Use Of American Sign Language Research Articles

Use of American Sign Language and Deaf Participants in Dance Theater: Considerations in Practice

ABSTRACT Productions can be made more accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) dancers, performers, and audiences. This article provides ideas and guidelines on how to include and accommodate them. Reflecting on our experiences developing the dance theatrical production of “Within Dreams,” we describe the need for making space for DHoH individuals in various areas of dance productions in higher education: in participation, patronage, and the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in dance pieces. Our hope is that elucidating what we learned makes it easier for other companies and universities to explore and incorporate thoughtful and successful relationships between sign languages, deaf, and dance.

American sign language to improve deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) English reading comprehension skills

Palestinian Sign Language (PSL) is used for teaching English language for DHH students in their schools. This hinders Palestinian deaf students communication with deaf foreigners. Hence, the use of American Sign Language (ASL) can solve the aforementioned problem. ASL is considered as an international sign language, thus, it can be useful for DHH students to learn this language to be able to communicate with their peers all over the world. This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of American Sign Language (ASL) program in developing the Palestinian DHH students' English reading comprehension skills. in addition, the study explored the advantages and drawbacks of the ASL Program. The researchers used the quasiexperimental approach. One experimental group of (30) DHH, selected from Elrafie school for deaf in Gaza city, was assigned as the sample of the study. Those students attended a 20-hour training program which lasted for four weeks. In addition, the instruments used in the current study was a reading comprehension skills test which students did before and after the experiment, and a semi structured interview to reveal the advantages and drawbacks of the training program from the participants' perspectives. Results showed that the ASL training program is so effective in enhancing the reading comprehension skills of the DHH students. In addition, the findings revealed that the participants of the study liked the activities of the training program and they become so motivated to read various types of English texts. In light of the aforementioned results, the researcher recommends EFL Palestinian teachers to use the ASL when teaching English language to DHH students.

“Speak the Language of Your Flag”: Speech, Language, and Oralism During the First World War

AbstractWith the United States’ entrance into the First World War, linguistic and cultural cohesiveness became imperative, compelling everyone—from immigrants with foreign accents to people with speech problems and hearing loss—to “sound American” by fluently speaking the language of their flag.This article examines lip-reading, speech, and auricular training prescribed to deaf and hard-of-hearing children as well as for servicemen deafened in the war to demonstrate how World War I demanded all Americans to contribute to and participate in shared national soundscapes, regardless of their hearing status. Use of American Sign Language was considered a conspicuous sign of one’s failure to integrate into hearing society, and it shared parallels with immigrants who failed to learn English and fully assimilate into American culture. Indeed, rehabilitation of deafened soldiers of the First World War through speech training and lip-reading instruction at Hospital No. 11 at Cape May, New Jersey, coincided with broader national efforts to improve Americans’ speech and language use, and in turn, their patriotism and productivity.

Comparison of American Sign Language Use Identification using Multi-Class SVM Classification, Backpropagation Neural Network, K - Nearest Neighbor and Naive Bayes

Communication is essential in conveying information from one individual to another. However, not all individuals in the world can communicate verbally. According to WHO, deafness is a hearing loss that affects 466 million people globally, and 34 million are children. So it is necessary to have a non-verbal language learning method for someone who has hearing problems. The purpose of this study is to build a system that can identify non-verbal language so that it can be easily understood in real-time. A high success rate in the system needs a proper method to be applied in the system, such as machine learning supported by wavelet feature extraction and different classification methods in image processing. Machine learning was applied in the system because of its ability to recognize and compare the classification results in four different methods. The four classifications used to compare the hand gesture recognition from American Sign Language are the Multi-Class SVM classification, Backpropagation Neural Network Backpropagation, K - Nearest Neighbor (K-NN), and Naïve Bayes. The simulation test of the four classification methods that have been carried out obtained success rates of 99.3%, 98.28%, 97.7%, and 95.98%, respectively. So it can be concluded that the classification method using the Multi-Class SVM has the highest success rate in the introduction of American Sign Language, which reaches 99.3%. The whole system is designed and tested using MATLAB as supporting software and data processing.

The Relationship Between Language and Culture: Evidence From the Deaf Bi-Bi Community

Language helps establish cultural identification and social ties within a community. Like most cultural groups, language and culture are tightly interwoven in the Deaf1bilingual-bicultural (Bi-Bi) community. The social intimacy resulting from the shared use of American Sign Language (ASL) makes the Deaf Bi-Bi community unique from the mainstream hearing world. As our society grows increasingly diverse, it is very important to understand the intricate relationship between language and and how it supports identity formation and enhances social participation among a particular group of people. Specifically, this article will focus on cases illustrating potential consequences of a language loss. The social and cultural experiences of two Cantonese-ASL-English-speaking adolescent siblings will be discussed and understood through an in-depth interview. Finally, clinical implications for the role of clinicians in supporting Deaf families in the healthcare system will be discussed.

