Examining the communication skills of a young cochlear implant pioneer

The purpose of this longitudinal case study was to closely examine one deaf child's experience with a cochlear implant and his speech, language, and communication skills from kindergarten through middle and high school using both developmental and sociocultural frameworks. The target child was one of the first children to receive a cochlear implant in the United States in 1988, when he was 5 years of age. The developmental analysis revealed that prior to receiving a cochlear implant the child demonstrated profound delays in speech and language skill development. His speech and language skills grew slowly during the first 3-4 years following implantation, very rapidly from about 5 through 7 years postimplantation, then slowed to rates that were highly similar to same-age peers with normal hearing. The sociocultural analysis revealed that the child's communicative competence improved; that he used sign language but use of sign language decreased as his oral communication skills improved; that as his oral communication skills improved, the adults talked and directed the topic of conversation less frequently; and that topics became less concrete and more personal over time. The results of this study indicate that we may learn more about how to support children who use cochlear implants by examining what they are saying as well as how they are saying it.     

聋校开设“手语汉语互译”课程的研究与实践

本文以手语语言学研究成果为基础,在反思传统聋教育现状的前提下提出了一种全新的聋校语文教学法———通过手语和汉语互译训练,帮助中高年级聋生提高汉语书面语水平,并在教学实践中初见成效。本课程的核心理念为:聋童的第一语言是自然手语,聋校语文教学应当从二语习得理论中借鉴方法;明确聋童的汉语学习实质上是从自然手语到书面汉语的转换过程,教学中要严格区分自然手语和汉语这两种不同的语言。     

关于聋校的语音教学

发音、听话—看话、拼音等与语音有关的项目在聋校教学中占有非常重要的地位。这些教学的最主要目的是发展学生的口语交际能力。然而 ,经过这些语音教学 ,聋生实际获得了怎样的口语能力却是令人怀疑的。聋生通过学习能够以口语与人交际的极为少见。不过 ,聋校的语音教学对于书面语言和手语的运用还是具有重要的意义。如果我们把聋校语音教学的目的调整为促进书面语言和手语的运用 ,教学方式和时间安排也应该做相应的调整     

手语在听觉障碍儿童认知发展中的作用

和健听儿童相比 ,听觉障碍儿童的认知发展水平要低 ,主要表现为抽象逻辑思维水平低。造成这一结果的主要原因通常被认为是语言的发展不良。我国聋教育主要是以口语教学为主。但是 ,单纯的发展口语是不是最适合听力障碍儿童的认知发展 ?听力障碍儿童使用手语对他们认知发展有何影响 ?本文试从理论剖析和现实中的事例来说明 :对那些不能通过听觉通道来获得口语的听力障碍儿童来说 ,手语的使用在他们的认知发展中有积极的作用     

聋校口语教学与双语教学述评

口语教学与双语教学基于不同的观点提出了提升聋校学生语言能力的不同途径。口语教学强调语音意识的培养,双语教学强调手语在习得汉语言中的重要性。口语教学在实现聋生语音构音上面临挑战,双语教学对手势汉语的手指语依赖性及手势汉语在聋生汉语言习得中的使用上也并未给予详尽说明,同时,缺乏本土化研究作为理据。聋校汉语言教学应将口语和手语均纳入聋校课程和课堂中,结合理论和实践构建科学的教学理论和方法。     

从“口手”之争到“多元化”——试谈我国聋教育理念的发展演变及启示

聋教育在我国的发展已有一百多年。纵观一百多年来我国聋教育发展史,实质上是聋校语言教学法的发展史。从＂口手＂之争到＂多元化＂聋校语言教学法的提出,可以清晰把握我国聋教育理念从效仿移植西方到自我创新的发展演变,对深化我国当前聋教育改革,引领我国聋教育发展,具有一定的认识和实践意义。     

Phonological sensitivity in severely and profoundly deaf readers of French

In order to become expert readers of an alphabetical language like French, students must develop and adequately use phonological knowledge. Considering that the phonological knowledge used in reading largely comes from knowledge of the oral language, what happens when the oral language is not accessible, as is the case for many deaf children? In this study, graphophonemic and syllabic processes in pseudoword reading were assessed with a similarity judgment task. Gestual deaf subjects aged 10–18 years old (N = 24) were compared to 24 age-matched hearing subjects. The results show that deaf readers are less sensitive to the graphemic and the syllabic structures of pseudo-words than hearing readers. In deaf subjects, the results are different than chance-level in the 13–15 and the 16–18-year-old groups. These results indicate that gestual deaf readers can develop phonological knowledge even in settings where sign language is promoted.     

