Dr Angela Tiziana Tarantini: My research into the sign song preferences of deaf people (BSL)

My name is Angela, I am originally Italian and I was born in Milan. I know that among Deaf people the word “Milan” has all sorts of negative associations, and rightly so.

To this day, my ‘home’ country is not very open to any type of diversity. My brother is deaf from one ear: he lost the hearing in his right ear when we both got the mumps as kids. At the time (in the late 1970s) there was not much Deaf awareness in the hearing world, at least in Milan.

I am not sure how much things have changed in ‘my country’, as I have not lived in Italy for a decade now. I moved to Australia in 2013 to pursue a PhD in Translation Studies, and I specialised in theatre translation and translation in performance.

In 2016 I presented my research at the 7^th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies in Paris. Even though I had seen sign languages before, that was the first time that I had actually encountered Deaf signers from all over the world, and that made me want to study a sign language. I was struck by the beauty and expressivity of sign languages.

Fast forward to the pandemic: in Australia, Auslan (Australian Sign Language) is present at every press conference on Covid. I then decided to start studying Auslan, and in the meantime I had come across signed songs.

Fascinated by the combination of translation and performance, I started observing the works of those interpreters and performers who aim to facilitate access to Music for Deaf and hard-of-hearing signers by translating songs into sign languages. I then started looking into academic articles written on the topic.

Unsurprisingly, most of the literature on the topic was written in the area of Deaf Studies and Musicology and, to my surprise, the practice of song signing had received very scant attention in Translation Studies.

Most importantly, the perspective from Deaf people was often overlooked. I am not talking about Deaf scholars, I am talking about the people who go to see an Ed Sheeran concert interpreted by sign song performers or interpreters.

Do we actually know what their needs and preferences are? What strategies they consider effective? No large scale study on the topic had ever been conducted.

Well aware of my positionality as a hearing person, I wrote a research proposal and I won a fellowship to carry out my research project in my chosen institution, i.e. Cardiff University.

I have chosen the UK because of the vibrant Deaf scene and the presence of exceptional song signers such as Fletch@, Paul Whittaker, OBE, and Rebecca Withey (whose weekly workshops are informative and fun!). I immediately started studying BSL, and I am currently attending a level-3 course.

The more I analysed signed songs in different sign languages, the more I realised that there are some patterns. A complete list and discussion of all the patterns identified is beyond the scope of this blogpost (and perhaps could be the topic for another post). Here I would just like to focus on the method and the scope of my analysis.

The data collected for my analysis are of two types: interviews with sign language interpreters, and videos of signed songs. I interviewed 9 sign language interpreters working in 4 different sign languages, BSL, Auslan, LIS (Italian Sign Language) and NGT (Dutch Sign Language).

Furthermore I was able to record the performance of two Deaf performers whom I did not interview, but consented to being recorded for research purposes, namely Paul Whittaker, OBE, and Fletch@, both of whom require no introduction. Together with a researcher in Psychology, Prof. John Culling (Cardiff University), I drafted a questionnaire which was also validated by a Deaf consultant (Paul Whittaker, OBE).

As a hearing researcher in translation and performance, I am capable of identifying patterns, but I do not know how effective they are to facilitate access to music and enjoyment of music for Deaf and hard-of-hearing signers. The scope of the questionnaire (link below) is precisely this: to gather the perspective of Deaf people in different countries on the different translation techniques.

This is why I am reluctant to discuss them here: I am afraid that a description of the techniques identified could influence people’s response. The questionnaire has been translated into BSL and Italian Sign Language, and is currently being translated into Auslan and Dutch Sign Language.

I hope that at the end of the study we will have a clearer understanding of what translation strategies are more effective to facilitate access to music for Deaf signers in different countries and in different sign languages.

If you want to participate in the project and answer the questionnaire (anonymously) click the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cxybxNSmCVFACu_VUExMWMvRkInHSY_kz8aFkCwCLMQ/edit

I would like to thank the interpreters I interviewed:

INTERPRETER’S NAME	LANGUAGE
Celeste Di Pietro	Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Elisabeth May	BSL (British Sign Language)
Julie Doyle	BSL (British Sign Language)
Nikki Harris	BSL (British Sign Language)
Sarah Ankers	BSL (British Sign Language)
Giulia Clementi	LIS (Lingua Italiana dei Segni – Italian Sign Language)
Anouk Bakkers	NGT (Nederlandse Gebarentaal – Dutch Sign Language)
Hanneke De Raaff (Muziektolken)	NGT (Nederlandse Gebarentaal – Dutch Sign Language)
Mirijam Stolk (Muziektolken)	NGT (Nederlandse Gebarentaal – Dutch Sign Language)

I would also like to thank Fletch@ for allowing me to record her performance at the Cardiff Pride 2022, and Paul Whittaker OBE for the workshops run at Cardiff University, and for his help with the questionnaire.

Dr Angela Tiziana Tarantini (PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies – Monash University Australia) is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cardiff University. Angela obtained her PhD with a study on Theatre Translation. The focus of her current research is sign-language-interpreted music as a translation and performative practice.

Logo designed by Sarah Styles, in collaboration with Gabrielle Claven.