Past courses

Courses organized in 2009 - 2010

• Gesture and Sign Language

Objectives:
Most research on language takes speech or text as the main domain of investigation. However, speakers use not only speech but also meaningful hand movements called ‘gestures' when they speak. Furthermore, deaf communities use sign languages that are produced and perceived only in the visual-spatial modality. This course aims to introduce this field and give a state of the art overview of theoretical and methodological issues concerning language in the visuo-spatial modality and the role of the body in the structuring and functioning of human communication. The course will present findings from gesture and sign language studies and relate them to more general theoretical topics like language and modality, language processing, language acquisition, situated language use, and language development onto- and phylogenetically.

Lecturers:
A. Ozyurek, O. Crasborn. more >

• Visual modes of language: Gesture and Sign

NGC in Cognitive Neuroscience Course on "Visual Modes of Language Gesture and Sign" is organized in spring and summer 2010.

Objectives:
Most research on language takes speech as the main domain of investigation. However, speakers use not only speech but also meaningful hand movements called ‘gestures' when they speak. Furthermore, deaf communities use sign languages that are produced and perceived only in the visual-spatial modality. This course aims to give an interdisciplinary and state of the art overview of the role of the body in the structuring and functioning of the human language faculty. The course will present findings from these new fields relating them to discussions of embodied cognition and semantics, situated use of language, the link between language and action and their neural correlates.

Lecturers:
A. Ozyurek, O. Crasborn, M. Gullberg, U. Liszkowski. more >

• Gesture and Sign Language

MA course on Gesture and Sign Language at Radboud University Nijmegen, autumn 2009.

Objectives:
Most research on language takes speech or text as the main domain of investigation. However, speakers use not only speech but also meaningful hand movements called ‘gestures' when they speak. Furthermore, deaf communities use sign languages that are produced and perceived only in the visual-spatial modality. This course aims to introduce this field and give a state of the art overview of theoretical and methodological issues concerning language in the visuo-spatial modality and the role of the body in the structuring and functioning of human communication. The course will present findings from gesture and sign language studies and relate them to more general theoretical topics like language and modality, language processing, language acquisition, situated language use, and language development onto- and phylogenetically.

Lecturers:
Onno Crasborn, Marianne Gullberg, Asli Ozyurek and Mandana Seyfeddinipur. more >

Where and when:

Sep 1, 2009 to Jun 10, 2010