BSL Corpus Project

Adam Schembri, Mark Nelson and Sally Reynolds conducted the first pilot data collection session on July 11 here at DCAL in London. We were very grateful for assistance from Tanya Denmark and Jordan Fenlon, two BSL native signers and PhD students at University College London who agreed to act as participants for the pilot filming session. We’re now ready to begin filming sessions in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

We are pleased to announce that Carolyn Nabarro has accepted the position of Bristol Deaf community fieldworker for the project - welcome to the team, Carolyn, we look forward to working with you in the near future.

Greater Manchester fieldworker

Jacqueline is a native BSL user from a Deaf family and originates from Oldham. After working for British Aerospace for over fifteen years, she went on to work at City College Manchester as a tutor for Deaf students. Recently, she worked at the British Deaf Association (BDA) as a BSL cultural development officer. With a keen interest in sport, she spent many years travelling as a representative for the Great Britain table tennis team competing with other Deaf people.

Birmingham/West Midlands fieldworker

Jenny is a native BSL user from a Deaf family and has been involved in various posts in the local Deaf community, both professionally and socially. She was born in Birmingham, spent ten years in the Solihull area and now lives in Wolverhampton. For ten years, Jenny worked in the further education and adult sector delivering training courses such as literacy and numeracy to Deaf students, NVQ Levels 3 and 4 BSL, BSL/English interpreting workshops and Deaf awareness. Currently she is training to become a teacher of deaf and works in a Deaf resource base in a secondary school in Wolverhampton.

Greater London fieldworker (2008)

Mark is an active member of the Deaf community with several years of experience of working with Deaf organisations including the British Deaf Association, ‘The Vibe’, BBC ‘See Hear’, ‘Vee TV’ and numerous local Deaf clubs. He is also one of the founders and director of the award winning production/multimedia and BSL training company Remark! who regularly sponsor Deaf individuals and events. Mark is proud to be the fourth generation Deaf member of his family. A native Londoner, he has grown up attending Deaf events socialising with BSL users.

Research Associate (Deaf Community Fieldworker) for the British Sign Language Corpus Project  - Ref 81/08/W.
Grade/Salary £22,332 - £25,888 pa pro rata (1-3 months full-time/part-time).
Closing date: 25 July 2008.
The job will be based in Glasgow.
The post for the Glasgow area will be employed by and under the terms and conditions of Heriot-Watt University.
The work will begin in autumn 2008.  Hours are flexible, and work will be contacted to the equivalent of four weeks (minimum) full time work (150 hours).  We are looking for well-organised Deaf people with a thorough knowledge of the Glasgow Deaf community and native signing skills in BSL.  You will be responsible for recruiting, interviewing and filming 30 deaf participants in the Glasgow area, and working with the BSL Corpus Project team.
For informal enquiries please contact Dr Adam Schembri at or Sally Reynolds at
For further information regarding the job including the job description, the application form click here.
To apply, please complete and return the completed application along with a full CV and covering letter to by 25 July 2008.  Only short-listed applicants will be contacted and invited for an interview.