Describes a method for organizing, storing, and retrieving lexical data from computerized files of American Sign Language. The results of sample searches of the dictionary files are presented with a discussion of how these files and applications might be expanded. The lexicon is useful for researchers and teachers of sign languages. (Author/PJM)

Results of an analysis of variance revealed that iconicity enhanced learning, similarity interfered with acquisition, and there was no effect of vocabulary age within the range studied. (Author)

Discusses erroneous beliefs regarding sign language, namely, (1) sign language is one and universal, (2) its grammar is poor or nonexistant, (3) its vocabulary is concrete and figurative, (4) its "signs" consist of simply gestures, and (5) sign language mimics oral language. (AM)

Nine profoundly retarded and institutionalized persons (16-57 years old) were taught over a six-week period to associate gestural signs with a series of pictures depicting these acts and objects. (Author)

Reports on the design and development of video-based learning objects created to enhance the educational experiences of American Sign Language (ASL) hearing participants in a distance learning course that used video conferencing and Web-based technologies and, following the course, the creation of new applications for use of the learning objects.…

Reports on the progress of a project to produce a dictionary of the Jicarilla Apache language. Jicarilla, an Eastern Apachean language is spoken on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Northern New Mexico. The project has revealed much about the role of literacy in language standardization and in speaker empowerment. Suggests that many parallels…

Details a collaborative production of "West Side Story" with hearing actors from MacMurray College and deaf actors from the Illinois School for the Deaf. Explores some of the practical dilemmas encountered as the distinctions between the Deaf and hearing communities were negotiated. Explains that the show explored the ways in which sign language…

Examines whether early simultaneous bilingual language exposure causes children to be language delayed or confused. Cites research suggesting normal and parallel linguistic development occurs in each language in young children and young children's dual language developments are similar to monolingual language acquisition. Research on simultaneous…

This article describes the "block home" program, neighborhood volunteers who provide a place of refuge when children encounter an emergency as they walk to and from school. Organization, purpose, and guidelines for planning and implementation are discussed. (IAH)

Results of various studies of the transfer of affective and communicative behaviors by both native and second language learners of American Sign Language suggested that facial expressions are used to convey emotions, as they are in spoken language, and that they mark certain specific grammatical structures. (Author/CB)

Argues that the study of natural sign languages can enhance understanding of what language really is. The aspects of sign language that are similar and dissimilar to the characteristics of spoken language are described. (Author/CB)

Examined geometric understanding and misconceptions among a deaf teacher and (n=5) deaf students. Students seemed to treat the sign for triangle as a picture of a triangle and not as a symbol representing the broad class of triangles. (MKR)

This study, involving 10 adults with dyslexia and 11 controls, found that controls differentiated between real and false traffic signs better than subjects did and that there was a significant correlation between traffic sign recognition and driving experience for controls but not for subjects. Results are interpreted in terms of a deficit in…

Considers the way American Sign Language (ASL) has slowly gained acceptance as a "real" language. Describes the "coming out" of deaf culture, primarily as a result of the acceptance of ASL. (HB)

Examined cerebral activation during sign language comprehension in six persons with deafness and nine hearing persons, all of whose parents were deaf. The group with deafness showed more activation than the hearing group in the right parieto-occipital region, indicating that they were more dependent on the spatial components in sign language than…