Classroom communication between deaf students was modeled using a question-and-answer game. Participants consisted of student pairs that relied on spoken language, pairs that relied on American Sign Language (ASL), and mixed pairs in which one student used spoken language and one signed. Although the task encouraged students to request clarification of messages they did not understand, such requests were rare, and did not vary across groups. Face-to-face communication was relatively poor in all groups. Students in the ASL group understood questions more readily than students who relied on oral communication. Although comprehension was low for all groups, those using oral communication provided more correct free responses, although the numbers were low; no significant differences existed for multiple-choice responses. Results are discussed in terms of the possibility that many deaf students have developed lower criteria for comprehension, and related challenges for classroom communication access.

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The professionalization of sign language interpreting and interpreters is still evolving, although the actual work of the interpreter has been occurring for generations. This chapter is about the profession of American Sign Language/English interpreting in the United States and the education required to succeed in that profession. It begins with a chronological summary of the most compelling research in the field, as well as issues that show the field’s beginnings and reflect a vision for the future. The chapter continues with a look at relevant research and the evolution of the task of American Sign Language/English interpreting, the role of interpreters, quality control, the current status of interpreter education, and goals for the future.

This book covers everything related to aspect in the field of language acquisition; I was amazed by how the authors managed to do this in such a clear manner in only 261 pages+ The book discusses numerous topics related to the acquisition of aspect: from tense to grammatical to lexical aspect, from nativist to functionalist approaches, from a connectionist model to Universal Grammar, and from first language~L1! to second lan-guage~L2!+ It also covers relevant previous research in the acquisition of tense and aspect in Chinese, English, and Japanese+ Although the aim of the book is not an extensive survey of the research done on aspect in all possible languages, given the importance of the work done on aspect in Slavic languages, one might have expected to see more discussion of this area+ Chapter 1 is concise and immediately makes clear to what extent this book will be of interest to the reader+ The authors have two goals: first, to provide an extensive overview of the research of aspect in Chinese, English, and Japanese; and second, to examine the acquisition of aspect crosslinguistically~Chinese, English, and Japanese! and developmentally~by investigating acquisition at different ages, including adults learning an L2!+ By the end of the book, both goals are successfully met+ The book consists of eight chapters; I will briefly comment on the content of each+ Chapter 2 includes an overview of theoretical work done on both grammatical and lexical aspect, including the work on tense by Klein~1994!+ Although the space limitations do not allow for detailed descriptions, this book is a helpful starting point for researchers who would like to find out which theory is relevant for the work they are developing+ Chapter 3 compares nativist and functionalist hypotheses about aspect in both L1 and L2 acquisition+ This chapter includes a very helpful experimental section-methodology, with a brief description and results+ The direct comparison between L1 and L2 learners is also valuable+ I felt that the book included less L2 theoretical background than Hawkins~2001!+ However, this book is not dedicated to L2+Chapters 4-6 cover the work conducted in English, Chinese, and Japanese+ These chapters include discussions of three papers by the book's authors-Li and Bowermañ 1998!, Shirai and Andersen~1995!, and Shirai~1998!+ As before, there is continuous comparison between cognitive and nativist approaches+ Chapter 7 presents a connectionist model of the acquisition of aspect+ For those, like myself, with limited understanding of connectionist models, this is perhaps the most intriguing chapter+ In spite of a certain apprehension prior to reading it, I found the content of this chapter highly accessible and interesting; once again, I was encouraged to think about the importance of input and frequency-notions that often escape the attention of generative acquisitionists+ SSLA, 26, 469-498+ Printed in the United States of America+

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