In a Dialogue section of the "Journal of Sociolinguistics" (vol. 26, no. 1), author pairs introduce a number of themes and debates in sign language sociolinguistics, explore why these are debates; how the debates are situated within sociolinguistics as a whole; and how spoken language sociolinguistics does or does not have similar…

The field of language documentation continues to grow, but an historic split between sign language documentation and spoken language documentation persists. In order to fully understand the linguistic context within a community, it can be necessary to overcome this split by designing language documentation projects to address threatened and…

We have written this article as performative co-autoethnography in which we focus on a crisis of communication we experienced as deaf/nondeaf collaborators. We bring together Deleuze's concept of 'becoming-other' with Guattari's concept of 'a-signifying semiotics' to demonstrate how a focus on the affective dynamics of a-signification allows us to…

The article discusses the importance of sociohistorical context which is the foundation of variation studies in sociolinguistics. The studies on variation in spoken and signed languages are reviewed with the discussion of geographical and social aspects which are treated as external factors in the formation and maintenance of dialects and those…

In Utah, deaf and hard of hearing elementary school students can access their education--in American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken and written English--from their devices at home. Many secondary students can access online coursework as well. This is thanks to a four-year project undertaken by the Utah School for the Deaf (USD). The goal was to…

While current debates oppose the cochlear implant's privileging of speech acquisition to teaching sign language, nineteenth-century debates, in contrast, opposed those who saw sign language as a tool for learning to read and write, and those who saw in it an autonomous language for organizing thought itself. Should the order of gestural signs…

Communication is an innate behavior people engage in to convey one's thoughts, needs, and interests to others (Knapp, Hall, & Horgan, 2014). Recommended Practices from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC, 2014) encourage teachers to partner with families to implement strategies that support…

Recently, the authors' district reconfigured the program for deaf and hard of hearing students, combining the Total Communication (TC) and Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) programs for elementary students and relocating students and staff into a single school. This prompted staff to reflect on and discuss the pedagogy unique to each program.…

Brain imaging studies suggest that children can simultaneously develop, learn, and use two languages. A visual language, such as American Sign Language (ASL), facilitates development at the earliest possible moments in a child's life. Spoken language development can be delayed due to diagnostic evaluations, device fittings, and auditory skill…

For over 25 years in some countries and more recently in others, bilingual education involving sign language and the written/spoken vernacular has been considered an essential educational intervention for deaf children. With the recent growth in universal newborn hearing screening and technological advances such as digital hearing aids and…

Co-speech gestures embody a form of manual action that is tightly coupled to the language system. As such, the co-occurrence of speech and co-speech gestures is an excellent example of the interplay between language and action. There are, however, other ways in which language and action can be thought of as closely related. In this paper we will…

In this article, the author shares the experiences of his wife, Cheryl, and his 5-year-old daughter, Rose, when they visited their local high school's child development class. Cheryl and Rose met with over a 100 teenagers teenagers in eight different classes to talk about their family, raising a child with Down syndrome, and their experiences with…

Raises the issue of the integrity of "voice" while discussing deaf culture and language. Focuses on deaf users of American Sign language and encourages examining whether an imperialistic attitude underlies society's expecting the deaf to learn a spoken language, such as English, even if the teaching is critical in orientation. (41 references)…

This paper discusses the issue of oral versus sign language in educating people who are deaf, focusing on Hungary, which currently emphasizes oralism and discourages the use of Hungarian Sign Language. Teachers of people who are hearing impaired are trained to use the acoustic channel and view signing as an obstacle to the integration of deaf…

A school-wide communication policy addressing speech, speechreading, audition, and sign language with the ultimate goal of increased language acquisition in deaf and blind students was developed by a task force and its implementation timeline projected over five years. (CL)