Depicting Verbs and Constructed Action: Necessary Narrative Components in Deaf Adults’ Storybook Renditions

Abstract

We investigated twelve deaf adults’ use of American Sign Language (ASL) in video-recorded narrative renditions of a wordless picture storybook. All of the adults had typically hearing parents and were divided between earlier and later ASL acquisition. Specifically, we analyzed their use of depicting verbs, constructed action, lexical signs, and combinations of these components as they navigated among multiple perspectives. Participants rendered these perspectives in similar yet individualized ways regardless of sign language experiences. We present qualitative descriptions of and the quantitative patterns found in their use of these components. We suggest that educators of signing deaf children can embed these components in their instructional practices to meet their students’ language needs.