The efficiency of information transmission of sign and spoken language

Rhe study compares sign and oral language in terms of information transmission efficiency. The sample consisted of 36 hearing people with no knowledge of sign language and 36 deaf people reasonably fluent in sign language. (The deaf participants' level of hearing loss ranged from severe to profound.) Oral and sign language comprehension was assessed by means of texts at three different difficulty levels. After being exposed to the texts, the study participants had to tell what they had understood about them, answer a set of related questions, and offer a title for each text. When the hearing group's comprehension of oral versions of the texts was compared to the deaf group's comprehension of signed versions, the deaf group showed better comprehension of the explicit content of the texts but added more invented content and made more errors.     

离群聋儿自创手势与中国手语的比较研究

本文通过对19名农村离群聋儿自创手势的调查分析,得出聋儿自创手势的表达特点:(1)模仿事物的基本外形特征;(2)模仿事物的典型动作和神态;(3)表达事物的用途或功能;(4)直观模拟动作行为;(5)指代现场的事物。本文通过比较离群聋儿自创手势与中国手语后得出:聋儿具有发展手语的先天的生物学基础,具有获得手语的潜能,离群聋儿的自创手势是对生活经验的符号化,但他们的自创手势有局限性,抽象程度不高,是一种前手语(Pre-Sign language),中国手语的构成不完全是任意性的。     

聋校双语教学简述

双语教学主张把聋人母语和主流社会语言作为聋校教学和交际的语言,使聋人能在聋文化和听文化中成为自由生活的双语平衡者。双语教学是在口语法、全面交流法被认为都不能真正满足聋人发展需要而提出的;双语教学以积极的态度看待聋人,它重视聋人的群体文化;双语教学认为聋人掌握手语可以促进英语的学习。双语教学需要聋人教师参与,需要家长学会手语。双语教学也接受聋童进行听觉言语训练     

Vygotsky, sign language, and the education of deaf pupils

This article considers the impact of Vygotsky on the education of deaf children in Russia and is a translation/adaptation of an article currently being published in Defektologiia. While Vygotsky perceived sign language as limited in some aspects nevertheless, he always considered that it had a role in education of deaf pupils. He believed that sign language should not be 'treated like an the enemy' and said that 'bilingualism of def people is an objective reality'. However, sign language was banned from Russian schools following a conference decision in 1938. The changing political climate in Russia has lead to the reevaluation of many aspects of life, including approaches to education, and to a reassessment of Vygotsky's ideas and an appreciation of their continuing relevance. Among other things, this has resulted in a reevaluation of the role of sign language for deaf pupils and an emerging interest in sign bilingualism.     

中国手语工具书编纂研究

中国手语是一门视觉语言,是中国聋人使用的语言。手语工具书系统汇辑手语方面的资料,并按特定方法加以编排,以供需要时查阅。本研究意在描述中国手语工具书编纂概况,梳理编纂的特征,并提出中国手语工具书编纂的建议,进而推动中国手语的基础研究,完善中国手语工具书的编纂,最终促进中国聋人参与社会生活,提高文化素质,满足聋人生活、学习和工作的需要。     

Sign language comprehension: the case of Spanish sign language

This study aims to answer the question, how much of Spanish Sign Language interpreting deaf individuals really understand. Study sampling included 36 deaf people (deafness ranging from severe to profound; variety depending on the age at which they learned sign language) and 36 hearing people who had good knowledge of sign language (most were interpreters). Sign language comprehension was assessed using passages of secondary level. After being exposed to the passages, the participants had to tell what they had understood about them, answer a set of related questions, and offer a title for the passage. Sign language comprehension by deaf participants was quite acceptable but not as good as that by hearing signers who, unlike deaf participants, were not only late learners of sign language as a second language but had also learned it through formal training.     

The impact of visual communication on the intersubjective development of early parent-child interaction with 18- to 24-month-old deaf toddlers

This article presents a study that examined the impact of visual communication on the quality of the early interaction between deaf and hearing mothers and fathers and their deaf children aged between 18 and 24 months. Three communication mode groups of parent-deaf child dyads that differed by the use of signing and visual-tactile communication strategies were involved: (a) hearing parents communicating with their deaf child in an auditory/oral way, (b) hearing parents using total communication, and (c) deaf parents using sign language. Based on Loots and colleagues' intersubjective developmental theory, parent-deaf child interaction was analyzed according to the occurrence of intersubjectivity during free play with a standard set of toys. The data analyses indicated that the use of sign language in a sequential visual way of communication enabled the deaf parents to involve their 18- to 24-month-old deaf infants in symbolic intersubjectivity, whereas hearing parents who hold on to oral-only communication were excluded from involvement in symbolic intersubjectivity with their deaf infants. Hearing parents using total communication were more similar to deaf parents, but they still differed from deaf parents in exchanging and sharing symbolic and linguistic meaning with their deaf child.     

