Although American Sign Language (ASL) has a long and rich history in America and scholarly research on ASL is in its third decade, ASL has been slow to garner any degree of status in the academic community, although some higher education institutions are beginning to consider ASL for their foreign-language curriculum. (CB)

Overviews different kinds of language immersion programs and issues involved in their successful implementation. The Australian experience with such programs is highlighted, focusing on particular problems posed by resistance to language studies, perceived elitism, teacher shortages, immersion teacher training, student selection, immersion…

Overviews developments shaping the current environment of language teaching and learning in Australia, with particular attention to developments in New South Wales, covering such issues as educational organization and structure; the rise in global lifestyles and cultural nationalism; multiculturalism; and the roles of schools, communities, outside…

Although American Sign Language (ASL) currently lacks an accepted writing system, one of the common reasons why it is not accepted for credit in foreign language programs, ASL does have a rich literary tradition. Several curricular remedies to improve those sign language courses are proposed. (CB)

This paper investigates the beliefs about language learning held by 53 first-month university students enrolled in Swahili compared to those of 113 students of French and Spanish. Based in part upon the research design and instrument of Elaine Horwitz (University of Texas-Austin), this paper isolates the results from a larger study of eight…

An examination of the linguistics of American Sign Language (ASL) establishes beyond a doubt that ASL is a natural language distinct from English and provides insight into how the abstract cognitive system called language finds expression in the signed modality. (CB)

An anthropological study of the American Deaf Culture points out that its members do not merely constitute a subculture and that study of American Sign Language, like many other foreign languages, offers knowledge of not only a natural language but also the culture in which it is used. (CB)

Examines the educational purposes of foreign-language requirements and asserts that the study of American Sign Language meets these goals in ways in which other "languages" (English dialects, computer languages) do not. (CB)

This work is one in a series that focuses on nine languages representing the bulk of the second language learning effort in Australian education (Arabic, Modern Standard Chinese, French, German, Modern Greek, Indonesian/Malay, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish). These languages were categorized as the Languages of Wider Teaching. Overviews of Arabic…