Category selectivity of the N170 and the role of expertise in deaf signers

Deafness is known to affect processing of visual motion and information in the visual periphery, as well as the neural substrates for these domains. This study was designed to characterize the effects of early deafness and lifelong sign language use on visual category sensitivity of the N170 event-related potential. Images from nine categories of visual forms including upright faces, inverted faces, and hands were presented to twelve typically hearing adults and twelve adult congenitally deaf signers. Classic N170 category sensitivity was observed in both participant groups, whereby faces elicited larger amplitudes than all other visual categories, and inverted faces elicited larger amplitudes and slower latencies than upright faces. In hearing adults, hands elicited a right hemispheric asymmetry while in deaf signers this category elicited a left hemispheric asymmetry. Pilot data from five hearing native signers suggests that this effect is due to lifelong use of American Sign Language rather than auditory deprivation itself.

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

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.

Choreography and Performance with Deaf Adults who have Mental Illness: Culturally Affirmative Participatory Research

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) techniques, particularly choreography and performance techniques, have not been well-researched with Deaf adults who have mental illness. This study investigated the use of DMT, choreography, and performance techniques with Deaf adults with severe and chronic mental illness through participatory artistic inquiry. Primary research questions addressed pragmatic matters of participatory artistic inquiry: What aesthetic choices will the co-researchers make in the dance-making process? How does the researcher provide structure and incorporate her experience as a choreographer without overshadowing the contributions of the co-researchers? Broader philosophical research questions included: How does the use of American Sign Language and other culturally affirmative practices support the dance-making process? How do choreography and performance techniques impact this population’s well-being? Data was gathered by engaging the participants as co-researchers, involving them in the development of research protocol, data collection, data analysis, and the presentation of the research findings. Findings indicated that engaging in a choreographic process addressed the co-researchers’ preexisting treatment goals, provided opportunities for transferring skills learned in previous DMT groups, and empowered the co-researchers to incorporate performance techniques common to Deaf culture. The final choreographic product was presented at the site where the co-researchers receive mental health services and shared with the larger mental health care community through a digital video recording at http://vimeo.com/47632696.

The Politics and Practice of Voice: Representing American Sign Language on the Screen in Two Recent Television Crime Dramas

The Politics and Practice of Voice: Representing American Sign Language on the Screen in Two Recent Television Crime Dramas

When hearing clients work with a deaf therapist.

Not being able to hear can present significant challenges for the therapist and for the deaf therapist/hearing client dyad. It can also create opportunities. Although the literature indicates that most culturally Deaf therapists work with Deaf clients due to their mutual use of American Sign Language, I describe (a) the background of an audiologically deaf therapist who relies on speech reading rather than sign language, and (b) this therapist's clinical work with hearing clients. Some of the relational dynamics of these treatments are identified, and I conclude by noting how attention to communication can benefit the work of all psychotherapists.

Significant gestures: a history of American Sign Language

Tabak has created a fascinating exploration of a unique and uniquely beautiful North American language. The story begins in 18th century France in the first schools to use signed language as the language of instruction. Early in the 19th century a few individuals introduced a variant of this language into the United States and developed an educational system in which to use it. Out of these schools come members of a new American social class, the Deaf-with a capital D-who, united by a common signed language, create institutions through which they can participate in society on terms equal to those of other constituent groups. This strategy proved extremely controversial among all but the Deaf. The controversy lasted a century, during which time American Sign Language evolved along racial lines and in response to the pressures of those who sought to eliminate the use of American Sign Language. Today, new ideas in art, science, and education have supplanted much of the old opposition to American Sign Language and Deaf culture. New legislation and new technologies have also had profound effects on the lives of American Deaf. As a consequence, American Sign Language is evolving faster than ever before.

An Investigation of the Need for Sign Language Assessment in Deaf Education

The attitudes of educators of the deaf and other professionals in deaf education concerning assessment of the use of American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign systems was investigated. A questionnaire was distributed to teachers in a residential school for the deaf in California. In addition to questions regarding the availability of sign language assessment at their schools, participants responded to items concerning their motivation to use a test for sign language measurement. Of the 100 distributed surveys, 85 were completed and returned. Results showed overwhelming agreement among respondents concerning the importance of sign language assessment, along with the need for tools that appropriately measure signing skills.

