Study programmes

The aim of the study programme is to train linguistic experts prepared for work in boundary positions between the hearing majority and the deaf minority, contributing to intercultural communication and intercultural understanding. The programme explores the synchronic and diachronic linguistics of the Czech Sign Language (and the linguistics of sign languages in general), placed in the broader context of Deaf Studies. Deafness and hearing impairment are, by their very nature, a transdisciplinary issue; the study programme emphasises their linguistic and cultural aspects. The linguistic approach to the Czech language and the Czech Sign Language is structural (meaning, among other things, a focus on contrasting the system of the Czech Sign Language with that of Czech, or studying differences between the Czech used by “majority” users and the written language used by the deaf minority), communicative (exploring, inter alia, the specificities of intracultural and intercultural communication of the Czech deaf, or the communication between the hearing majority and the deaf minority) and cognitive or, more precisely, cognitive-cultural (e.g. the linguistic representation of the world, concept schemes, metaphors, stereotypes). This makes the programme heavily anchored in linguistics, theoretical and applied (language teaching, interpreting, translation). The wide spectrum of academic interests associated with the programme is reflected in the practical activities pursued by members of the department and in the students’ diploma theses.