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…

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)

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…

Interviewed 38 adults with deafness and little schooling in Okinawa concerning their social and language environment. Many of the individuals used an indigenous gestural system shared with hearing people that enabled them to participate in the hearing community. Most had only limited contact with the deaf community and Japanese Sign Language.…

Hand preference during signing was examined longitudinally in nine very young children with deaf parents. These children generally showed a distinct and persistent hand preference in their signing, beginning with the production of their first signs. (14 references) (VWL)

Examines the predisposition of Aboriginals to use sign language in place of speech and presents observations of the use of signs in everyday interaction along with a discussion on how this tendency to communicate gesturally may relate to the use of other forms of communication. (six references) (GLR)

Investigation of the accuracy of novice learners of British Sign Language (BSL) and sign-naive subjects in recognizing possible and impossible BSL signs and in naming signs suggests that rated iconicity and the ability to process potentially meaningful gestures, determined recognition and naming accuracy. (19 references) (Author/CB)

Twenty-five teachers working in deaf education signed a set of stimuli and their performances were videotaped and analyzed. Data revealed that users of Signing Exact English were able to follow the rules of that system a significantly higher percentage of time than users of Seeing Essential English or Signed/Manual English. (Author/JDD)

This study of the automatic word and sign recognition of 66 hearing and deaf adults found that responding in sign took longer and created more Stroop interference than responding orally, independent of hearing status. Deaf subjects showed greater automaticity in recognizing signs than words, whereas hearing subjects showed greater automaticity in…

Eight teachers' interaction with their preschool students with deafness, while sharing selected books, revealed that story-reading was more successful when children became involved, teachers followed the text closely in their own words, children had more than one exposure to the text, and when the confusing use of simultaneous communication was…

Finds that students in prekindergarten classes who received sign instruction tested significantly higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than students in prekindergarten classes who did not receive sign instruction. Suggests that simultaneously presenting words visually, kinesically, and orally enhances a child's vocabulary development. (SR)