The National Languages Act (2019), Taiwanese Sign Language, and language planning and policy (LPP)

ABSTRACT

[Development of the National Languages Act [of Taiwan]. (2019, January 9). Ministry of Culture. https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=H0170143] incorporating Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) evolved from Taiwan’s historical linguistic ecology and intertwined with the linguistic ecology of Taiwan’s Deaf community. Utilising a qualitative document analysis incorporating a language planning and policy framework [Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge University Press; Reagan, T. (2022). Language planning and language policies for sign languages: an emerging civil rights movement. Sociolinguistica, 36(1-2), 169–182], we analyze how this law fits into Taiwan’s multicultural milieu. Specifically, we analyze the transmission, revival, and development of TSL by legislating status, acquisition, corpus, and prestige planning for teaching TSL to hearing learners. Secondly, gaps are identified, such as establishing early TSL access to the birth to age five deaf learners and their caregivers, promoting Chinese literacy with TSL strategies, and hiring native Deaf signing teachers. Limitations and future directions for research and practice are then outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• Deaf learners
• linguistic ecology
• literacy
• Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL)
• bi/multilingualism
• early childhood
• language planning
• document analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yi-Li Lin

Yi-Li Lin has worked as a TSL curriculum developer and an emergent literacy researcher.

Fang-Huai Ku

Fang-Huai Ku was a former high school teacher at the Taipei School for the Deaf and has developed TSL instructional materials.

Yu-Shan Ku

Yu-Shan Ku is a Deaf university instructor and a researcher of TSL. The first three co-authors engaged in language planning corpus activities by forming Signing Village Workshop, a company that creates multimedia bilingual TSL/Chinese children's books and games and produces documentaries on Deaf culture projects. They engage in language acquisition planning activities by delivering online TSL courses and providing Deaf community workshops to teach TSL and about deaf culture.

Jean F. Andrews

Jean F. Andrews is a professor emeritus at Lamar University and a lecturer at Taiwan's three deaf schools. She regularly collaborates with Taiwanese deaf education specialists on language/literacy issues.