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Lingthusiasm Episode 36: Villages, gifs, and children: Researching signed languages in real-world contexts with Lynn Hou

Larger, national signed languages, like American Sign Language and British Sign Language, often have relatively well-established laboratory-based research traditions, whereas smaller signed languages, such as those found in villages with a high proportion of deaf residents, aren’t studied as much. When we look at signed languages in the context of these smaller communities, we can also think more about how to make research on larger sign languages more natural as well. 

In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch interviews Dr Lynn Hou, an Assistant Professor of linguistics at the University of California Santa Barbara, in our first bilingual episode (ASL and English). Lina researches how signed languages are used in real-world environments, which takes her from analyzing American Sign Language in youtube videos to documenting how children learn San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language (in collaboration with Hilaria Cruz, one of our previous interviewees!). 

We’re very excited to bring you our first bilingual episode in ASL and English! For the full experience, make sure to watch the video version of this episode at youtube.com/lingthusiasm (and check out our previous video episode on gesture in spoken language while you’re there). 

This month’s bonus episode on Patreon is a behind the scenes look at the writing process of Gretchen’s recent book, Because Internet! Find out how Gretchen decided what to cover, what she had to leave out, how the book writing process differs from the academic article she and Lauren recently wrote together about emoji and gesture, and more. Plus, get access to over 30 bonus episodes of Lingthusiasm (that’s almost twice as much show!). patreon.com/lingthusiasm 

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website. To received an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

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Lingthusiasm is on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Special thanks for this episode to Mala Poe, for interpreting, to Daniel Midgley, for recording the video, and to the Linguistic Society of America, for providing a room to record this interview in at the annual meeting.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

I had such a great time interviewing Lynn Hou and learning more about her research and I’m so excited to share this interview!