This collection of original papers draws upon work in linguistics, psychology, and education to highlight the relationship between language acquisition in deaf and hearing populations. The book's 11 chapters are divided into 2 sections, Theoretical Issues and Research Reports. Titles and authors are as follows: "Language Varieties in the Deaf Population and Their Acquisition by Children and Adults" (Joseph H. Bochner and John A. Albertini); "American Sign Language and the Human Biological Capacity for Language"(James Paul Gee and Wendy Goodhart); "The History of Language Use in the Education of the Deaf in the United States" (Mimi WheiPing Lou); "Sign Language Instruction and Its Implications for the Deaf" (Steven Fritsch Rudser); "A Bilingual Approach to the Education of Young Deaf Children: ASL and English" (Michael Strong); "An Assessment of Syntactic Capabilities" (Gerald P. Berent); "Children's New Sign Creations" (Diane Lillo-Martin); "Linguistic and Cultural Role Models for Hearing-Impaired Children in Elementary School Programs" (James Woodward, Thomas Allen, and Arthur Schildroth); "Acquiring Linguistic and Social Identity: Interactions of Deaf Children with a Hearing Teacher and a Deaf Adult" (Carol J. Erting); "Development of Vocal and Signed Communication in Deaf and Hearing Twins of Deaf Parents" (Martha Gonter Gausted); and "Questions and Answers in the Development of Deaf Children" (Hilde Schlesinger). (LB)