Around the globe, beginner sign language programs have seen surging enrolments in recent years. Yet relatively few learners progress to higher-level sign language study. In this article, we explore factors shaping retention and attrition among a cohort of 70 beginner Australian Sign Language (Auslan) students studying in a vocational education…

Minimal expressions are at the heart of interaction: Interjections like "Huh?" and "Mhm" keep conversations flowing by establishing and reinforcing intersubjectivity among interlocutors. Crosslinguistic research has identified that similar interactional pressures can yield structurally similar words (e.g., to initiate repair…

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…

Deaf education research and practice have not always lived up to the ideal of improving deaf students' lives. Consequently, we have constructed novel arguments supporting deaf pedagogy using pragmatic ethics, the aim of which is to increase benefit and decrease harm to individuals and society. The ideal of "harm reduction" asks the…

Parent input during interaction with young children varies across languages and contexts with regard to the relative number of words from different lexical categories, particularly nouns and verbs. Previous work has focused on spoken language input. Little is known about the lexical composition of parent input in American Sign Language (ASL). We…

"Communication Interventions with Deaf People" concerns the application of spoken, signed, and written language interventions with deaf and hard of hearing children, young people, and adults. Exploring the work that speech and language therapists, pathologists, deaf language specialists, and other professionals carry out with deaf…

Six students and six parents were interviewed about the use of Cued Speech (CS) in an inclusive context in Quebec, Canada. The objective of the study was to describe their perceptions of the use of the French version of Cued Speech in high school and to identify factors that could influence these perceptions. The results of the semi-structured…

Examines the interplay between "Deaf" and "Christian" identities in a large complex society. A group of Christians who strongly identified themselves as "Deaf" formed a separate "Deaf" church. Differences in religious beliefs, however, led some parishioners of this new church to found a separate "Deaf" Christian church. (22 references) (JL)

Uses techniques of the study of conversational analysis in oral language in the study of American Sign Language conversations, and concludes that such conversations are structured in ways that parallel those of spoken language. (FL)