This study aimed to identify the professional structure required by teachers working in primary schools for deaf students in Japan. Ten university teachers training in education for deaf students at Japanese universities participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using the KJ method of qualitative analysis based on similarity,…

We compared the reading development of 77 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) Japanese children, aged 5-7 (40 females), with 139 of their hearing peers (74 females) in 2018. We assessed each group's phonological awareness (PA), grammar, vocabulary, and reading of hiragana (Japanese orthography children learn first). DHH children showed significant…

This work categorizes Japanese Sign Language (JSL) toponyms, or place names, and examines factors that potentially affect their structure. Exonyms, influenced by the source Japanese name, and endonyms, independent JSL names, contrast structurally in that exonyms tend to emerge as compounds while endonyms conform more closely to canonical…

Purpose: Understanding what is known about the language profiles of children with hearing loss (CHL) is vital so that researchers and teachers can identify the specific complex syntactic structures that CHL may struggle to master. An understanding of which aspects of complex syntax pose difficulties for CHL is necessary to inform the kind of…

This article explores turn-taking in Japanese Sign Language ( JSL) by using Baker's (1977) framework. JSL as a language is wholly unrelated to American Sign Language (ASL), but because Baker and other discourse analysts have always been concerned mostly with ASL and European sign languages, it remains to be seen if Asian sign languages such as JSL…

One of the most important recommendations in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN Summit in 2015 was "No one will be left behind". Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer pointed out that the dominant form of music education in training musicians is Romantic or Dionysian. Schafer finds this type of music education…

This study aimed to elucidate the organization and developmental sequences of macro-structure elements in the written narratives of 44 students in Japan, aged 7-11 years and attending the same school, who were deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). A high-point analysis of oral paper puppet play storylines revealed that the students were able to develop…

"Accessibility" features promote inclusive education but do not guarantee it. Communication accessibility, such as sign language interpretation or note-taking, may facilitate the academic inclusion of deaf students in general classrooms but does not necessarily enable their full social inclusion. Whereas in general classrooms deaf…

This article reports on our use of a "deaf lens" in adapting video-cued multivocal ethnography for the "Deaf Kindergartens in Three Countries: Japan, France, and the United States" project. Beginning with a discussion of how this "deaf lens" shaped the design of the study, research questions, and methodology, the…

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…

The present study investigated the development of literacy skills of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children in Japan. The three components of literacy, vocabulary, orthographic knowledge, and grammatical knowledge were assessed by using the subtests of the Adaptive Tests for Language Abilities (ATLAN), based on the item response theory developed…

This article explores the morphological process of numeral incorporation in Japanese Sign Language. Numeral incorporation is defined and the available research on numeral incorporation in signed language is discussed. The numeral signs in Japanese Sign Language are then introduced and followed by an explanation of the numeral morphemes which are…

Meisei Gakuen, a private school for the deaf in Tokyo, is the only school for the deaf in Japan that uses Japanese Sign Language (JSL) as the primary language of instruction and social interaction. We see Meisei as a useful case for bringing out core issues in Japanese deaf and early childhood education, as well as for making larger arguments…

There are many techniques for communicating with individuals who are deaf-blind. In Japan, another technique, known as fingerbraille, is also used. Fingerbraille is a tactile method of communication that is based on Japanese braille script. This article introduces the reader to the history of the development of this communication technique and to…

This article discusses a survey study that drew on seventy-five high school students at a residential deaf school in Japan. The aim of the survey was to examine the various ways in which deaf adolescents use text messaging and to determine whether they use the technology differently from the hearing high school students surveyed in our previously…