Bøger i Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities serien

An initiative known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) strives to improve education by examining and assessing classroom interaction. This book presents research by professors who adopted SoTL methodology to study their classrooms at Gallaudet University, an institution employing American Sign Language and written English.

Includes the cultural perceptions by and of deaf people, the assimilation of deaf children to surrounding communities, the role that society's view of deaf people plays in affecting how deaf people view themselves, the impact of bilingualism in deaf communities, and transliteration.

Conventional wisdom dictates that individuals who learn American Sign Language (ASL) at a young age possess a higher level of proficiency than those who acquire ASL later, the author shows how diversity in the deaf community belies such generalization.

This volume assesses the progress of three second-grade deaf students to demonstrate the importance of placement, context and language in their development. It demonstrates that the key educational element of language development cannot be achieved in a social vacuum.