Sign Language and Second-Language Teaching

Abstract

This paper results from a research project undertaken during July and August of 1975, in the Professional Intern- ship Program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), Rochester, New York. As a professional from another field (post-secondary French teaching), I was learning about the field of deaf education and about American Sign Language (ASL or Sign). In return I undertook to examine the theory and practice of teaching ASL to non-signers, as all aspects of second-language teaching relate to that enterprise. In the NTID program, interns had approximately fifteen hours per week of intensive training with signs in a class- room setting (eight students, one teacher, and one native- signer assistant). In class I was able to evaluate the teach- ing activities and the learning experience from the perspective of a student. As part of my participation, I made recommen- dations at the end of the period to the Manual Communication staff of NTID's Office of Professional Development, toward the improvement of their part of the program. The Office of Professional Development serves adults (interns and new members of the staff) ranging in age from the early 20's through the 50's, so that my background in college language teaching was appropriate to the task. On the basis of direct experience as an intern, and of a review of the literature on second-language teaching,my report outlined cur- rent theories and practices of second-language teaching, sug- gested possible applications of second-language theories and practices to the teaching of Sign, and detailed my personal reactions as an experienced second-language teacher learning a new language, of signs.