汉语手语语法研究

为了解释和分析聋人书面语使用中词汇量少、句子成分省略和颠倒、不使用修饰成分等语言现象。本研究在理论语法、教学语法和中介语法的指导下,把10个聋人手语故事分解为1757幅静止的手语照片、对比聋人的书面语提出了手势词语、表情词语、聋式词语、身体词语、口型词语等概念,指出聋人手语中聋式词语、表情词语、身体词语和口型词语缺失是造成聋人书面语言中词汇量少的主要原因。同时结合手语的句法特点对聋人书面语中的句子现象进行了解释。     

How Do Profoundly Deaf Children Learn to Read?

Reading requires two related, but separable, capabilities: (1) familiarity with a language, and (2) understanding the mapping between that language and the printed word (Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Children who are profoundly deaf are disadvantaged on both counts. Not surprisingly, then, reading is difficult for profoundly deaf children. But some deaf children do manage to read fluently. How? Are they simply the smartest of the crop, or do they have some strategy, or circumstance, that facilitates linking the written code with language? A priori one might guess that knowing American Sign Language (ASL) would interfere with learning to read English simply because ASL does not map in any systematic way onto English. However, recent research has suggested that individuals with good signing skills are not worse, and may even be better, readers than individuals with poor signing skills (Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000). Thus, knowing a language (even if it is not the language captured in print) appears to facilitate learning to read. Nonetheless, skill in signing does not guarantee skill in reading—reading must be taught. The next frontier for reading research in deaf education is to understand how deaf readers map their knowledge of sign language onto print, and how instruction can best be used to turn signers into readers.     

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.     

The use of graphic representations of sign language in leveled texts to support deaf readers

The study considered whether adding sign language graphics to the books being used for reading instruction in a first-grade classroom would promote the literacy development of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The researchers also sought to discover whether materials existed to put the process of modifying leveled texts within the reach of the typical classroom teacher, in terms of cost and procedure. Students' reading behaviors seemed to indicate that the presence of sign graphics supported their development as readers. The materials needed to create sign support for the English print in the leveled books were commercially available.     

Fingerspelling and sign language as alternative codes for reading and writing words for Chilean deaf signers

The study examined the role of sign language and fingerspelling in the development of the reading and writing skills of deaf children and youth. Twenty-six deaf participants (13 children, 13 adolescents), whose first language was Chilean Sign Language (CHSL), were examined. Their dactylic abilities were evaluated with tasks involving the reading and writing of dactylic and orthographic codes. The study included three experiments: (a) the identification of Chilean signs and fingerspelled words, (b) the matching of fingerspelled words with commercial logos, and (c) the decoding of fingerspelled words and the mapping of these words onto the writing system. The results provide convergent evidence that the use of fingerspelling and sign language is related to orthographic skills. It is concluded that fingerspelling can facilitate the internal representation of words and serve as a supporting mechanism for reading acquisition.     

Individual differences in sign language abilities in deaf children

The study attempted to identify characteristics of individual differences in sign language abilities among deaf children. Connections between sign language skills and rapid serial naming, hand motor skills, and early fluency were investigated. The sample consisted of 85 Finnish deaf children. Their first language was sign language. Simple correlations and multiple linear-regression analysis demonstrated the effect of early language development and serial hand movements on sign language abilities. Other significant factors were serial fingertapping and serial naming. Heterogeneity in poor sign language users was noted. Although identifying learning disorders in deaf children is complicated, developmental difficulties can be discovered by appropriate measurements. The study confirmed the results of earlier research demonstrating that the features of deaf and hearing children's learning resemble each other. Disorders in signed and spoken languages may have similar bases despite their different modalities.     

‘Reading’ pictures: what do they reveal? Young children's reading of visual texts

What does the ‘reading’ of pictures reveal compared with the reading of print? The researcher examines aspects of visual literacy through the responses of young children to two picture storybooks. The findings emphasise how images can evoke different levels of response. The study confirms that we need to reconsider the nature of reading and reading education in an environment where words and print are no longer the dominant medium. Examples of responses are shown from children who are native speakers of English, as well as from children for whom English is a second language.     

