Language codes and sense-making among deaf schoolchildren

There are at least two languages (American Sign Language [ASL], English) and three modalities (sign, speech, print) in most deaf individuals' lives. Mixing of ASL and English in utterances of deaf adults has been described in various ways (pidgins, diglossia, language contact, bilingualism), but children's mixing usually is treated as the 'fault' of poor input language. Alternatively, how might language mixing serve their communication goals? This article describes code variations and adaptations to particular situations. Deaf children were seen to exhibit a wide variety of linguistic structures mixing ASL, English, Spanish, signing, and speaking. Formal lessons supported a recoding of English print as sign and speech, but the children who communicated English speech were the two who could hear speech. The children who communicated ASL were those who had deaf parents communicating ASL or who identified with deaf houseparents communicating ASL. Most language produced by the teacher and children in this study was mixed in code and mode. While some mixing was related to acquisition and proficiency, mixing, a strategy of many deaf individuals, uniquely adapts linguistic resources to communication needs. Investigating deaf children's language by comparing it to standard English or ASL overlooks the rich strategies of mixing that are central to their communication experience.     

亨利·詹姆斯晚期小说的语言

亨利·詹姆斯在小说方面的成就是公认的,但他的晚期小说不容易理解。从语言角度分析他的小说之所以隐晦难懂的原因。     

聋校语文教学如何培养聋生的审美能力

聋校语文教材中呈现了多姿多彩的审美形态和审美范畴。在教学中要引领学生感受美,启迪学生鉴赏美,鼓励学生体现美。培养和提高聋生的审美能力。     

Language planning for the 21st century: revisiting bilingual language policy for deaf children

For over 25 years in some countries and more recently in others, bilingual education involving sign language and the written/spoken vernacular has been considered an essential educational intervention for deaf children. With the recent growth in universal newborn hearing screening and technological advances such as digital hearing aids and cochlear implants, however, more deaf children than ever before have the potential for acquiring spoken language. As a result, the question arises as to the role of sign language and bilingual education for deaf children, particularly those who are very young. On the basis of recent research and fully recognizing the historical sensitivity of this issue, we suggest that language planning and language policy should be revisited in an effort to ensure that they are appropriate for the increasingly diverse population of deaf children.     

Language development in deaf children's interactions with deaf and hearing adults: a Dutch longitudinal study

The language development of two deaf girls and four deaf boys in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) and spoken Dutch was investigated longitudinally. At the start, the mean age of the children was 3;5. All data were collected in video-recorded semistructured conversations between individual children and deaf and hearing adults. We investigated the lexical richness and syntactic complexity of the children's utterances in SLN and spoken Dutch, as well as language dominance and interactional participation. Richness and complexity increase over time, as well as children's participation. An important outcome is that syntactic complexity is higher in utterances with both sign and speech. SLN does not have higher outcomes on richness or complexity, but is dominant in terms of frequency of use.     

Language facility and theory of mind development in deaf children

Deaf children with signing parents, nonnative signing deaf children, children from a hearing impaired unit (HIU), and oral deaf children were tested on three first-order theory of mind (ToM) tasks--a subset was also given a second-order task (Perner & Wimmer, 1985). A British Sign Language (BSL) receptive language task (Herman, Holmes, & Woll, 1999) and four nonverbal executive function tasks were also administered. The new BSL task allowed, for the first time, the receptive language abilities of deaf children to be measured alongside ToM abilities. Hearing children acted as controls. These children were given the same tasks, except the British Picture Vocabulary Scale was substituted for the BSL task. Language ability correlated positively and significantly with ToM ability, and age was correlated with language ability for both the deaf and hearing children. Age, however, underpinned the relationship between ToM and language for deaf children with signing parents and hearing children but not for nonnative signing, HIU, or oral deaf children. Executive function performance in deaf children was not related to ToM ability. A subset of hearing children, matched on age and language standard scores with signing deaf children, passed significantly more ToM tasks than the deaf children did. The findings are discussed with respect to the hypotheses proposed by Peterson and Siegal (1995, 2000) and Courtin (2000).     

从当前汉语中流行的外来语看语言的变异

本通过对汉语中外来语各种类型的归纳，指出汉语中的外来语存在汉化现象；并分析了当前汉语中流行的外来语呈现的新特点；同时探讨导致以上语言变异现象产生的语言内部原因和化心理动因。     

Language and theory of mind: a study of deaf children

Theory-of-mind (ToM) abilities were studied in 176 deaf children aged 3 years 11 months to 8 years 3 months who use either American Sign Language (ASL) or oral English, with hearing parents or deaf parents. A battery of tasks tapping understanding of false belief and knowledge state and language skills, ASL or English, was given to each child. There was a significant delay on ToM tasks in deaf children of hearing parents, who typically demonstrate language delays, regardless of whether they used spoken English or ASL. In contrast, deaf children from deaf families performed identically to same-aged hearing controls (N=42). Both vocabulary and understanding syntactic complements were significant independent predictors of success on verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks.