Teaching American Sign Language to Hearing Adult Learners

Abstract

American Sign Language (ASL) has become a very popular language in high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the U.S., due, in part, to the growing number of schools that allow students to take the language in order to fulfill a foreign or general language requirement. Within the past couple decades, the number of students enrolled in ASL classes has increased dramatically, and there are likely more instructors of ASL at the present time than ever before. ASL and spoken language instruction are similar in some aspects; however, there are also differences between the two (e.g., modality differences involving visual rather than auditory perception and processing, no commonly used writing system in ASL, and the socio-cultural history of deaf-hearing relations). In spite of these differences, minimal research has been done on ASL learning and classroom pedagogy—especially in recent years. This article reports on studies that have been performed recently and it also suggests various themes for future research. In particular, three main areas of research are proposed: the possible role of the socio-political history of the Deaf community in which ASL teaching is situated, linguistic differences between signed and spoken languages, and the use of video and computer-based technologies.

Exploring Teacher Perceptions of a Textbook-Free ASL Curriculum at a Canadian University: A Qualitative Combined Methods Study

“…This is in line with the current ASL/ASL curriculum literature (e.g. Kelly, 2001;Quinto-Pozos, 2011;Rosen, 2010) that overwhelmingly tends towards the same idea: curriculum equals textbook 18 . more important to know what it means to the relevant stakeholder and work with it, rather than to agree on one "real" meaning.…”

Translanguaging and the No Voice Policy in L2 Sign Language Contexts

“…Additionally, ASL as a second language is not as well researched compared to other more commonly taught spoken minority languages. The needs of these learners, their proficiency attainment, and even the efficacy of particular teaching methods remain largely undocumented and uninvestigated (McKee, Rosen, & McKee, 2014;Quinto-Pozos, 2011;Tanner, 2014;Willoughby, Linder, Ellis, & Fisher, 2015). These gaps leave ASL instructors with little support for their pedagogical choices, aside from anecdotal evidence or gut feelings about their learners (Thoryk, 2010).…”

Práticas avaliativas no processo de inclusão do aluno com deficiência intelectual: caminhos, desafios e perspectivas

“…O uso de vídeos no ensino de Línguas de Sinais tem sido discutido por diversos autores (BIENVENU, 2009;KYLE, JOHN, MERZANI e DAY, 2010;QUINTO-POZOS, 2011;LEBE-DEFF;SANTOS, 2014). Bienvenu (2009, p.2) advoga que todos os trabalhos acadêmicos de disciplinas de Língua Americana de Sinais devem ser entregues em vídeo.…”