Role Shifting

A narrative device in American Sign Language (and many other sign languages) in which a signer takes on the persona, gaze, and body posture of a character in a story, dropping the default "narrator" framing. Role shifting is marked by a subtle shift in the signer's body, head orientation, and eye gaze, and can switch between multiple characters within the same narrative. It is used to represent dialogue, internal thoughts, and action sequences, and is central to ASL storytelling and performance. For AI feedback tools, role shifting represents a substantial challenge because the same signs can mean different things depending on which character the signer is embodying.