Assessing Children’s Proficiency in Natural Signed Languages

Singleton, Jenny L.; Supalla, Samuel J.

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199750986.013.0022

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Educators and clinicians lack appropriate assessment methods and tools for evaluating children's lexical and/or grammatical competence in Italian Sign Language (Lingua dei Segni Italiana -LIS). Also as far as other sign languages are concerned assessments of sign language knowledge have been developed relatively recently (Haug 2008;Singleton & Supalla 2003; for a comprehensive review of available sign language tests see Plaza-Pust & Morales-Lopez 2008 and visit the following Web site: http://www.signlang-assessment.info).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing lexical production in deaf signing children with the Boston Naming Test

Tomasuolo¹,

Fellini²,

Renzo³

et al. 2010

LIA

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A picture naming task, the Boston Naming Test, originally developed for spoken language, has been adapted to Italian Sign Language in order to assess the vocabulary of Italian deaf signing children. Thirty deaf and thirty hearing children and adolescents (aged 6-14 years) participated in the study. In the deaf signing group, half of the children attended a bilingual school. Results show no significant differences between deaf and hearing participants in the number of correct responses provided, but do show interesting differences in the lexical accuracy observed for individual items and in error types reported for sign and speech. In the deaf group, children attending a bilingual school performed significantly better than those who did not attend a bilingual programme.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing lexical production in deaf signing children with the Boston Naming Test

Tomasuolo¹,

Fellini²,

Renzo³

et al. 2010

LIA

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“…The majority of contemporary work on deaf children focuses on issues of language acquisition and brain development rather than school practices (for example, Hauser ; Singleton and Supalla ). Some contemporary scholarship on deaf education is policy oriented, as it analyzes the social, economic, historical, and legal frameworks that influence inclusion policies for deaf students (for example, Hyde ).…”

Section: The Problem Of Deaf Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting Visions at aJapanese School for the Deaf

Hayashi

Tobin²

2015

Anthropology & Edu Quarterly

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This paper tells the story of the struggle to introduce a Japanese sign language program in a school for the deaf in Japan that until recently had followed the government's approach that emphasizes oral communication. Our method and conceptual framework is ethnographic, as we emphasize the cultural beliefs that underlie the three competing positions on deaf education that are in competition at Sapporo School for the Deaf. [Japan, Japanese Sign Language, language and cultural revitalization, minority group] IntroductionIn this paper we tell the story of a struggle over pedagogical approaches in the preschool program of Sapporo School for the Deaf (SSD). 1 However, this is not a study of a single school. Instead, we use the case of the signing preschool program at Sapporo to explicate contemporary battle over deaf education being waged in Japan. In Japan, as elsewhere, schools for the deaf are sites where educators and parents, hearing and deaf, attempt to define and control not just pedagogy but also the meaning of d/Deafness, dis/ability, difference, and identity. A word on terminology: in Deaf studies, little "d" deaf denotes a physical construction of deafness, while big "D" Deaf signals identification with Deaf culture, community, and signing (Christiansen and Leigh 2002). We follow this distinction in this paper, using "Deaf" when our informants are referring to cultural Deafness (that is to an identity and way of being), and "deaf" when they are referring to an anatomical reality (that is, to people who are not able to hear).Of the 110 public deaf schools in Japan, Sapporo is the only one that has a signing program. The other 109 Japanese public schools for the deaf employ the approach endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of "total communication," a mixture of cued speech, finger spelling, lip reading, and signed spoken Japanese (signing in a way that follows spoken Japanese rather than Japanese Sign Language [JSL] grammar and syntax). The JSL program at SSD is a school within the school: in 2007, two teachers, Tanaka-sensei and Iwakura-sensei, began to use JSL in their classrooms. Over the years since, Tanaka and Iwakura have been teaching in JSL while the rest of the staff at Sapporo has followed a mostly oral approach in their classrooms. This has produced a division of the teachers, administrators, parents, and students into opposing camps.In this paper we suggest that the tensions we uncovered at SSD can be usefully analyzed as a clash of three positions. Because each of these positions makes a cultural argument for its legitimacy, each can be usefully studied from an ethnographic perspective. Rather than assume that one of these positions is correct and the others are wrong headed, we seek to understand each of the contesting positions on its own terms and to present each of our informants as we believe they see themselves and would like to be seen by others.

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“…Even when hearing parents of deaf children decide on a gestural form of communication, it is a significant challenge for them to master a new language and a new mode of communication sufficiently well to be considered as competent as native sign language users (Brown & Carey-Sargeant, 2001;Marschark, 1993;Singleton & Supalla, 2003). At this point it is important to distinguish between English-based sign systems and sign languages.…”

Section: Language Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Diverse Literacy Needs of Profoundly Deaf Sign-Dominant Adults in Australia

Furlonger

Rickards

2011

Reading Psychology

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This review explores the literacy difficulties experienced by prelingual, profoundly deaf, sign-dominant adults. A critical overview of the existing literature identifies the importance of understanding their language experiences and word-coding preferences. Findings challenge the notion that a permanent lack of audition from birth prevents individuals from developing efficient strategies for the lexical processing of words and raises the possibility that sign-based word coding could play a central role in proficient word reading for those adults who cannot learn to read by way of the auditory perceptual route. The unique resources needed to assist in the development of the literacy skills of this minority group are discussed.

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Assessing Children’s Proficiency in Natural Signed Languages

Cited by 23 publications

References 19 publications

Assessing lexical production in deaf signing children with the Boston Naming Test

Assessing lexical production in deaf signing children with the Boston Naming Test

Contesting Visions at aJapanese School for the Deaf

Understanding the Diverse Literacy Needs of Profoundly Deaf Sign-Dominant Adults in Australia

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