Presents study which explored metalinguistic abilities of prelingually deaf children who are users of Signed English with regard to their explicit segmentation of Signed English sentences into words. Subjects exhibited varying abilities that increased with age and were similar to developmental patterns in hearing populations. (Author/BK)

Legislation and court cases are cited to underline the critical need of mental health services for hearing impaired persons. Effects of hospitalization on hearing impaired persons who use only sign language are said to render the hospitalization antitherapeutic. Suggestions are made to mental health centers to improve services. (CL)

Basing a manual communication system on written forms of English has two problems: (1) conventional forms of manual communication are based on the wrong modality; and (2) they do not represent English on any level. This causes an imbalance in the word-to-sign ratio in the classroom. (PJM)

The problems and satisfactions of teaching deaf children are discussed in this interview with a teacher of the deaf. Uses of Ameslon and signed English, talking, and valuable teaching approaches are offered. (JD)

Describes the development of a sign that was understood only by certain members of a group. The stages of evolution are studied from its original gross pattern to a refined, simpler sign. The sign had only two years to develop and was influenced by phonological and social-environmental constraints. (PJM)

A study involving 12 hearing sign language users examined the effect of the signing task on temporal features of speech during simultaneous communication (SC). Results indicated longer sentence duration for SC than speech-only conditions, and longer anticipatory duration of the diphthong and interword interval preceding the experimental words.…

A study involving 20 listeners investigated the potential influence of alterations in the temporal structure of speech produced during simultaneous communication on the perception of final consonant voicing. Results found that accurate perception was not impaired by the durational changes accompanying the typically slower speech pattern of…

This response to a previous article on aerial spelling (AS) in New Zealand Sign Language applauds the original author's effort to highlight an interesting feature of deaf communication but finds some claims questionable. These include the lack of research on AS, failure to include AS in the Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language, and imposition…

Discusses the issue of the use of signed language dictionaries in the standardization of signed languages with reference to the Australian Sign language (Auslan) dictionaries. Details the structure of the Auslan dictionaries and argues that bilingual, bidirectional dictionaries of this type must be produced if communities are to encourage language…

Discusses the linguistic situation of the deaf and the shift in linguistic ideology from graphocentrism to orocentrism, which forms the scenario in which deaf people are struggling to legitimize their natural form of expression. Questions both graphocentrism and orocentrism and proposes neutral terms and a neutral perspective from which orality…

Discusses sign language use in South Africa and the deaf as an oppressed community. The following issues are addressed: language planning and sign language, the role of sign language as the vernacular of an oppressed linguistic community, and the implications of sign language for other cultural and social issues that divide South African society.…

The study compared scores on a literacy battery of hearing-impaired subjects exposed to either an instructional communication system that attempts to completely encode a language (e.g. oral English, Signing Exact English) or to signed systems that incompletely encode spoken English. Students using the completely encoded language tended to perform…

Briefly describes five dictionaries of the signed languages used in Australia, Mexico, Italy, New Zealand, and Thailand. (CB)

Investigation of profoundly deaf adolescent students' ability to read signs in peripheral vision revealed a mean success rate of about 80 percent. Results support the supposition that peripheral vision may be linguistically and communicatively useful for deaf people, particularly as signs in isolation are more difficult to read than signs in…

Four writers (Yerker Andersson, Trevor Johnston, Leila Monaghan, and Brian Street) respond to Graham Turner's discussion of deaf culture, considering labeling categories and approaches to definitions of "deaf culture." (Contains 24 references.) (LB)