Get Involved

Tell us about your experience!

Do you use the BSL Corpus and/or BSL Signbank for teaching, learning or research? Please fill in our BSL Corpus/Signbank user survey! Your feedback will help us maintain and improve these resources, and importantly will help us keep access to both of them FREE.

Volunteer

The BSL Corpus team at DCAL is looking for volunteers!

As a BSL Corpus volunteer, you can learn firsthand what is involved in conducting research in sign language corpus linguistics, using mainly the BSL Corpus and/or BSL SignBank. We often have other related projects in sign language linguistics more generally and/or gesture studies as well. By volunteering, you will gain valuable experience for a future or current research degree in these or related areas.  You will also receive training in any software needed to carry out the work (e.g. ELAN).

To apply you must have an interest in linguistics, psychology, social sciences or a related area. Ideally, you would have a degree in one of these areas, or be studying/planning to study in the future for a degree in one of these areas. Some knowledge of British Sign Language (BSL) is preferred. Deaf applicants are particularly welcome.  The placement may be full-time (minimum 2 weeks) or part-time (minimum 3 months), and hours are flexible. You must be 18 or older to apply.

We assess all applications to volunteer on an individual basis – we match projects with volunteers who have appropriate skills for the tasks involved. Some projects/tasks require high level of BSL skill, but some do not. In all cases, we offer useful and meaningful opportunities to be involved in research on the BSL Corpus and BSL SignBank.

International Non-EU applicants – please note that due to changes in the UK home office restrictions, non-EU volunteers can only come to DCAL if they are a student at a University and only if they receive funding (we cannot accept self-funded overseas students) or if they are working as an academic at a University or similar institution. Please can you ensure that you meet these criteria before filling out an application.

To apply, fill in the DCAL Volunteer Application Form and return by email to k.cormier@ucl.ac.uk. Make sure your application explains your interest in volunteering to work with the BSL Corpus.

Use the BSL Corpus for research

If you are a student or a researcher at university who might be interested in carrying out your own research project using the BSL Corpus data, please get in touch with us at: bslcorpusproject@ucl.ac.uk