Comparing the Effects of Auditory Deprivation and Sign Language within the Auditory and Visual Cortex

To investigate neural plasticity resulting from early auditory deprivation and use of American Sign Language, we measured responses to visual stimuli in deaf signers, hearing signers, and hearing nonsigners using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We examined "compensatory hypertrophy" (changes in the responsivity/size of visual cortical areas) and "cross-modal plasticity" (changes in auditory cortex responses to visual stimuli). We measured the volume of early visual areas (V1, V2, V3, V4, and MT+). We also measured the amplitude of responses within these areas, and within the auditory cortex, to a peripheral visual motion stimulus that was attended or ignored. We found no major differences between deaf and hearing subjects in the size or responsivity of early visual areas. In contrast, within the auditory cortex, motion stimuli evoked significant responses in deaf subjects, but not in hearing subjects, in a region of the right auditory cortex corresponding to Brodmann's areas 41, 42, and 22. This hemispheric selectivity may be due to a predisposition for the right auditory cortex to process motion; earlier studies report a right hemisphere bias for auditory motion in hearing subjects. Visual responses within the auditory cortex of deaf subjects were stronger for attended than ignored stimuli, suggesting top-down processes. Hearing signers did not show visual responses in the auditory cortex, indicating that cross-modal plasticity can be attributed to auditory deprivation rather than sign language experience. The largest effects of auditory deprivation occurred within the auditory cortex rather than the visual cortex, suggesting that the absence of normal input is necessary for large-scale cortical reorganization to occur.

Deaf Parents' Perspectives on Deaf Education

For the study reported in this article, Deaf couples were interviewed at two different times regarding their views on deaf education. Questions in the first interview focused on the parents� views of their preschool children�s education as well as their opinion of their own school experiences. Questions also covered language use at school and the importance of the Deaf culture. These parents also discussed their hope that the schools would provide their Deaf children with quality education and that the curriculum would be equivalent to what the public schools used with hearing children. Additional topics dealt with the use of speech and hearing aids in school and the use of American Sign Language at home and at school. A follow-up interview took place nine years later, and while many of the same themes were addressed, new areas of concern also emerged.

Is It Time to Look Beyond Teachers' Signing Behavior?

Since the 1970s classrooms and programs for deaf students have evolved from the exclusive reliance on oral/auditory methods to combined methods of speech and English-based signing and bilingual methods that include the use of American Sign Language (ASL). Today there are many deaf students who have signed throughout their school years, and it is no longer unusual to find deaf graduates with hearing parents who have signed to them since their preschool days. In spite of all of these changes, we have seen little change in the academic abilities and in particular the literacy abilities of deaf children (Moores 2001; Paul 1998).

Maggie’s Story–A Tale of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Maggie’s Story–A Tale of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Illusions of Equality: Deaf Americans in School and Factory, 1850-1950

From the mid-1850s to the post-World War II era, Deaf Americans typically sought to deemphasize their identity as sign language users to be integrated better into the workforce. But in his absorbing book Illusions of Equality, Robert Buchanan shows that events during this period would thwart these efforts. The residential schools for deaf students in the 19th century stressed the use of American Sign Language while also recognizing the value of learning English. But the success of this system was disrupted by the rise of oralism, with its commitment to teaching deaf children speech and its ban of sign language. Buchanan depicts the consequences in sobering terms: most deaf students left school with limited educations and abilities that qualified them only for marginal jobs. He also describes the Deaf community's male hierarchy insistence through the end of World War II on individual responsibility, tactics that continually failed to earn job security for deaf workers. Illusions of Equality is an original, edifying work that will be appreciated for years to come.

American Sign Language as an Accommodation During Standards-Based Assessments

In many states, standards-based education reform includes high-stakes assessment of children. Due to increasing pressure from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to include all children in state and district standards and assessments, many states have developed testing accommodation policies for special populations. In this study, we report specific challenges to the inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing students in the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning and the accountability system. One of the unanswered questions is whether the use of American Sign Language as an accommodation impacts the validity of standards-based assessments. The data from this study suggest that sign language use as an accommodation presents political, practical, and psychometric challenges. In particular, sign language translation can result in the omission of pertinent information required to answer a test item correctly. The authors make practical suggestions for leaders and test administrators about implementing accommodations.

Potential Barriers to Implementing a Bilingual/Bicultural Program for Deaf Children

Educational programs for deaf children in the United States continue to turn out functionally illiterate high school graduates. One effort to reform this situation is the use of American Sign Language (ASL) as the language of instruction in a bilingual/bicultural educational program. As such programs are being implemented it would be well to look at what may help and what may hinder their success. The present study investigates, at two mid-Atlantic residential schools for deaf children, possible barriers to the implementation of an ASL/English program, and seeks to determine some perspectives within the field of Deaf Education on the value and use of ASL and English for instruction.

Procedures for Socially Integrating Preschoolers Who Are Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing

Although the popularity of including preschoolers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing into a variety of preschool facilities is increasing, facilitating social integration of preschoolers who are hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing is particularly challenging (Antia, 1988). This is in part because language difference (e.g., use of American Sign Language rather than English), modality difference (e.g., sign use rather than speech), or language delay have the potential to render ineffective both adult and peer conversation. In this article, the relationship between communication and social integration is explored, followed by information pertaining to intervention and evaluation of social integration activities with children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Finally, we describe several components to assist adults who wish to facilitate the social integration of preschoolers who are hearing, deaf, or hard-of-hearing. It is hoped that those attempting the proposed techniques will disseminate objective, data-based accounts of outcomes to fill the gap in the current literature base.