Codeswitching techniques: evidence-based instructional practices for the ASL/English bilingual classroom

The authors present a perspective on emerging bilingual deaf students who are exposed to, learning, and developing two languages--American Sign Language (ASL) and English (spoken English, manually coded English, and English reading and writing). The authors suggest that though deaf children may lack proficiency or fluency in either language during early language-learning development, they still engage in codeswitching activities, in which they go back and forth between signing and English to communicate. The authors then provide a second meaning of codeswitching--as a purpose-driven instructional technique in which the teacher strategically changes from ASL to English print for purposes of vocabulary and reading comprehension. The results of four studies are examined that suggest that certain codeswitching strategies support English vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. These instructional strategies are couched in a five-pronged approach to furthering the development of bilingual education for deaf students.     

Policy and practice in deaf education: views and experiences of teachers,and of young people who are deaf in Northern Ireland and Sweden

Due to the fact that the outcomes of education for most school leavers who are deaf in Northern Ireland are weak literacy skills and below average reading ages, a study was undertaken to investigate this situation. The views and experiences of teachers of children who are deaf, and of young people who are deaf in Northern Ireland, where oral and total communication forms of instruction are employed in their education were compared with those of Sweden where a sign bilingual is used in education, in the context of current policy and practice. The aim of the study was to find out if there are elements of Swedish policy and practice that could help resolve the situation for Northern Irish learners who are deaf. A qualitative approach was adopted via interviews with teachers of deaf and young people who were deaf in both countries. Findings are reported in relation to policy and practice in education, attitudes to deafness, status of sign language and other factors.     

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。     

Preschoolers’ Visual Attention during Electronic Storybook Reading as Related to Different Types of Textual Supports

Preschoolers’ (n?=?32) attention to print and pictures was documented during an electronic storybook reading session. Children (M?=?51.06 months; SD?=?7.34 months) looked at a 12-page book that contained three types of pages, each of which was presented four times over the course of the book: (1) silent presentation of print, (2) print that was read aloud, and (3) print that was both read aloud and highlighted. Our research objectives were to analyze whether the way in which print was presented related to the ways in which children attended to print and pictures during the reading session. Gaze fixation duration to print and pictures was assessed using a Tobii X2-60 portable eye tracking unit, which captured corneal reflection data for each child. Children’s total fixation duration to print was greatest when print was read aloud and highlighted as compared to when it was presented silently or read aloud. In addition, children looked at print more when it was displayed silently than when the computer read the story to children, although this difference was much smaller in magnitude. Children attended to pictures more than print across pages, but this difference was most notable when the story was read aloud. Results demonstrate the potential utility of nonverbal print referencing strategies during book reading.     

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.     

Using silent motion pictures to teach complex syntax to adult deaf readers

This research tested whether silent motion pictures could be a source of contexts that fostered comprehension of relative clause and passive voice sentences during reading. These two syntactic structures are chronically difficult for some deaf readers. According to the instructional strategy, while subjects watched silent comedy stories, the video display intermittently focused attention on short segments of action and then called for a decision regarding which of two sentences printed in a workbook described the action segment. After this, a display on the video screen provided feedback on the accuracy of the decision. If successful here, this approach might be applied to other areas of competence in order to elevate the generally low level of reading performance by many deaf students. The study applied a single subject design in order to measure sentence comprehension accuracy before and following use of the materials. The computerized testing procedure also measured sentence reading time, an index of attention use. Thus, these data allowed an examination of whether any increases in comprehension were associated with slower, more laborious rates of reading. The instructional approach was an indirect one sharing multiple aspects of whole language methodology, and the sample included deaf subjects at a variety of reading ability levels. This permitted examination of whether an indirect instructional approach could be successful with readers demonstrating relatively low reading ability. The central research question of the study was the following 'Can this instructional method be effective with deaf readers?'.     

