, IDGS) at Hamburg University has played a central role not only in raising awareness of and knowledge about DGS and its users, but also in the documentation of the language. The IDGS pioneered the provision of training in sign language linguistics, deaf pedagogy and sign language interpreting. Furthermore, it has been engaged in the creation of DGS lexica, educational materials, and a notational system (the Hamburg Sign Language Notation System, HamNoSys). Signum press, established in the late 1980s by Sigmund Prillwitz, founding director of the IDGS, served to promote the dissemination of knowledge about DGS and other sign languages and their users at the national and international levels.

Following the pioneering work at the IDGS, research on DGS and its users as well as teacher and interpreter training programmes and degrees have also been offered at the universities of Aachen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Göttingen, Cologne, Magdeburg and Zwickau.

The need for a standardised DGS norm has been subject to debate in the community of DGS users. Standardisation of a language results from diverse activities related to the evolution of a variety of the language that adopts the status of a standard or the norm, including those that represent prescriptive interventions into the language and other measures that affect the development of the varieties of the language in the long term. As for DGS, there is no variety that would have been codified in teaching/learning materials as the norm or standard. Despite the advantages that might be attributed to a norm for teaching purposes users also have addressed their reservations about the creation of a standard whose use would be imposed to all users. Critiques of standardisation have warned against the intervention into the language that would primarily serve the hearing community, emphasising also the value of preserving linguistic diversity. To date, however, the range of variation in DGS related to educational institutions, region, socioeconomic status, migration, and education, among others remain unexplored.

Even though explicit standardisation efforts have not taken place, standardising effects need to be acknowledged resulting from the materials used for the teaching and learning of DGS by young first and second language learners of DGS, as well as through their use by interpreters. Dictionaries [see Socio-Historical Background 4.2.] compiled in Hamburg and elsewhere over the last decades, such as the Hamburger Fachgebärdenlexika ('Hamburg sign dictionaries for specialist terminologies') or Kestner’s big dictionary of DGS (Das große Wörterbuch der Deutschen Gebärdensprache) are used as resources in the teaching of the language. The elaboration of various specialist dictionaries (Fachgebärdenlexika) included the creation of new signs for the expression of specialist terminology. More recently, a broader project aiming at the documentation of the language has been launched by the German Academy of Sciences, the DGS-Korpus project [Socio-Historical Background 4.3.]. The long-term project, carried out at the IDGS, aims at building a reference corpus of DGS and compiling a corpus-based dictionary DGS–German. During the project term of 15 years, a corpus-based electronic DGS–German dictionary will be developed. The corpus is meant to be representative for the everyday language of Deaf people all over Germany.            

Acquisition planning commonly aims at increasing the number of language users in a given social space to ensure the vitality of the language over time. Education [Socio-Historical Background 2.4.] gains a prominent role among the measures taken to promote the acquisition and use of DGS.

With regard to the teaching/learning of the language, different acquisition scenarios need to be distinguished, namely,

• first language acquisition by deaf children born to parents native in the language
• the acquisition of DGS as the first or primary language by deaf children born to non-signing parents
• the acquisition of DGS as a second language by parents of deaf children and sign language interpreters
• the acquisition of DGS as a foreign language in school or at  university.

In Germany, there is no holistic policy dedicated to the promotion of DGS, its vitality and use. This lack needs to be understood against the backdrop of the function attributed to the language in current legislation. The recognition of DGS as a language in its own right in German legislation has been oriented toward the removal of barriers to the accessibility of deaf individuals. Both the Book IX of the Social Code 'Integration and Rehabilitation of Disabled People (SGB IX, 2001)' and the Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (BGG, 2002) provide a legal framework for the implementation of the anti-discrimination provision contained in Article 3 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The 2002 Act aims at ensuring the equal rights of disabled people and the elimination of barriers to equal opportunities through the creation of barrier-free environments. It recognises DGS and the right to use it.

As a consequence, administrations at the national and regional levels have taken measures to reduce accessibility barriers in the health, education, administration, and information provision areas.

Special education legislation applied in the individual federal states recognises DGS as a communication means (in equal terms with spoken language). However, bilingual education of deaf children in DGS and German remains the exception in Germany. The implementation of the first bilingual class in the 1993/4 school year was the result of the collaboration between parents of deaf children, professionals engaged in deaf education and academics involved in research on sign language linguistics and deaf pedagogy at Hamburg University.

