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| You will have seen people 'signing', using sign language so
that people who are deaf can tell what is being said.
Imagine you are at a function at which the whole audience is deaf, and cannot hear the story which is about to be told. The storyteller asks you to do the signing, but you don't know the deaf sign language. So he says 'Use your arms, hands, head and body to make pictures of the story while I tell it, so that they will know what the story is about, even though they can't hear me.' Try this out in your group. Choose a story and decide together what gestures, shapes, and movements should be used to help the deaf to understand it. For instance, how would you mime someone eating? That's easy, isn't it? Now how would you show the audience that the person in the story is frightened? Remember that you can't speak or make any other noise, because the audience won't be able to hear you. Talk within your group about the different ways to show various emotions and actions so that the audience will have no doubt what is happening. When you are satisfied with what you've decided, and you've tried out your ideas on each other, try them on one of the other groups. When you listen to a story, try to 'see' in your mind someone helping the storyteller by 'signing' in this way. © Bob Wilkins 1998
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