Syntactic and semantic processing in Hebrew readers with prelingual deafness

The experimenter investigated the effect of semantic clues on the reading comprehension of deaf and hearing Israeli children. Two groups of students with prelingual deafness, and a hearing control group, were asked to read syntactically simple and syntactically relative sentences of varying semantic plausibility. Sixteen of the participants who were deaf (mean grade 6.9) had been trained orally, using spoken language as their principal means of communication at home and at school. Another 16 students with deafness (mean grade 6.9), all of them children of deaf parents, had acquired sign language as their primary language. The mean grade of the hearing control group was 6.5. The results suggest that, in contrast to the case with hearing individuals, reading comprehension in individuals with prelingually acquired deafness, regardless of communication background, is predominantly determined by the semantic processing of content words, with only minor attention given to the processing of the syntactic structure of the text.     

Time engaged in reading. A critical factor in reading achievement.

The reading achievement of deaf children may be low not only as a result of factors related to the hearing loss, such as a lag in language development. Environmental factors such as the quantity and quality of reading instruction, for example, may also cause low reading achievement. This study looked at the amount of time spent reading and the types of teacher interactions during reading instruction in classrooms at a school for deaf children and associated satellite classes in New Zealand. It was found that the deaf children spent very low levels of time engaged in reading and were subjected to teacher interactions that may inhibit the development of meaning-based reading skills. The quantity and quality of reading instruction for deaf children may differ from that experienced by most hearing children in New Zealand.     

The Prelingually Deaf Young Reader: A Case of Reliance on Direct Lexical Access?

A comparison was made between prelingually deaf and hearing children matched on reading age (between 7:0 and 7:11 years) in order to examine possible differences in reading performance. The deaf children all had a severe or profound hearing loss and were receiving special education in either a school or a unit for the deaf. The experimental tasks used a lexical decision task involving the reading of single words. The employment of phonology in reading was investigated by comparing reading performance on regular and irregular words and by comparing reading of homophonic versus non–homophonic nonwords. Both tasks revealed that hearing participants were much more affected by regularity and homophony, suggesting a much greater reliance on assembled phonological recoding. These results are discussed in terms of deaf readers relying on lexical access for reading print.     

手语语法和汉语语法的比较研究——寻找聋人失落的书面语

为了研究聋人大学生书面语中的问题,研究采用手语语法和汉语语法比较的方法,分析四个问题:手势和表演、量词和类标记、动词和类标记、时间词语。结果发现聋人在书面语中忽略了手语中的表情、动作和姿态等表演成份,手语中的类标记和量词有相同之处,手语手势的四个基本部分分别代表不同的意义,聋人学生时间词语掌握上存在困难。结论是通过对手语语法和汉语语法的对比和研究,可以解析聋人书面语产生错误的原因,找到纠正的方法。     

Does deafness lead to enhancement of visual spatial cognition in children? Negative evidence from deaf nonsigners

This study investigated whether deafness contributes to enhancement of visual spatial cognition independent of knowledge of a sign language. Congenitally deaf school children in India who were born to hearing parents and were not exposed to any sign language, and matched hearing controls, were given a test of digit span and five tests that measured visual spatial skills. The deaf group showed shorter digit span than the hearing group, consistent with previous studies. Deaf and hearing children did not differ in their performance on the visual spatial skills test, suggesting that deafness per se may not be a sufficient factor for enhancement of visual spatial cognition. Early exposure to a sign language and fluent sign skills may be the critical factors that lead to differential development of visual spatial skills in deaf people.     

Do you see what I see? School perspectives of deaf children,hearing children and their parents☆

Perspectives on academic and social aspects of children’s school experiences were obtained from deaf and hearing children and their (deaf or hearing) parents. Possible differences between (1) the views of children and their parents and (2) those of hearing children and their parents compared to deaf children and their parents were of particular interest. Overall, parents gave their children higher school friendship ratings than the children gave themselves, and hearing children and their parents were more positive about children’s friendships than were deaf children and their parents. Both children and parents also saw deaf children as less successful in reading than hearing children. However, deaf children having deaf parents, attending a school for the deaf and using sign language at home all were associated with more positive perceptions of social success. Use of cochlear implants was not associated with perceptions of greater academic or social success. These and related findings are discussed in the context of parent and child perspectives on social and academic functioning and particular challenges confronted by deaf children in regular school settings.