ACLASFU126
Elaborations
- appreciating distinctions between Deaf cultures and other cultural minorities, such as the fact that most deaf people are born to hearing parents and acquire Deaf culture in addition to the culture of their families of origin from peers and other Auslan users in school or as adults in the Deaf community
- exploring ways in which language choices reflect attitudes towards certain topics, such as oralism or cochlear implants, identifying examples of sign choices that reflect particular attitudes or views
- understanding that knowledge about past and present Deaf people and about Deaf cultural values is embodied in and transmitted through Auslan, for example, ways of producing the sign for SIGN embody cultural meaning, regarding distinctions made and values placed on fluent or awkward signing
- identifying differences between the use of personal names in Auslan and in other languages, for example, Auslan signers not using a person’s name sign when addressing them directly, in contrast to the practice in many spoken languages
- considering cultural explanations for conversational strategies used by Auslan signers to avoid conflict and to maintain privacy, such as changing signing space and style, and using indirect language such as signing lower or under the table, or fingerspelling instead of signing overtly
- appreciating the cultural value and importance of festivals and other events in the Deaf community, such as NWDP, as celebrations of language, history, culture and identity
- reflecting on the ways that culture is interpreted by others, for example by identifying how stereotypes about deaf and hearing people influence perceptions among members of either community
- understanding that ‘sound’ is accessed differently in Deaf culture, that the meaning and importance of sound in deaf people’s lives is usually not the same as in hearing people’s experience