I’ve noticed this a couple of times while watching TV or at an event where they have the keynote’s speakers words translated into sign language. While they’re signing away, they also seem to be talking or saying something.
What are they saying?
I always assumed it was an added service to help out lip-readers. That is, they exaggerate what’s being translated so as to help out those who would otherwise be lip-reading and are too far away to actually see that persons lips. People laugh at me when I try and explain my theory, and think I’m nuts. But they never have an explanation themselves.
Laugh at me, will they…
So, what’s going on? What are they saying? Am I right?
Sometimes facial expressions can be part of sign language. Any book on learning to sign will tell you that you can’t just sign with a straight face-- there’s more body language involved than just the hands.
But yeah, in terms of mouthing actual words, I know deaf people who do that, and hearing people who know sign language and who do it… I think it’s just adding a little bit of extra clarification, because many deaf people do lipread.
I have a friend who teaches at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., where all teaching is done in Ameslan (American Sign Language). (She’s not hearing- or speaking-impaired herself.) I asked her once if she speaks as she lectures to her students. She says that she definitely does not do this. She says that it’s hard to talk while signing. It’s the equivalent of speaking two languages at once. (I assume that you all know this, but let me say it just in case: Ameslan is not English converted in some simplistic way to signs. It’s a completely different language.)
There is also SEE, which I believe has a few other names as well, that is Signing Exact English. Essentially, it’s using the words of ASL with English grammar. As you say, that’s a completely different language.
The reason I mention it is that I think I’ve seen some translators using SEE instead of ASL and those translators have usually mouthed the words along with the signs.
Back in my community college, a couple of my friends decided they’d take ASL to fulfill the foreign language requirement. One of them said he’d take it because, “Hey, it’s American so it’s got to be just like English.” Well, the rest of us just rolled our eyes 'cause we knew he’d find out PDQ it’s not. To be fair, he stuck with it and is pretty good at ASL last I checked.