Depicting Verbs and Constructed Action: Necessary Narrative Components in Deaf Adults’ Storybook Renditions
Jennifer S. Beal-Alvarez and Jessica W. Trussell
Abstract
Factors to Consider When Making Lexical Comparisons of Sign Languages: Notes from an Ongoing Comparison of German Sign Language and Swiss German Sign Language
Sarah Ebling, Reiner Konrad, Penny Boyes Braem, and Gabriele Langer
Abstract
Signed Names in Japanese Sign Language: Linguistic and Cultural Analyses
Angela Nonaka, Kate Mesh, and Keiko Sagara
Abstract
Teacher-as-Researcher Paradigm for Sign Language Teachers: Toward Evidence-Based Pedagogies for Improved Learner Outcomes
Russell S Rosen, Meredith Turtletaub, Mary DeLouise, and Sarah Drake
Abstract
Bridges to Understanding: What Happens When a Bakhtinian Critical Lens Is Applied to an American Sign Language Poem
Pamela Kincheloe
Abstract
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.
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Factors to Consider When Making Lexical Comparisons of Sign Languages: Notes from an Ongoing Comparison of German Sign Language and Swiss German Sign Language
This article discusses some of the methodological factors taken into consideration in a first, and still ongoing, study of lexical similarity between German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) and Swiss German Sign Language (Deutschschweizerische Gebärdensprache, DSGS). For our investigation we followed the approach of Xu (2006) and Su and Tai (2009) by taking iconicity into account. However, whereas these earlier studies operated on the general concept of iconic motivation, we have added a more specific method of labeling both the image-producing techniques and (when possible) the underlying image and/or motivating elements (Langer 2005), which we believe are necessary for a more precise understanding of how lexical pairs from the two languages compare with regard to identity, similarity, and difference.
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Signed Names in Japanese Sign Language: Linguistic and Cultural Analyses
This article describes the types of signed names given and used by deaf users of Japanese Sign Language. Drawing from a dataset of 216 signed names, we identify and describe nine strategies for signed name formation. Notably, seven of these represent written Japanese surnames. We explain how language contact with written Japanese characters (kanji) and syllabograms (kana) gives rise to a distinctive set of naming strategies. We further discuss the culture of literacy in Japan that emphasizes the written forms of surnames and consider its influential role in Japanese deaf education when sustained contact between many deaf people made naming a central concern.
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Teacher-as-Researcher Paradigm for Sign Language Teachers: Toward Evidence-Based Pedagogies for Improved Learner Outcomes
In the teaching of sign languages as foreign languages (FLs), teachers instruct learners in vocabulary and conversational grammar. In doing so they frequently notice that some learners are able to learn and produce vocabulary and use correct grammar, whereas others struggle. For a better understanding of learners’ learning processes and their own pedagogical approaches, FL teachers turn to research studies on the teaching and learning of FLs. However, those studies are often largely inapplicable to their in-classroom practices. To resolve this problem, this article proposes and explicates teacher-as-researcher as a research paradigm for teachers’ pedagogical development to bring about improved learner outcomes.
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Bridges to Understanding: What Happens When a Bakhtinian Critical Lens Is Applied to an American Sign Language Poem
The article is an attempt at a close Bakhtinian reading of the ASL poem “Wise Old Corn #1” by Peter Cook and Kenneth Lerner of The Flying Words Project. As such, it proposes that referring to dialogic concepts in a reading of “Wise Old Corn #1” will accomplish two goals: it will reveal the cultural content of this particular poem, which has never been explicated before, and it will also test the utility of a critical examination of the dialogic possibilities inherent in the moving images of sign language poetry and ASL literature in general.
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