This article presents the results of a microanalysis of sequences when two or more deaf signers overlap. This contribution focuses on "cooperative overlap" - which consists of extended moments of turn-exchanges that move along the unfolding discourse while cohering interlocutors in relation to each other. This aspect of signed…

The term "repair" refers to strategies deployed by language users to resolve breakdowns in communication. In this study, I ask what strategies for conversational repair are deployed, and who takes responsibility for their execution, when a language is used in a small local signing ecology. I focus on signers from a single family within a…

Research over the past two decades has reported a robust relationship between relative social status and first-person singular (FPS) pronoun use in English. For my dissertation study, I wanted to test the replicability of those findings using American Sign Language (ASL) data that I collected for this purpose. In alignment with previous work, I…

Deaf professionals, whom we term Deaf Language Specialists (DLS), are frequently employed to work with children and young people who have difficulties learning sign language, but there are few accounts of this work in the literature. Through questionnaires and focus groups, 23 DLSs described their work in this area. Deductive thematic analysis was…

The FedEx logo makes clever use of figure-ground ambiguity to create an "invisible" arrow in the background space between "E" and "x". Most designers believe the hidden arrow can convey an unconscious impression of speed and precision about the FedEx brand, which may influence subsequent behavior. To test this…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine students' attitudes toward sustainable dining. It aims to identify the level of importance that students place on specific on-campus sustainable dining initiatives and the factors that affect their attitudes and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: A random sample of 197 undergraduate students…

We investigated whether sign-naïve learners can infer and learn the meaning of signs after minimal exposure to continuous, naturalistic input in the form of a weather forecast in Swedish Sign Language. Participants were L1-English adults. Two experimental groups watched the forecast once (n = 40) or twice (n = 42); a control group did not (n =…

Skilled reading is thought to rely on well-specified lexical representations that compete during visual word recognition. The establishment of these lexical representations is assumed to be driven by phonology. To test the role of phonology, we examined the prime lexicality effect (PLE), the index of lexical competition in signing deaf (N = 28)…

Communication through sign language is essential for teachers of deaf students. This study sought to assess and evaluate the sign language proficiency of preservice teachers of deaf students to help preservice teacher preparation program designers identify what aspects of sign language need to be focused on and provide recommendations to improve…

This study contributes to research in the field of phonology of sign languages, focusing on the occurrence of assimilation of signs. The objective of the study is to analyze assimilation cases present in the text genre "joke" in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), as well as influences of the immediate context on their occurrence. We…

The present study used an observational learning framework to investigate changes in non-native signing deaf children's narrative renditions before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) a single viewing of a signing adult's rendition of the same story. The deaf adult model rendered the picture book "Goodnight Gorilla" in American Sign Language…

Postsecondary science faculty face challenges in balancing the engagement of undergraduates and concomitantly ensuring they gain and retain knowledge, either in standard lectures or labs as well as in outdoor activities. Designing on-campus trails with interpretive signs may provide a unique avenue to inform students across majors of local…

Previous studies have suggested that deafness could lead to deficits in motor skills and other body-related abilities. However, the literature regarding motor skills in deaf adults is scarce and existing studies often included participants with heterogeneous language backgrounds and deafness etiologies, thus making it difficult to delineate the…

This case study describes the use of a syntax intervention with two deaf children who did not acquire a complete first language (L1) from birth. It looks specifically at their ability to produce subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure in American Sign Language (ASL) after receiving intervention. This was an exploratory case study in which…

Recent research has shown that a distinct variety of American Sign Language, known as Black ASL, developed in the segregated schools for deaf African Americans in the US South during the pre-civil rights era. Research has also shown that in some respects Black ASL is closer than most white varieties to the standard taught in ASL classes and found…