Professor Trevor Johnston

Brief description

Professor - Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University.

Full description

Professor Trevor Johnston is a native Auslan (Australian sign language) user and has extensive experience in signed language research and teaching. He coined the term 'Auslan' and together with members of the Australian deaf community helped achieve the recognition of Auslan as a community language by the Australian government in the 1980s.

Trevor compiled the first dictionary of Auslan which was the first signed language dictionary in the world that used the principle of sequencing signs according to language internal principles, such as handshape, systematically throughout. The dictionary has been constantly expanded ever since and has appeared in several editions in book, CD-ROM and internet-based formats. The latest version, called Auslan Signbank, can be found at www.auslan.org.au

Professor Johnston has made significant public and academic contributions both in Australia and internationally in the field of sign linguistics, language policy, and the professional development of teachers of the deaf and teachers of signed languages. He has conducted research in the areas of sign language lexicography, sociolinguistic variation, the grammar signed languages and in the implementation of and evaluation of Auslan/English bilingual education programs.

In recent years Trevor has concentrated on documentary linguistics in order to strengthen the empirical basis of Auslan description. This has resulted in the creation of an Auslan corpus deposited at the Endangered Languages Archive which can be viewed at http://elar.soas.ac.uk/.