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Victoria University of Wellington
1.
Iseli, Jacqueline.
Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study.
Degree: 2018, Victoria University of Wellington
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/7957
► This thesis provides the first documentation and description of the signs created and used by deaf individuals in Vanuatu. The specific aims of this research…
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▼ This thesis provides the first documentation and description of the signs created and used by deaf individuals in Vanuatu. The specific aims of this research were as follows: to establish the sociolinguistic context experienced by deaf people in Vanuatu; to identify the repertoire and characteristics of signs used by the deaf participants; to compare features of participants’ individual signs with the characteristics of home signs and emerging sign languages; and to consider the degree of similarity and potential similarity of signs between participants and how this reflects individuals’ opportunities for contact with other deaf people and signing interlocutors. The limitations of this study are that field methodology for data collection was developed in situ as conditions allowed. The sociolinguistic context for deaf Ni-Vanuatu confirms that language isolation leads to marginalisation from community and society. The study established that these home sign lexicons were limited in quantity and conceptual range, and that shared background knowledge was essential for comprehension. Overall, 22 handshapes were documented, and the predominant handshapes unmarked. Most participants preferred handling strategy for depicting signs. Some evidence of noun-verb distinction was noted in the repertoire of some participants. However, across this range of formational characteristics, results showed significant individual variations. Furthermore, multiple barriers have precluded development of a shared sign language and any form of deaf community.
Advisors/Committee Members: McKee, Rachel.
Subjects/Keywords: Home sign; Deaf; Sign language
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APA (6th Edition):
Iseli, J. (2018). Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study. (Masters Thesis). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/7957
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Iseli, Jacqueline. “Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study.” 2018. Masters Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed April 21, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/10063/7957.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Iseli, Jacqueline. “Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study.” 2018. Web. 21 Apr 2021.
Vancouver:
Iseli J. Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2018. [cited 2021 Apr 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/7957.
Council of Science Editors:
Iseli J. Deaf Ni-Vanuatu and their signs: A sociolinguistic study. [Masters Thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2018. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/7957

Victoria University of Wellington
2.
Vale, Mireille.
Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language.
Degree: 2017, Victoria University of Wellington
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6253
► This thesis addresses the question whether signed definitions, made possible by advances in electronic lexicography, should be introduced to sign language dictionaries. The thesis comprises…
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▼ This thesis addresses the question whether signed definitions, made possible by advances in electronic lexicography, should be introduced to sign language dictionaries. The thesis comprises four interrelated studies investigating different aspects of this question through a user-focused case study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language (ODNZSL).
A preliminary study investigated current use of the ODNZSL in order to identify what user needs signed definitions might fulfil. The study drew on two data sets: website log data for the ODNZSL, and a think-aloud protocol and interview with representatives of user groups. Results showed that in addition to a large volume of casual browsers, the most frequent and intensive users of the dictionary are beginner and intermediate students of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). These (hearing) language learners mostly search for frequent vocabulary with the aims of language production and vocabulary learning. Findings also identified reasons for unsuccessful dictionary consultations that may impact on the effectiveness of definitions.
In the second study, a review of ODNZSL entries highlighted categories of lexical items for which the current description through English glosses, examples, and usage notes is inadequate. A test was developed to assess whether these categories of signs were problematic for the user group identified in the first study: hearing intermediate learners of NZSL. Twenty-one participants took a computer-based error correction test with both comprehension and production sections comprising fifty items in six different categories: culture-bound; idiomatic; polysemous; metaphoric/metonymic; vocabulary type / word class; and other. Quantitative results indicated that a small number of test items were problematic, but that none of the test categories were good predictors of the difficulties learners experienced. A qualitative examination identified linguistic factors and issues with the current dictionary information that may be improved by the addition of signed definitions.
The central proposition tested in the third study was that folk definitions—informal explanations of sign meaning by Deaf sign language users—can be applied as a template for dictionary definitions. This study took fifteen of the signs that were identified as problematic for learners in the previous study, and asked thirteen Deaf NZSL users to explain the meaning of these signs. A qualitative analysis found that the folk definitions by different NZSL users shared common semantic categories and embedded information about situational and sociolinguistic variation as well as grammatical structures. Some semantic relationships that occur frequently in spoken language folk definitions, such as exemplification and synonymy, were also common in signed folk definitions. Other semantic relationships such as attribution, function, operation, and spatial relationships occurred less frequently because they were inherent in the sign construction. Due to the bilingual status of the…
Advisors/Committee Members: McKee, Rachel, Boers, Frank.
Subjects/Keywords: Sign language; Lexicography; Folk definitions
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Vale, M. (2017). Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language. (Doctoral Dissertation). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6253
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Vale, Mireille. “Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language.” 2017. Doctoral Dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed April 21, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6253.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Vale, Mireille. “Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language.” 2017. Web. 21 Apr 2021.
Vancouver:
Vale M. Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2017. [cited 2021 Apr 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6253.
Council of Science Editors:
Vale M. Folk Definitions as a Model for Sign Language Dictionary Definitions: A User-Focused Study of the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2017. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/6253

