Project Proposal
Goal
The topic of my project is New Zealand Sign Language. I have a mixed-racial and cultural heritage as my mother is Indonesian and my father is American. English and Indonesian have always been a large influence in my life, even more so after losing touch with the Indonesian language and having to learn it all again when I moved back to Indonesia. During my school years, I took Indonesian, Chinese and Spanish as second languages. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Chinese and Spanish fluently, as I did not use them frequently enough in my everyday life. I did find learning Spanish to be very fun and interesting and am currently doing papers in Spanish and Sign Language as I have a passion to learn new languages and communicate with people from all around the world.
Sign Language, however, is very different to any language I've ever learned. There is no reading or writing and the language is purely visual, making my lessons extremely interactive and very enjoyable. This is why I have chosen New Zealand Sign Language as my topic for iReflect. My goal is to improve my NZSL skills by filming my progress, researching tips and interviewing people who use NZSL in their everyday lives.
Method
I have chosen Wix as the platform I am going to use to record my progress and reflections. I will include videos of my attempts at sign language or recordings of my experience using NZSL over the next 8 weeks as blog posts. I will also include blog posts about tips on learning NZSL for a beginner.
During the 8 weeks, I will have two tests for my NZSL paper. I will use these to demonstrate my progress in learning NZSL. Because I won't be able to see my final test score before the due date for brief two, instead I will include my thoughts of how well I did in my final reflection.
Each week I will also post a video of myself signing general information about me to further demonstrate my progress. I will show this through the speed, accuracy and fluidity of my signing, referring to YouTube and my NZSL dictionary app, which includes videos of how to sign different words, as a guide.
My website will also include interviews with people that use NZSL in their everyday lives, focusing on how they learned NZSL and if they have any suggestions on how I can improve my learning. At the end of each interview I will also ask the interviewee to rate my NZSL out of a score of 10.
In weeks 8 and 12, I will post reflections on my experience and comment on my progress. Nearing the end of the semester I plan to do a personal experiment which involves only using NZSL for a day, to try to test my knowledge on what I have learned so far.
The following is my weekly activity programme:
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Week 5: 14th – 20th August
Write a blog post on tips I have found for beginners who are learning NZSL. Use tips over the next few weeks.
Post a short video of general information about myself in NZSL, including subtitles and scoring myself on speed, accuracy and fluidity of my sentences out of a total score of 30.
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Week 6: 21st – 27th August
Post a blog about how I thought my first NZSL test went.
Post second video of myself using NZSL.
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Week 7: 23rd August – 3rd September
Interview fellow students on their experience learning NZSL.
Post third NZSL video.
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Week 8: 4th – 10th September
Interview a person who uses NZSL in their everyday lives.
Post fourth NZSL video.
Write first reflection on progress. Include NZSL test score, reflect on what I did right and what I could have done to improve my score.
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Week 9: 11th – 17th September
Interview one or two people who uses NZSL in their everyday lives.
Include a blog post on thoughts and experience of the 'no voice' policy.
Post fifth NZSL video.
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Week 10: 18th – 24th September
Write a blog post about the interviews and my experience as a beginner using NZSL with someone who is fluent. Include score given by interviewees.
Post sixth NZSL video.
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Week 11: 25th September – 1st October
Personal experiment week. Try only using NZSL for a day and record experience.
Post seventh NZSL video.
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Week 12: 2nd – 8th October
Attempt to interpret simple scene from a movie/show.
Post eighth NZSL video
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Week 13: 9th-15th October
Post last NZSL video.
Write final overall reflection of my experience and how I thought my final NZSL test went.
Web-based/theoretical references
Some of the web-based references that I will be using are YouTube videos, articles/blogs about NZSL and anything else I find online regarding NZSL.
A theoretical reference that I will use is the 'no-voice' policy which states that it is easier to learn sign language if spoken language is not used in the classroom (Lapiak, 1996). It also teaches you to respect Deaf culture and lets you and other students fully concentrate on learning sign language. Although this refers to ASL, this policy is still applicable to NZSL. Since I am currently enrolled in the NZSL paper this semester, where this policy is enforced, I can record my thoughts and my class experiences regarding the 'no-voice' policy and include this in my reflections.
Lapiak, J. (1996). "No Voice" policy in classroom: ASL zone. (J. Lapiak, Producer) Retrieved from Handspeak:
