PEDAGOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES IN MASTERING CALENDAR- TEMPORAL VOCABULARY IN THE TRAINING OF STUDENTS IN BULGARIAN SIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article outlines the outcomes of an experimental study, aimed at identifying the features of mastering calendar-temporal vocabulary by hearing students via applying specific pedagogical technology in the teaching of BGSL as a second language (E2). Recruited are 180 volunteers, aged 18-32 years - hearing students (all female) who have studied the basics of BGSL as a second sign system. Depending on the applied pedagogical technology, the participants were divided into two groups: control (KG) and experimental (EG). The content of the tested training tool is a symbiosis between representation of motor-spatial structures, representation of knowledge, and graphical coding, offering reliable information about the sign units, which have a strongly abstract character. The diagnostic check of the skills for using calendar-temporal vocabulary was made by setting a linguistic task, including the performance of signs expressing temporal meanings, which were conditionally distributed into 8 categories on a semantic basis. The analysis of the results identified statistically significant differences in the sign production of students from KG and EG in 6 semantic categories (<0.01, <0.05). In 3 of them the obtained data were an indicator of a high level of significance (<0.001). The results clearly demonstrated the positive effect of the applied pedagogical technology in the presentation of signs denoting calendar-time concepts.