This pilot study examines whether the increased virtual "mobility" of ASL users via videophone and video-relay services is contributing to the standardization of ASL. In addition, language attitudes are identified and suggested to be influencing the perception of correct versus incorrect standard forms. ASL users around the country have their own…

Despite the society's growing understanding of sign languages, particularly American Sign Language (ASL), there is still a profound limitation on the availability of literary, linguistic, historical, and other reference materials related to them because of the lack of a commonly accepted writing system. This article transcribed and analyzed a set…

Recognizing that knowledge about other cultures and their responses to deafness is limited in the United States, focuses on rituals that are not widely known to North Americans. Offers descriptions of Mexican rituals to advance an understanding of the way the meaning of deafness is interpreted in different cultures. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes the structure of Providence Island Sign Language as affected by the interaction of deaf signers with hearing signers in the Providence Island community. (AM)

Although most societies view deaf people as inferior to hearing people and often actively discriminate against deaf individuals and groups, the 3,000 hearing people on Providence Island come closer to an equal acceptance and treatment of deaf people than do those in other societies that have been studied. (Author/HP)

Argues for the existence of two types of communities other than the diglossic deaf communities--isolated and developing deaf communities. The history, sign language and finger spelling of the Grand Cayman deaf community are discussed. As the deaf community develops, it is thinning out and breaking up. (PJM)

Two aspects of a study of the problems hearing people have in acquiring British Sign Language (BSL) are described: (1) the measurement of current skills in BSL of professionals in the field, and (2) current training programs in BSL in the United Kingdom and results of some controlled teaching situations. (Author/PJM)

Discusses the responses of over 100 US colleges and universities to a survey regarding their policy on accepting American Sign Language (ASL) as meeting the foreign language requirement. While some accept ASL, most do not because they do not consider it a foreign language, nor deafness a culture. (SED)

Thirty audiologists, speech pathologists, educators of the deaf, and language teachers were asked to sort 60 compositions written by signing and nonsigning deaf students and by English as a second language (ESL) students. The professionals could not sort the compositions correctly but tended to attribute lower quality texts to deaf signers.…

Although American Sign Language (ASL) has a long and rich history in America and scholarly research on ASL is in its third decade, ASL has been slow to garner any degree of status in the academic community, although some higher education institutions are beginning to consider ASL for their foreign-language curriculum. (CB)

Examines the educational purposes of foreign-language requirements and asserts that the study of American Sign Language meets these goals in ways in which other "languages" (English dialects, computer languages) do not. (CB)

An examination of the linguistics of American Sign Language (ASL) establishes beyond a doubt that ASL is a natural language distinct from English and provides insight into how the abstract cognitive system called language finds expression in the signed modality. (CB)

An anthropological study of the American Deaf Culture points out that its members do not merely constitute a subculture and that study of American Sign Language, like many other foreign languages, offers knowledge of not only a natural language but also the culture in which it is used. (CB)

Although American Sign Language (ASL) currently lacks an accepted writing system, one of the common reasons why it is not accepted for credit in foreign language programs, ASL does have a rich literary tradition. Several curricular remedies to improve those sign language courses are proposed. (CB)

Outlines the procedures used to identify, analyze, and organize components of an American Sign Language curriculum, based on processes used to develop second-language curricula. Students are encouraged to develop communicative competence and cultural awareness in a classroom environment, allowing for natural language learning. (CB)