The authors describe the use of cochlear implants with deaf children in Norway and examine how this intervention has raised new expectations and some tensions concerning the future of education for deaf students. They report on two studies of communication within school learning environments of young children with implants in Norwegian preschools…

A synopsis of research on language, cognition, and communication in deaf students and adults explores basic linguistic processes, evaluates present understanding of sign language as a language, and relates language to ethnicity and biculturalism, concluding that American Sign Language should be the preferred language of instruction. (Author/CL)

Surveys completed by 1,760 teachers of hearing impaired students revealed an overwhelming preference for English over American Sign Language as the language used in classroom communication. Signs appeared to be used most consistently in residential and day schools. (CL)

Using data from American and Quebec Sign Languages, this article argues against linguistic theories that postulate either that a language has a basic order determined by universal principles or that there is a single universal order for all languages. Maintains that there are other means a language can use to indicate what elements combine…

Describes strategies used in a demonstration project monitoring teachers' use of Manually Coded English, American Sign Language, and pidgin signing in communicating with deaf students. Factors considered to influence teacher behavior included student characteristics, teacher training and certification, and support systems. (Author/CB)

Thirty children (ages 3-9) with deafness were asked to sign a story in American Sign Language. Qualitative differences were found between native and early signers on measures relating to the aspectual complexity of signs but not on measures relating to the complexity of the utterance. (Author/CR)

Summarizes research demonstrating advantages of using British Sign Language, Italian Sign Language, and American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language with young children. Reports a qualitative study to determine whether American kindergartners can achieve bilingual ability in English and ASL in one academic year through exposure to a native…

Testing of deaf readers' comprehension of relative clause structures in written English, signed English, and American Sign Language suggests that a specific syntactic disability does not differentiate good from poor deaf readers, but rather a processing deficit may underlie poor readers' comprehension difficulties. (Author/CB)

One hundred American Sign Language signs selected from sign vocabularies used with mentally retarded persons were rated for iconicity (the visual resemblance between a sign and the object or action it represents) by 20 college students, 12 deaf adults, and 20 first graders. (Author)

Argues that deaf individuals who sign and use the majority language regularly (in written form, for example) are bilingual and, because they must adapt to both the hearing and deaf worlds, are also bicultural. Implications for the bilingual and bicultural education of deaf children are discussed. (17 references) (JL)

This article on motivation in the form of signs focuses on the following: the nature of sign forms; iconic motivation; memorability; Ludic motivation; taxonomic motivation; and dimensions of information. (JL)

Focuses on the early career of the Deaf intellectual, Ferdinand Berthier. Berthier was a pioneer for deaf education and the use of sign language in the 1820s and 1830s. (Author/VWL)

How can an inclusive classroom for deaf students be successful? The use of metacommunication strategies by teachers and hearing peers seems promising. Schools that promote this approach tend to improve deaf students' psychosocial development and academic achievement. However, this is not a general rule. The present study identifies the elements of…

This article reviews eighteenth- and nineteenth-century proceedings of the London Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) that involved deaf people. The use, role, and status of sign language and interpreters in these settings are described. These proceedings provide important information about deaf people's experiences within the court system of the…

Research into the sign languages of the deaf is reviewed, particularly as it relates to the study and use of sign language in the Irish context. The first section offers an overview of deafness, the deaf experience, acquisition of linguistic and social identity, the sociology of the deaf community, and the role of sign language. Subsequent…