An investigation of the need for sign language assessment in deaf education

The attitudes of educators of the deaf and other professionals in deaf education concerning assessment of the use of American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign systems was investigated. A questionnaire was distributed to teachers in a residential school for the deaf in California. In addition to questions regarding the availability of sign language assessment at their schools, participants responded to items concerning their motivation to use a test for sign language measurement. Of the 100 distributed surveys, 85 were completed and returned. Results showed overwhelming agreement among respondents concerning the importance of sign language assessment, along with the need for tools that appropriately measure signing skills.     

The relationship between teacher sign skills and student evaluations of teacher capability

This study examines the extent to which deaf students' perceptions of their teachers' effectiveness and ease of communication in the classroom are related to the teachers' sign skills. Thirty-three faculty, teaching a variety of courses at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), were rated on "teaching effectiveness" and "communication ease" by their students over a 2-year period. Faculty sign proficiency was evaluated independently using the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI). Results indicate a moderate relation between students' perceptions of communication ease and teaching effectiveness, and a weak relation of these two variables to the teachers' assessed level of sign skill. The data also show that the students could clearly differentiate three levels of teacher sign skill in the classroom. Results are discussed in relation to the component parts of effective communication from the perspective of students in the classroom.     

Constructing simultaneous communication: the contributions of natural sign language

This article examines simultaneous communication (SC) by analyzing the changes in productions of teachers who underwent a program specifically designed to address improvements in the signed modality by working with both English-based signing and American Sign Language (ASL). Based on theoretical concepts found in bilingualism, language contact situations, and conversational analysis, we focus on the process of constructing utterances by examining the teachers' spontaneous repair sequences as evidence of an active productive system. Two teachers received special instruction in SC that included both ASL and English-based signing systems as separate but equal systems. Videotapes of their use of SC, collected over four years, were analyzed for sign/speech ratio and repair sequences. Repairs were classified as repetitions, replacements, or synchronization. We found that the sign/speech ratio of both teachers increased over time. Examination of repair sequences showed that repetitions tended to occur in speech with the sign channel more completely encoded in the repair. Changes in speech tended to be accompanied by changes in sign. Errors in synchrony were relatively rare. We conclude that the simultaneous communication of both teachers was speech-driven, but error detection was largely sign-driven. The greater the automaticity of both languages, the more attention could be devoted to monitoring the coordination of the two modalities. The amount and quality of monitoring that actually occurred, however, were subject to individual differences.     

Conceptualizing parents' sign language use in bilingual early intervention

This research study investigates how parents and interveners conceptualize parents' early sign language use. Three groups of respondents involved in the same bilingual early intervention program were being interviewed: hearing parents (n = 12), hearing teachers (n = 6), and Deaf consultants (n = 6). The search and retrieve program 'The Ethnograph' was used for data analysis. The results demonstrate that neither a framework of linguistic proficiency nor one of communicative competence captures the complexity of the issues involved for parents and interveners in conceptualizing parents' early sign language use. The interpretative frameworks of each group emphasize different aspects of the task facing parents: balancing the quest for Sign Language proficiency with emotional and practical considerations in the family, acknowledging the overriding importance of communication regardless of what one may label the language used, and confirming the visual quality and child appropriateness of the signing. Results are related to the stocks of knowledge on which respondents draw and the implications for Deaf and hearing interveners assessing parents' progress.     

教师的非语言符号在课堂教学中的运用

课堂教学是师生之间言语和非言语协调统一的交流过程,要提高课堂教学效果,就必须既重视语言符号,又重视非语言符号。在课堂教学中,老师只有学会运用非语言符号并理解和掌握各种非语言行为规律,才能有效地管理班级,达到最佳的教学效果。     

Benefits of sign language interpreting and text alternatives for deaf students' classroom learning

Four experiments examined the utility of real-time text in supporting deaf students' learning from lectures in postsecondary (Experiments 1 and 2) and secondary classrooms (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 compared the effects on learning of sign language interpreting, real-time text (C-Print), and both. Real-time text alone led to significantly higher performance by deaf students than the other two conditions, but performance by deaf students in all conditions was significantly below that of hearing peers who saw lectures without any support services. Experiment 2 compared interpreting and two forms of real-time text, C-Print and Communication Access Real-Time Translation, at immediate testing and after a 1-week delay (with study notes). No significant differences among support services were obtained at either testing. Experiment 3 also failed to reveal significant effects at immediate or delayed testing in a comparison of real-time text, direct (signed) instruction, and both. Experiment 4 found no significant differences between interpreting and interpreting plus real-time text on the learning of either new words or the content of television programs. Alternative accounts of the observed pattern of results are considered, but it is concluded that neither sign language interpreting nor real-time text have any inherent, generalized advantage over the other in supporting deaf students in secondary or postsecondary settings. Providing deaf students with both services simultaneously does not appear to provide any generalized benefit, at least for the kinds of materials utilized here.     

Documenting English syntactic development in face-to-face signed communication

The authors explored the face-to-face English competence of five students who were participating in a larger study of teachers' use of English-based signing. Using case studies, the authors report on the students' development of English-based signing at the beginning and end of their involvement in this 4-year study. Grammatical forms similar in English and American Sign Language (ASL) were initially more readily produced when tested for in English, and showed consistently higher attainment levels across all the students, than grammatical forms that are different in English and ASL. The authors found emerging English forms that could be documented (a) between prompted and imitated utterances and (b) within blocks of test items examining the same grammatical constructions. The authors conclude that teachers' concerted efforts to use English-based signing as a language of instruction enhance deaf students' English acquisition. Such signing helps build a bridge between native sign language and the development of English skills necessary for literacy.     