Reading optimally builds on spoken language: implications for deaf readers

Reading is not merely "language by eye." Rather, it builds fundamentally on primary language processes. For hearing readers, this means that spoken language processes, including phonological processes, are critical to high achievement in reading. We examine the implications of this fact for deaf readers by considering the relationship between language and reading and by reviewing the research on the use of phonology by deaf readers. The research, although mixed in its results, suggests that the use of phonology is associated with higher levels of reading skill among deaf readers. We examine related questions, including the additional semantic and visual strategies available to deaf readers, how some deaf readers gain access to the spoken structure of language, and implications for how to improve reading achievement.     

手语翻译与聋人文化

聋校课堂和媒体中出现的手语翻译多是对汉语的翻译,即使用的是文法手语,而现实的情况却是大多数的聋人对手语翻译的信息接收不畅。文章旨在论述手语翻译与聋人文化的关系,认为手语翻译是手语和汉语之间的信息转换,是两种文化的交流与碰撞。     

Visual-kinetic communication in Europe before 1600: a survey of signs lexicons and finger alphabets prior to the rise of deaf education

Visual-kinetic communication systems - ancient finger numbers, medieval and Renaissance finger alphabets, conventionalized 'coverbal' gesture systems for oratory and the theater, the Roman pantomime, monastic sign lexicons, and the elusive possibility of natural sign languages - have all received the scholarly attention that has turned up the few surviving primary texts from the period before 1600. The extant documentation indicates that many visual-kinetic systems were sporadically in use among the general (i.e., hearing) population to a degree almost unimaginable to post-Renaissance societies such as ours that popularly associate 'gesture languages' with the deaf. In detail, however, the texts are often difficult to interpret, not only because of their scarcity and generally highly allusive nature, but also because of modern historians' often unproductive or misproductive approaches to them. This survey is meant to provide an overview of the textual evidence and a foundation for both sign language linguists and historians of the deaf education to analyze and interpret more accurately and usefully the extant evidence for visual-kinetic communication systems before the rise of Deaf Education.     

聋教育方法演变与米兰会议

聋教育史实质上是聋校教学语言的发展史。聋教育创始之时至今已经历了几次语言方法的演变,从最初的手语、口语到综合交际法,以及双语双文化法,贯穿始终的还是手语和口语之间的争辩。在这个争辩的历史进程中,米兰会议起到了举足轻重的作用,它所提出的纯口语法的决议一度影响了聋教育的发展方向,影响了人们对聋教育方法的选择。然而国内至今没有米兰会议较为全面、客观的阐述,本文从会议缘起、决议、影响等方面回顾这一历史事实,使读者更好地了解聋教育史上这一重要的历史事件,为现行聋教育方法的选择提供历史的视角。     

Predictor variables of written picture naming in the deaf

Studies conducted in recent years on oral andwritten language production show that the ageat which words are learned is the main variablethat influences lexical access in both hearingpeople and people who have suffered brainlesions. No studies have been done with deafpeople and, since they use sign language inaddition to oral language, differencesregarding hearing people might be found intheir lexical organization. The aim of thisstudy was to test which variables determine thelexical production of deaf people. For thispurpose, 40 deaf people between the ages of 13and 58 years were asked to write individuallythe names of 100 pictures. The regressionanalyses performed on a total of 4000 responsesshow that the main predictor variable ofperformance was also age of acquisition. It isconcluded that the organization of the lexicalsystem in deaf people is similar to that of hearing people, although the phonologicalrepresentations of deaf people may be moreinaccurate.     

The psychotherapist and the sign language interpreter

Specialized psychotherapy for deaf people in the Dutch and Western European mental health systems is still a rather young specialism. A key policy principle in Dutch mental health care for the deaf is that they should receive treatment in the language most accessible to them, which is usually Dutch Sign Language (Nederlandse Gebarentaal or NGT). Although psychotherapists for the deaf are trained to use sign language, situations will always arise in which a sign language interpreter is needed. Most psychotherapists have the opinion that working with a sign language interpreter in therapy sessions can be a valuable alternative option but also see it as a second-best solution because of its impact on the therapeutic process. This paper describes our years of collaborationship as a therapist and a sign language interpreter. If this collaborationship is optimal, it can generate a certain "therapeutic power" in the therapy sessions. Achieving this depends largely on the interplay between the therapist and the interpreter, which in our case is the result of literature research and our experiences during the last 17 years. We analyze this special collaborative relationship, which has several dimensions and recurrent themes like, the role conception of the interpreter, situational interpreting, organizing the interpretation setting, or managing therapeutic phenomena during therapy sessions.