Abstract:
This work focuses on the lexical variations in the Ghanaian Sign Language with
emphasis on the distinctions between these variations and their effects on the
language development of the Deaf. An earlier study investigated by Schembri et al,
(2013) focused on the regional lexical variations for colour, names of countries,
numbers, and United Kingdom place names. These were elicited as part of the Britain
Sign Language (BSL) Corpus project. The results showed that School location and
language background were significant predators of lexical variation. The pre SHS
class of the Senior High School for the Deaf exhibits lots of lexical variation in the
Ghanaian Sign during the English class discussions. This results in loss of time in
agreeing to adopt a more formal form of the variant. Data was collected over a year
period through the qualitative design approach after which two participants were
filmed while signing the variants. Analysis was based on the framework spearheaded
by Labov, (1960). The results confirmed that lexical variation are determined by
social factors such as school location, age, gender, language background of the
signers and the socio-economic status of the Deaf students were predator that
contributed the variation. The researcher therefore suggests standardization of the sign
language so that its structures can be appropriately defined and used a formal medium
of instruction in Deaf schools. Sign language should be made compulsory in
mainstream schools so that the Deaf can have more inputs and language models to
help them build strong L1 base.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign Language
Education and Communication, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in
partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Teaching English as a Second Language – TESL)
in the University of Education, Winneba
AUGUST, 2019
