Signed languages are forms of human communication based on visual/gestural perception as opposed to aural/oral. Those profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, who learn to sign from an early age, live in a bilingual/bicultural environment composed of deaf and hearing realities and hence learn both the signed and non-signed varieties of languages existing in their societies. Outside English-speaking countries, in an increasingly globalized world, deaf people come into contact with the English language in specific domains; indirectly through interpretation and translation or directly by learning it as a foreign language. The reception/production of verbal, visual, multimodal texts in English facilitates international communication and integration among the deaf and between deaf and hearing people. The volume aims to explore a range of intercultural/interlinguistic encounters with English, in a variety of international signed and non-signed combinations.

The Editors: Cynthia J. Kellett Bidoli is Associate Professor of Consecutive Interpreting at the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, Italy. Her research interests lie in lexicography, the history of interpretation, interpretation quality assessment and cross-cultural mediation between spoken and signed languages. Elana Ochse is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Turin, Italy. Her research interests lie in cross-cultural communication and EFL pedagogy – particularly reading strategies for students with special needs.

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