Recognition for Cypriot sign language

CYPRIOT Sign Language (CSL) is now an officially recognised language and should be made accessible in education and culture, according to Education Minister Giorgos Demosthenous.

“The registering of CSL provides a reliable benchmark for the cultivation of instrumental and symbolic values of CSL and also provides the basis for reliable and efficient education of deaf students in Cyprus,” said Demosthenous yesterday speaking at the presentation of a project involving the recording of CSL.

The results of the project are aimed at meeting these needs through a functional and educational approach with an emphasis on their useful and didactic values, he said.

According to Demosthenous the Education Ministry undertook the project, along with the Cyprus Association for the Deaf and the Deaf School in April 2007 in accordance with the provisions of the law for the recognition of Cypriot Sign Language of 2006.

The project involved traditional grammar, communicative grammar and a conceptual dictionary. All three products will be available in DVD and book form.

“The traditional grammar for CSL is an educational tool that describes in a systematic and concise way the supervisory and function of CSL and is aimed primarily at teachers and other specialists who are actively involved in education,” said Demosthenous.

Communicative grammar of CSL conveys in a lively, communicative way, in the form of a theatrical dialogue, the structure and function of CSL. The content of it unfolds, step by step, through a dialogue between two people, said Demosthenous.

The conceptual dictionary is also an educational tool that presents in a thematic way the basic vocabulary of CSL. Each entry includes the title of the concept, the demonstration of a word in CSL, the definition of the Greek and a relevant example of the concept.

All EU sign languages were officially recognised by the EU Parliament in 1988 with a resolution which said that member state governments were recommended to ensure the formal legal recognition of sign language in their respective parliaments.

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