This paper is about attitudes toward sign languages. The paper presents an idea to help make sign language surveys better in the future. In 2018, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) published a sign language survey and a spoken language survey together for the first time. This was very important to show…

In a Dialogue section of the "Journal of Sociolinguistics" (vol. 26, no. 1), author pairs introduce a number of themes and debates in sign language sociolinguistics, explore why these are debates; how the debates are situated within sociolinguistics as a whole; and how spoken language sociolinguistics does or does not have similar…

While current debates oppose the cochlear implant's privileging of speech acquisition to teaching sign language, nineteenth-century debates, in contrast, opposed those who saw sign language as a tool for learning to read and write, and those who saw in it an autonomous language for organizing thought itself. Should the order of gestural signs…

While there are many difficulties faced by world language educators, both teachers and students of certain languages--languages commonly identified with countries and cultures deemed to be hostile to the United States--often find themselves in uniquely paradoxical situations. This article begins with a brief anecdotal description of the personal…

Attitudes are complex and little research in the field of linguistics has focused on language attitudes. This article deals with attitudes toward sign languages and those who use them--attitudes that are influenced by ideological constructions. The article reviews five categories of such constructions and discusses examples in each one.

When working as a teacher of deaf students, Melissa Herzig's school was a magnet high school just five minutes from the border of Mexico, where 95 percent of the students were Latinos. The deaf students' experiences with languages may involve using American Sign Language (ASL), a sign language they may have learned in their home country, English,…

To date, much information about Sign Bilingualism, gleaned from parents and/or teachers, has been written from a strong hearing viewpoint. As deaf children should be the main beneficiaries from a Sign Bilingual Education, this project was designed to enable the children to recall their experiences and share their multi-aspect views with other deaf…

Although American Sign Language (ASL) has a long and rich history in America and scholarly research on ASL is in its third decade, ASL has been slow to garner any degree of status in the academic community, although some higher education institutions are beginning to consider ASL for their foreign-language curriculum. (CB)

Describes the long process through which American Sign Language (ASL) was accepted in fulfillment of the foreign-language requirement at the University of New Mexico. It was discovered the mutual discovery and sharing of facts about ASL in the long deliberations proved effective. (CB)

Suggests methods for incorporating American Sign Language and knowledge about the deaf culture into a bilingual/bicultural approach to deaf education. (CB)

Although American Sign Language (ASL) currently lacks an accepted writing system, one of the common reasons why it is not accepted for credit in foreign language programs, ASL does have a rich literary tradition. Several curricular remedies to improve those sign language courses are proposed. (CB)

Teachers of American Sign Language (ASL) can no longer qualify just by being able to sign well or by being deaf. ASL teachers must respect the language and its history, feel comfortable interacting with the deaf community, have completed formal study of language and pedagogy, be familiar with second-language teaching, and engage in personal and…

Describes the considerable amount of work and lengthy process of passing legislation to give foreign-language credit for American sign language in California high schools. (CB)

Outlines the procedures used to identify, analyze, and organize components of an American Sign Language curriculum, based on processes used to develop second-language curricula. Students are encouraged to develop communicative competence and cultural awareness in a classroom environment, allowing for natural language learning. (CB)