Maritime Sign Language (MSL) is a Canadian, minority sign language that originally stems from British Sign Language (BSL). Currently used by elderly Deaf people in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (and Labrador), it is a moribund language, having undergone language shift to American Sign Language (ASL). MSL is…

Communicating in languages other than one's mother language is a demanding task. Even when mastering basic skills in a foreign language, communication is challenging unless you are a frequent user. The vocabulary and grammar rules tend naturally to be forgotten over time. This is even more critical when distinct channels are used by one's mother…

Research interest in heritage speakers and their patterns of bilingual development has grown substantially over the last decade, prompting sign language researchers to consider how the concepts of heritage language and heritage speakers apply in the Deaf community. This overview builds on previous proposals that ASL [American Sign Language] and…

Late exposure to the first language, as in the case of deaf children with hearing parents, hinders the production of linguistic expressions, even in adulthood. Less is known about the development of language soon after language exposure and if late exposure hinders all domains of language in children and adults. We compared late signing adults and…

Pre-school education is significant in the education of deaf children. The pre-school teacher is a gateway to realising the inclusion of deaf children in schools. In this study we investigated prospective pre-school teachers' opinions and thoughts about sign language in deaf children's education. In this descriptive study we employed the…

This study addresses the topic of visual communication and early sign language acquisition in deaf children with a Flemish Sign Language (Vlaamse Gebarentaal or VGT) input. Results are obtained through a checklist focusing on sign-exposed deaf children's visual communication and early sign language acquisition: the adapted VGT Visual Communication…

A "heritage language" is defined as a minority language that differs from the dominant language used in a particular community. Codas (children of Deaf adults) who sign but may be dominant in the spoken language of their community present an interesting case due to the added difference of a spoken/signed modality in their linguistic…

This study investigates how critical intercultural pedagogy, creative arts methods, inspired by new materialism, can support new forms of language and intercultural learning in contexts of conflict. Columbian university scholarship recipients in pre-service English language education from disadvantaged backgrounds, co-research alongside the…

A number of language acquisition patterns have been identified in the signing of a newly designated population of bimodal bilingual individuals--"heritage signers." This article examines subject-referent tracking forms in the ASL (American Sign Language) narratives of six elementary-school-aged, native-signing, bimodal bilinguals made at…

This article explores the language of bimodal bilinguals (i.e., hearing children of Deaf parents who are exposed to sign language at home and to spoken language in the surrounding community). In similar bilingual contexts involving pairs of spoken languages, the language used at home, which differs from that of the community, is referred to as the…

This article presents an overview of NGT performing arts in the Netherlands through the life and work of poet Wim Emmerik. Neder landse Gebarentaal (NGT) is the Dutch name for Sign Language of the Netherlands. Drawing from ethnographic research, performance samples, and interviews of performing artists, educators, and researchers, this article…

Vocabulary development is an essential linguistic component of later English literacy skills (National Reading Panel 2000). However, very few studies have addressed the promotion of vocabulary development in deaf children who are American Sign Language users (Luckner and Cooke 2010). Therefore, this qualitative collective case study examined the…

Deaf education professionals are regularly challenged by the linguistic and cultural diversity of deaf youth. The present article focuses on how young deaf people residing in France who are migrants or the children of migrants define themselves, and how parents and professionals perceive their linguistic and cultural diversity. The theoretical…

Despite the fact that American Sign Language (ASL) courses at the college-level have been increasing in frequency, little is understood about the capabilities of hearing individuals learning a sign language as a second language. This study aims to begin assessing the language skills of advanced L2 learners of ASL by comparing L2 signer productions…