简化英语课堂教学：回归符号实跬——读《教育激扬生命》有感兼评一堂生本英语课

在生本教育理念的指引下,英语课堂教学应由以往注重语言符号研究回归符号实践。符号实践简化课堂教学——一方面,教学过程得到简化,学生拥有更多时间自主学习;另一方面,教学内容得到浓缩,学生拥有更广阔的思维空间。     

A study of technical signs in science: implications for lexical database development

Both classroom instruction and lexical database development stand to benefit from applied research on sign language, which takes into consideration American Sign Language rules, pedagogical issues, and teacher characteristics. In this study of technical science signs, teachers' experience with signing and, especially, knowledge of content, were found to be essential for the identification of signs appropriate for instruction. The results of this study also indicate a need for a systematic approach to examine both sign selection and its impact on learning by deaf students. Recommendations are made for the development of lexical databases and areas of research for optimizing the use of sign language in instruction.     

自然手语与规约手语之研究

目前中国大多数聋校是以手语为主要教学语言。本文从手语的基本特点入手 ,把手语分为自然手语和规约手语并具体分析了两者的特点 ,进而就如何在课堂教学中运用好自然手语和规约手语 ,以提高课堂教学效率 ,促进聋生语言能力的发展以及以建立聋人手语语料厍。     

Understanding L2 French teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom context

This research explored the congruence and disparity between teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards French as a second language (L2) teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom context in the USA. The findings suggest students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the direct and indirect teaching strategies were generally consistent, but not in terms of the collaborative teaching strategies. The findings also indicate that the beginner and elementary level students held different preferences for all the three teaching strategies. The underlying reasons could be learners’ different language proficiency levels, and how well teachers execute these different teaching strategies in class. This study concludes with some implications for foreign language teacher education.     

The relation between exposure to sophisticated and complex language and early-adolescent English-only and language minority learners' vocabulary

This study investigated the relation between teachers’ (N = 22) use of sophisticated and complex language in urban middle‐school classrooms and their students’ (mean age at pretest = 11.51 years; N = 782; 568 language minority and 247 English only) vocabulary knowledge. Using videotaped classroom observations, teachers’ speech was transcribed and coded for their total amount of talk, vocabulary usage, and syntactic complexity. Students’ vocabulary skills were assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Results showed variation in students’ vocabulary skills and teachers’ language use. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques revealed that after controlling for classroom and school composition and students’ beginning‐of‐the‐year scores, students’ end‐of‐the‐year vocabulary skills were positively related to teachers’ use of sophisticated vocabulary and complex syntax, but not teachers’ total amount of talk.     

高职英语口语课课堂的有效管理

在高职英语口语课堂上,用有效的课堂管理策略集中学生的注意力和激发学生的学习兴趣是开展有效的口语教学的重要前提。要提高高职英语口语教学的效果和效率,培养学生的语言实际交际能力,就要求教师营造积极的课堂心理环境,缓解学生的焦虑情绪,改变传统的教学模式,增加学生使用语言操练的机会和采用合理的课堂教学组织策略,有效利用课堂时间。     

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.     

Emergence,flexibility, and stabilization of language in a physics classroom

Learning physics is a complex phenomenon. In this article, we use concepts from the theory of nonlinear systems to study the development of language in classroom science in an experimental unit on chaos theory in a German 10th‐grade physics classroom. In ongoing activity, the explanations students developed for phenomena emerged through interactive stabilization and material constraints on the interpretive flexibility of material (artifacts) and discursive representations (talk). Interpretive flexibility both enables novel understandings and differences between private and common public use of these representations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 869–897, 2003     

The status of sign language instruction in institutions of higher education: 1994-2004

Surveys of sign language programs in institutions of higher education in the United States, conducted in 1994 and 2004, are compared to reveal changes over time. Data are presented concerning the institutional environment of programs, program administrators, and instructors. Institutions examined in 2004 were on average 5 years older than those examined in 1994. More institutions accepted sign language for general education and foreign language requirements. Program administrators in 2004 were more likely to have primary duties as teachers rather than administrators, and to have greater understanding of the subject matter. Faculty in 2004 had more education and teaching experience. Full-time faculty showed increases in the proportion who were Deaf and the proportion who were in tenure-track positions. Program staff size increased. Overall, evidence indicates that sign language has become more accepted as an academic discipline and that programs are more entrenched at their institutions.     

The efficiency and effectiveness of an interactive videodisc system to teach sign language vocabulary

Forty students enrolled in the course 74.153, Introduction to Sign Language, at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania participated in a study using an interactive videodisc system to teach sign language vocabulary. The experimental group (n = 20) learned signs via an interactive videodisc system while the control group (n = 20) learned the same signs through a traditional classroom approach. Results indicated no significant differences between the groups in their ability to recognize signs. In addition, the experimental group took one-third less time to learn as many signs as the control group.     

短期语言培训课堂上的文化介入研究

语言学习课堂上文化参与的方式和内容应该根据不同的人群设计和选择。然而,国内语言课堂上的文化参与内容和方式均过于单一,因而不利于培养不同学生群体的语用能力。为了借鉴国外课堂文化介入方式以改进我们的外语教学,本文作者结合我国短期成人英语学习者的实际需求,通过观察国外语言课堂活动和国内课堂实践,总结出了一个把文化学习融入语言技能训练的课堂文化介入方式系列活动,并对短期语言培训涉及到的文化介入内容问题进行了讨论,以期对各个层面的语言教育有所启发。