The rapid increase in demand for American Sign Language (ASL) instruction between 1998 and 2002 created pervasive challenges in effectively assessing and documenting ASL learner performance. To address these challenges, we designed and developed the "Avenue ASL" e-assessment environment: an integrated, network-based software system to capture,…

The New 7 Wonders of the World organization announced a shiny new list of the world's premier candidates. The people behind "Exceptional Parent" (EP) magazine were intrigued and inspired by the New 7 Wonders undertaking, and it started them thinking. If they had to name the 7 Wonders of the World of Disabilities, what or who would they…

There are not many elements of human life that have had as significant an impact on our development as literacy. Literacy has certainly been, and remains, a crucial issue especially in Deaf Education and in the Deaf World. The traditional definition of literacy has been exclusively understood as reading and writing. However, this article is…

This article is a response to "Blue Listerine, Parochialism, and ASL Literacy" (Czubek, 2006). The author presents his views on the concepts of literacy and the new and multiple literacies. In addition, the merits of print literacy and other types of literacies are discussed. Although the author agrees that there is an American Sign…

In order to better evaluate bilingualism in deaf children, this study examined whether observers (N=37) from different backgrounds would agree on deaf children's use of either American Sign Language (ASL) or English signing. Observers represented a range of background experience in a variety of schools and programs; 6 were deaf; 31 were hearing;…

Reviews and compares two CD-ROMs designed to teach sign language skills: "The American Sign Language Dictionary on CD-ROM" and "Sign Language for Everyone." The first is seen to be the better reference tool whereas the second is judged the better choice for computer users wanting to learn sign language in a structured way. (DB)

Examines two views of the relations between a bilingual's language repertoires: the lexical and the conceptual mediation hypotheses. In an experiment using cloze completions that required either simple recall or inferences, the interaction between task and cloze type indicates that different processes mediate interpretation and transliteration.…

This paper discusses the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in educating deaf children, based on the history of using manually coded English (MCE). The paper concludes that use of ASL should not be the ultimate goal of bilingual bicultural programs, and, in some classrooms, the optimal program will be complementary use of ASL and MCE. (JDD)

Part of a curriculum unit on preventing sexual abuse of persons with disabilities, the manual is intended to help instructors present the material to hearing impaired students. Illustrations of sign language are presented for such terms as sexual contact, sexual assault, incest, same sex assault (man/woman), rape (acquaintance/marital), exposer,…

The paper examines the use of the Makaton Vocabulary, a language program designed to provide a controlled method of teaching approximately 350 signs from British Sign Language with speech, to mentally handicapped and other language handicapped persons. The approach stresses two-way functional communcation using a core of basic words. Extension of…

A pilot project is described in which an introductory course in sign language was successfully taught to five groups of nondeaf persons in Vermont and New Hampshire via closed circuit television. (Author)

The text for a course in manual communication contains 45 lessons and 565 signs, each illustrated by a drawing indicating the shape of the hands, the place where the hands move to and from, and the movements. Practice exercises for each lesson, designed to foster progressive reinforcement of acquired vocabulary, are grouped together with…

Simultaneous communication of six hearing mothers to their hearing-impaired chilren was studied to determine the extent to which signed messages matched spoken messages. From samples of 100 utterances, a mean 40.5 utterances were signed fully. Approximately 18 percent of the spoken morphemes were deleted, on the average. (Author/CL)

Notes that three papers and commentary (in this issue) emphasized importance of including data on manual modality when studying language development and its relationship to other domains. Discusses advantages of using robustness analysis rather than precursor relations to study domain relations. Suggests alternative theoretical context to which…

Fifteen undergraduates were trained to identify abstract forms in response to manual sign, CVC (consonant vowel consonant) sense syllables, or combined manual sign plus CVC nonsense syllables. Results suggest that facilitative effects of manual sign labels upon comprehension may be due to the iconic relationship between signs and their referents.…