Victoria University of Wellington
3.
Bathard, Hayley.
Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds.
Degree: 2014, Victoria University of Wellington
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3475
► The cochlear implant (CI), a device that “provides hearing sensations for severely and profoundly deaf individuals” (NZ Audiological Society), initially emerged for public use in…
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▼ The cochlear implant (CI), a device that “provides hearing sensations for severely and profoundly deaf individuals” (NZ Audiological Society), initially emerged for public use in the 1980s, but was met with strong opposition from Deaf communities in many countries (Lane et al 1996, Edwards 2005). However, since the beginning of the 21st century, hostility towards implants has lessened and they are increasingly accepted as an option in a range of possibilities for deaf children and adults. Despite increasing numbers of the Deaf community considering implants themselves, however, the continuing task of the Deaf community is to counter the conception of implants as ‘miracle cures’ for deafness (Lane et al 1996, Edwards 2005). Furthermore, the Deaf community needs to communicate to parents of deaf children that those with implants may still be perceived as d/Deaf, by both the community and themselves (Christiansen and Leigh 2002).
This thesis explores the identities of a small group of cochlear implant users in New Zealand, and examines their involvement in both d/Deaf and hearing worlds. The narratives of my participants demonstrate some of the everyday difficulties that d/Deaf individuals, and their families, encounter in medical and health‐care settings, along with educational and workplace settings. I draw on participants’ narratives that explain their relationship with both medicalised and cultural models of deafness, and with Deaf culture, decisions about implants, and perceptions of the effects and limits of cochlear implants. I argue that the identities of CI users in modern New Zealand society are influenced by a multiplicity of factors, including medicalised understandings of deafness, familial pressures, the embodied experiences of CI technology, and personal identity trajectories. Given that these individuals are navigating these multiple threads in the formation of their identities, I argue that, at this stage in their lives, the CI users in this study occupy a liminal position in regards to d/Deaf and hearing worlds. Furthermore, I posit that the medical model of deafness needs to be tempered with social and cultural views of both deafness and CIs, and that the voices of CI users themselves should be prominent in such debates.
Advisors/Committee Members: Trundle, Catherine, McKee, Rachel.
Subjects/Keywords: Cochlear implants; Identity; Deafness
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Bathard, H. (2014). Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds. (Masters Thesis). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3475
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Bathard, Hayley. “Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds.” 2014. Masters Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed April 21, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3475.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Bathard, Hayley. “Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds.” 2014. Web. 21 Apr 2021.
Vancouver:
Bathard H. Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2014. [cited 2021 Apr 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3475.
Council of Science Editors:
Bathard H. Intricate Identities: Cochlear Implant Users Negotiating Lives Between d/Deaf and Hearing Worlds. [Masters Thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2014. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3475

Victoria University of Wellington
4.
Smiler, Kirsten.
Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau.
Degree: 2014, Victoria University of Wellington
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/8725
► This research investigates the early experiences of Māori deaf children, documenting whānau (family) perspectives on interactions with early intervention professionals and environmental sources of information,…
(more)
▼ This research investigates the early experiences of Māori deaf children, documenting whānau (family) perspectives on interactions with early intervention professionals and environmental sources of information, the effects of these on whānau perceptions of deafness, how decisions around communication and language use are arrived at, and how these affect a sense of parental competence. The features of a whānau-centred model of intervention are explored by whānau participants and the researcher in order to provide an understanding of how early intervention services could be more effective from Māori perspectives.
Developing age appropriate language, communication skills and social acculturation is a synchronous process which typically occurs within the context of families. The majority of deaf children, however, are born to hearing parents and families with little experience of deaf people from which to develop a subconscious repertoire of skills with which to engage, facilitate and teach language to a deaf child. Early intervention services seek to support deaf children and their families in this process. In New Zealand a family-centred model of early intervention is accepted practice. Māori children are over-represented in deafness diagnostic statistics and their early language and social development takes place within a social context that is configured differently to the prototypical non-Māori family, that is, the whānau. Little is known or documented about the characteristics and efficacy of a family-centred model in relation to Māori deaf children and their whānau.
The Māori metaphor of transformative praxis was used to frame a kaupapa Māori approach to case study research. Kete mātauranga (woven baskets of knowledge) were co-constructed between whānau participants, early intervention professionals, and the researcher, using Māori methods of qualitative data collection: kōrero-a-tinana (observations of action and behaviour), kōrero-a-waha (spoken language), kōrero-a-ringaringa (signed language), kōrero-a-tuhituhi (written language).
Analysis of the data suggests that whānau perceptions of their deaf child evolve as the child moves through developmental stages and as the whānau encounters different sources of information and experiences relating to deafness. The study shows how the relevance of information, spoken, written, and signed, from early intervention professionals and observational knowledge gained from others with lived experience of deafness, deaf people and their whānau, was interpreted and weighed by participants as they interacted with their own deaf child in everyday social contexts. Participants' aspirations for their deaf children centred on a holistic perspective of wellbeing and development, the whānau providing the foundational context from which this developed. Recognising that their deaf child was situated at the borders of multiple cultural and linguistic groups, through either familial or social connection, whānau aspirations centred on the child’s active social and linguistic…
Advisors/Committee Members: McKee, Rachel, McKee, David.
Subjects/Keywords: Māori deaf; Early intervention; Deaf education
Record Details
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❌
APA ·
Chicago ·
MLA ·
Vancouver ·
CSE |
Export
to Zotero / EndNote / Reference
Manager
APA (6th Edition):
Smiler, K. (2014). Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau. (Doctoral Dissertation). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/8725
Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):
Smiler, Kirsten. “Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau.” 2014. Doctoral Dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed April 21, 2021.
http://hdl.handle.net/10063/8725.
MLA Handbook (7th Edition):
Smiler, Kirsten. “Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau.” 2014. Web. 21 Apr 2021.
Vancouver:
Smiler K. Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2014. [cited 2021 Apr 21].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/8725.
Council of Science Editors:
Smiler K. Ka puāwai ngā kōhungahunga turi: a study of the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori deaf children and their whānau. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2014. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/8725
.