The Laboratory for the Study of
Sign Languages
Director of the Laboratory – Anna V. Leontieva, Candidate of Philological Sciences
About the director: Graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University in 2014 with a programme as a linguist-teacher (specialist, English and French). In 2018, she completed her postgraduate studies in linguistics and literary studies. In 2023 she defended her PhD thesis ‘Prosecution and defence strategies in judicial discourse in the aspect of polymodality’ (Speciality 5.9.8. Theoretical, applied and comparative linguistics). For more than 5 years she has been conducting research and scientific-organisational work.
The Laboratory for the Study of
Sign Languages
Director of the Laboratory – Anna V. Leontieva, Candidate of Philological Sciences
About the director: Graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University in 2014 with a programme as a linguist-teacher (specialist, English and French). In 2018, she completed her postgraduate studies in linguistics and literary studies. In 2023 she defended her PhD thesis ‘Prosecution and defence strategies in judicial discourse in the aspect of polymodality’ (Speciality 5.9.8. Theoretical, applied and comparative linguistics). For more than 5 years she has been conducting research and scientific-organisational work.
The Sign Language Research Laboratory was founded at MSLU in 2013 to carry out comprehensive research on sign languages. Currently, the laboratory team is engaged in the development of approaches to the study of Russian sign language, as well as the creation of video corpora of Russian sign language.
The research activities of the laboratory are based on the world experience in the field of studying the linguistic structure and functioning of sign languages, in particular Russian sign language. Special attention is paid to the study of its level structure, stylistics, pragmatics and sociolinguistic features. Training programmes for Russian sign language, sign language translation and related disciplines have been developed.
The laboratory staff conducts seminars and round tables attended by members of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, researchers and speakers of Russian Sign Language and other sign languages.
The laboratory cooperates with foreign educational and research organisations carrying out research of sign languages from the positions of linguistics, pedagogy, sociology, psychology.
The laboratory staff provides methodological and advisory assistance to students engaged in research activities in the field of sign languages, supervises course and bachelor’s theses of students studying in the profile ‘Sign Language Interpreter of Intercultural Communication’, and conducts educational and outreach work among students of other profiles.