Maritime Sign Language (MSL) emerged in the easternmost provinces in Canada with origins traced as far back as to the Weald, a region in Southeastern England. Therefore, British sign language is a root language that led to the creation of MSL. This type of language emersion is known as a Deaf community sign language, which occurs when Deaf people…

This paper discusses the role of mediation as it arose in developing and teaching two online American Sign Language (ASL) courses for parents of deaf children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaf children and their families who are still acquiring ASL have ongoing learning needs that are most often not met in mainstream educational systems, and…

Arts-based data from a theatre play, "Apple Time," are explored in order to disrupt binarized diversity discourses dominating deaf education in a diasporic community located in a small city in Saskatchewan. Deaf education is demarcated by two camps of professionals: those who promote the development of spoken English through the use of…

In Ontario, Canada, the movement toward inclusive education has led to a resource consultant model in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The purpose of this narrative case study was to analyze participant experiences involving a daycare setting previously attended by a young deaf child who benefits from American Sign Language (ASL).…

Maritime Sign Language (MSL) is a Canadian, minority sign language that originally stems from British Sign Language (BSL). Currently used by elderly Deaf people in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (and Labrador), it is a moribund language, having undergone language shift to American Sign Language (ASL). MSL is…

This study examined the corrective feedback Deaf teachers used to target handshape, movement, and place-of-articulation errors in introductory American Sign Language (ASL) classes for hearing students. Although feedback is underresearched in bimodal second language (M2-L2) pedagogy, there is some evidence that teacher practices may differ from…

In February 2019, a counselor, a project manager, and a teacher from the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center were chosen as inclusive excellence ambassadors to the Gallaudet University Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. As inclusive excellence ambassadors, Lisa Montalvo, Taiyabah Naeem, and Lia Bengtson believe the division's…

Bimodal-bilingual programs are emerging as one way to meet broader needs and provide expanded language, educational and social-emotional opportunities for students who are deaf and hard of hearing (Marschark, M., Tang, G. & Knoors, H. (Eds). (2014). "Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education." New York, NY: Oxford University Press;…

This paper discusses issues of language revitalization and linguistic prescriptivism related to the teaching of American Sign Language (ASL) in Canada. I describe the current and historical context for ASL teaching, including the increase in ASL course offerings at some postsecondary institutions, and discuss findings related to challenges in…

No formal Canadian curriculum presently exists for teaching American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. However, this group of ASL learners is in need of more comprehensive, research-based support, given the rapid expansion in Canada of universal neonatal hearing screening and the…

The view of sign languages as bounded systems is often important for deaf community empowerment and for pedagogical practice in terms of supporting deaf children's language acquisition and second language learners' communicative competence. Conversely, the notion of translanguaging in the American Sign Language (ASL) community highlights a number…

A small group of interpreters was interviewed with regard to their view of learning ASL and becoming bicultural. A model of identity was then postulated based on Hegel's dialectic (Wheat 2012) of thesis (presuppositions, stereotypes, or theories about ASL and the Deaf community), antithesis (conflicting experiences), and synthesis (new…

In 2012, a two-year pilot project was implemented throughout the Yukon to provide free, on-demand professional American Sign Language (ASL/English) interpretation services to all members of the Deaf community. Following extensive community consultation, this project was developed to meet a growing concern that a denial of ASL interpretation…

As the field of education of the d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) continues to diversify, postsecondary institutions must pay close attention not only to the changing needs of d/Dhh students but to the practitioners they are preparing to serve this population. Students who are d/Dhh and come from homes where a language other than English or…

This article presents a portrait of two community-level and legal efforts in Canada to obtain official recognition of ASL and LSQ (Langue des signes quebecoise), both of which are recognized as official languages by the Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD). In order to situate this issue in the Canadian linguistic context, the authors first…