한국수어 연구의 방향과 제언

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to propose a direction of study, which can substantially guarantee linguistic rights of the people with hearing disability through critical examination of studies related to Korean sign language, and specific measures of research conduct that can realize such studies. In order to achieve the goal of this study history research perspective and method were used. The ‘time’ or ‘temporal scope’ of Korean sign language was limited from year 1979 to 2017 and it can be departmentalized into three periods of time. First, studies of Korean sign language that aimed for standardization of sign language(1979 ~2005), second period is from year 2006 to 2015, where studies that reflected the life of the people with hearing disability, and the last is the period after enactment and implementation of “Korean Sign Language Act”(2016~2017). The research targets of each period were literature data that include nine Korean sign language dictionaries, four web-dictionaries, 74 study materials for Korean sign language education, 150 related scholarly monographs, and 112 related research papers included in Korean Sign Language Association conference packet. Based on the results of this study, the most evident tendency of Korean sign language studies years from 1979 to 2015 were ‘sign language standardization oriented’, ‘public leading tendency’ in Korean sign language dictionary compilation process, and strong ‘expert oriented’. Moreover, as the “Korean Sign Language Act” came into effect quantitative and qualitative changes based on the needs of the people with hearing disability of ‘Korean sign language dictionary and study material’ was found. Future directions of Korean sign language studies will be first, the establishment of research system running on national level with full participation of the people with hearing disability, second, the creation of data, which enables the utilization of achievements such as Korean sign language study materials, scholarly articles, and research papers completed in the private domains on a national level, and effective management of such resources, third, development and reinforcement of research capability of the people with hearing disability, fourth, seeking for actual approach for continuous data collection and utilization, and lastly, the research network system of ‘government, university and public’ should be concretized. Practical tasks are proposed in order to realize such studies.