The teaching of DGS in adult education is available as of the late 1980s. The professionalisation of DGS teaching is a relatively recent phenomenon reflecting also the evolution toward the recognition of DGS as a language in its own right:

1. From the 1970s to the 1980s, courses basically focused on the teaching of signs accompanying speech (Lautsprachbegleitendes Gebärden, LBG). Most teachers were CODAs. The so-called “blue book”, a collection of signs, was used as a basis. The first teaching book published in the late 1970s was used for the teaching of LBG.
2. Toward the end of the 1980s DGS courses were offered in addition to LBG courses and more deaf teachers were engaged, but they knew little about the language.
3. During the 1990s, demands for professionalisation of the teaching of DGS were expressed, which was later documented in the “Berufsbild Gebärdensprachdozent/-lehrer” (Sign language teacher job description). This included an appropriate training and qualification.

The professionalisation of the teaching of DGS outside the school took shape as of the early 2000s, following the increasing demand for qualified teachers of DGS. The DGS teachers’ national association (Verband der Dozenten für Gebärdensprache) in collaboration with the regional and national Deaf associations were involved in the elaboration of the job description (Berufsbild) and their professional ethics (Berufsbildungsordnung). Training, qualification and degrees are organised at the level of individual federal states. In Bavaria, this is regulated through the ordinance on the recognition of the examination for sign language teachers (Verordnung über die Anerkennung der Prüfung für Gebärdensprachdozentinnen und Gebärdensprachdozenten).

The state-certification for the qualification as a DGS-teacher can be obtained at the state examination office in Darmstadt (Staatliches Prüfungsamt für Sprachen in Darmstadt).  The Bavarian institute for the promotion of communication of people with hearing impairment (also referred to as GIB, Gesellschaft Inklusion Bildung, 'society inclusion education'), a publicly funded institution founded in 1999 to improve the communication between deaf and hearing people, is the only institution in Germany offering a continuing education DGS teacher training programme.

DGS courses for adult learners are offered at private and public schools. Commonly, courses are available at the so-called folk high-schools (Volkshochschulen), that is, non-profit making institutions offering a broad range of courses for adult learner education.  The first DGS e-learning platform in Germany, manimundo, offers a wide range of online signing courses. DGS skills and knowledge are practised also in one-to-one tutorials with DGS teachers.

The DGS teaching materials available serve different functions and are based on different didactic approaches. Hence, the Grundkurs Deutsche Gebärdensprache ('base course DGS', authored by Beecken et al. 1999) as well as Fliegende Hände ('flying hands', authored by the Desire-Deaf and Sign Language Research–Team Aachen 2002) are rather oriented toward the development of communicative competence. Deutsche Gebärdensprache: ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch ('German Sign Language: a textbook', authored by Happ and Vorköper 2006), by contrast, focuses on the grammar of DGS, in analogy to traditional foreign language teaching materials. Roughly, it follows a contrastive approach, by contrasting the properties of German and DGS after explanatory introductions of the relevant grammatical phenomena. Only few teaching materials are available for the teaching of DGS in sign bilingual education programmes with deaf children. The lack is even more pronounced when it comes to the teaching of subject matter in DGS. Commonly, teachers develop their own materials. Only a third of the schools evaluate the students’ DGS competences, some of them regularly throughout the year.

With respect to the inclusion of DGS in school, legal requirements concerning the inclusion of DGS on the curriculum are mostly valid for special schools only (and only for a minority of the students enrolled at regular schools that are taken care of by special schools professionals). Because education in Germany is in the responsibility of the individual federal states, there is no state-wide curriculum or framework for the training and qualification of sign language teachers. Framework curricula for the teaching of DGS in schools (Rahmenpläne) are available in Berlin-Brandenburg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg and Sachsen-Anhalt.

Deaf teachers involved in the teaching of DGS do not only represent important role models for their students. They also serve as key ambassadors for the language. Moreover, DGS teachers play a central role regarding language standardisation as the convey the norm. However, among the professionals involved in deaf education deaf professionals remain the exception rather than the norm, and, often, the deaf teaching professional remains the sole deaf role model in the educational institution.