|
 |
|
Staff
 |
Shai
Davidi. Video technician. My work in
the lab encompasses all video-related tasks.
It includes video recording in the lab and in
the field, digitizing videotape for use on computer,
reorganizing the data for various types of analysis,
and extracting and preparing pictures from videotape
for all lab publications. Email: sdavidi@univ.haifa.ac.il |
|
 |
Svetlana
Dachkovsky. Research Assistant. Through
my work as research assistant on the prosody
project in the lab, I became interested in facial
expressions that function as intonation in sign
language and in ways of distinguishing linguistic
and affective facial expressions. My masters’
thesis focuses on the role of facial expression
in marking neutral and counterfactual conditionals
in Israeli |
| Sign Language
(ISL), and identifies general pragmatic meanings
of the individual facial components characterizing
these two types of conditionals, as well as other
linguistic constructions in ISL. Email: dachkov@yahoo.com |
|
 |
Meir
Etedgi.
ISL consultant. Through my work as a sign language
consultant at the Sign Language Research Lab beginning
in 1992, I have developed an intense interest in
my native language, ISL. Sparked by our work, and
a Story Telling symposium sponsored by the lab,
I have also been investigating the origin and development
of the Deaf community in Israel. |
| Currently,
I am working on the dictionary project associated
with the research on Al Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language.
This work and my connection with the village have
strengthened my belief that sign language can serve
as a bridge between people of all kinds, hearing
and deaf. I have BA and MA degrees in architecture
from the Technion in Haifa, and work as a freelance
architect. Email: etedgi@zahav.net.il |
|
 |
Doron
Levy. ISL consultant. I have been a sign language consultant
at the Sign Language Research Lab since 1995, and
earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and education
at Tel Aviv University. I am interested in sign
language, teaching and in the Deaf community in
Israel. Since the year 2000, I have taught Israeli
Sign Language at Haifa and Tel Aviv universities
and at two teachers’ seminaries. |
I developed
a Deaf Identity, Culture, and Community program
for children at the Institute for the Advancement
of Deaf Persons, and helped to create a computerized
dictionary of ISL. I currently serve on the Board
of Directors of the Association of the Deaf in
Israel. Email: doronle1@012.net.il |
|
 |
Orna
Levy. ISL consultant. My association with the Sign
Language Research Lab goes back to 1991, when I
became the lab’s first consultant. Following from
this work, I enrolled in and completed a year-long
program in Deaf Studies at The University of Bristol.
I am especially interested in the education and
enrichment of Deaf children. I earned a degree
in Deaf Education from Tel Aviv University, and |
| worked
as a teacher of Deaf children for several years.
I am now developing a career as an ISL story teller,
and, among other activities, led a story telling
workshop for teachers at The University of Haifa.
Email: doronle1@012.net.il |
|
 |
Adi Lifshitz. Research Assistant. A licensed speech therapist, currently completing an M.A. degree at the Brain and Behavior Research Program at Haifa University. My thesis deals with the inter-hemispheric connectivity in the brain during the phonological processing of a rhyming decision task, using an effective connectivity technique based on fMRI. My involvement with sign languages began five years ago, |
when I traveled in Africa and visited deaf communities in Uganda and Kenya. After completing my B.A. degree, I worked as a speech therapist in Shalva school in Haifa, a regular primary school with classes for deaf and hard of hearing children. I currently work as a speech therapist at a geriatric hospital, in rehabilitation of speech, language, and swallowing capacities of senior citizens who suffered a Cerebral Vascular Accident (stroke).
Besides working and studying I like running, hiking, and playing the piano. In the lab I work on the history of ISL project, while also conducting research on how grammatical systems emerge and develop. The latter project involves a comparison of word order and use of space in ISL and in gestures created spontaneously by hearing subjects who were not previously exposed to signing [see Poster 2]. I wish to cultivate my deep interest in sign language by integrating ISL research with my clinical work.
Links:
CV
Poster1 [PDF]: Phonological Awareness of Rhymes in Deaf Hebrew Speaking Children
Poster2 [PDF]: How does a grammatical system emerge and develop? |
|
|
|
|
