The pair of signers in each session were guided by a deaf moderator who explained the tasks and made sure that these tasks were properly carried out. The moderator’s interventions are visible in the video panel on the left-hand side of the videos of the two signers.
The content of the tasks and the elicitation materials that were used were partly inspired by preceding corpora for Australian Sign Language (Auslan), Dutch Sign Language (NGT), and particularly German Sign Language (DGS). The use of some similar or identical tasks enable comparisons with other sign languages.
Each session prompts the use of different LSFB discourse genres: narratives, explanations, descriptions, arguments and conversations. The content of the tasks was not only developed with the aim of eliciting discourse about the culture of the Deaf Community, but also to cover a large range of topics and therefore a varied lexicon. In addition, several tasks prompted signers to discuss LSFB and their relationship with the language.
| Task | Aim of the task or question |
|---|---|
| 1* | Completing metadata files |
| 2 | Presentation and explanation of each signer’s sign name |
| 3 | Childhood memory |
| 4 | Deaf or hearing: advantages and disadvantages |
| 5 | Good signing: what does this mean? |
| 6 | The influence of emotions on signing |
| 7 | Description of a procedure |
| 8 | Description of a journey |
| 9 | Explaining an image |
| 10 | Argumentation on divisive societal topics (general topics) |
| 11 | Short story: a joke, the story of the cow and the horse, a comic strip or a short cartoon |
| 12 | Long story: Frog, where are you? (a picture book) or Paperman (a cartoon); one signer tells the beginning of the story and the other tells the end |
| 13 | Role play: “Imagine that you have the opportunity to meet the major or the minister in order to convince him/her about… (choice of different topics in relation with the Deaf Community)” |
| 14 | LSFB variations: Do you understand young/deaf signers? What about interpreters? What about deaf people from other regions? What are the differences? |
| 15 | Explain your hobby, your job, your passion: equipment, actions, movements, rules, etc. |
| 16 | Description of drawn faces |
| 17 | Classify the pictures and explain the criteria for classification |
| 18 | Explain the differences between objects or similar tools |
| 19 | Conclusion: Discussion with the moderator about the task, the development of the session, etc. |