Spatial language in English and American Sign Language (ASL) was compared by asking 10 native signers and 10 English speakers to solve a set of spatial puzzles. The study highlights the ramifications of a linguistic system in which space itself is used to convey spatial information compared to one that conveys the same information via an auditory…

Reviews Thomas A. Sebeok's "Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics." This book teaches the reader to use terms like "sign,""icon,""index," and "symbol" with greater precision and effect. Sebeok's work spans more than three decades and strongly contributes to a number of related disciplines, especially to the world of biology. (nine references) (CK)

Carol Padden's influential framework for observations of deaf culture is examined. Some potentially potent socio-anthropological ideas are used to sketch implications for revisions of such a framework, adjusting concepts of culture and asking how notions of deaf culture are constructed. (Contains 55 references.) (Author/LB)

Four writers (Yerker Andersson, Trevor Johnston, Leila Monaghan, and Brian Street) respond to Graham Turner's discussion of deaf culture, considering labeling categories and approaches to definitions of "deaf culture." (Contains 24 references.) (LB)

Turner's responses to discussion of deaf culture cover these topics: deaf perspective; approaches to description; transparency and explicitness; labeling; historical awareness; and "thinking beyond." (Contains seven references.) (LB)

Some 76 hearing children in prekindergarten classes, half receiving sign instruction and half not, were tested on English vocabulary acquisition. Children who received the sign instruction scored significantly higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than children receiving sign instruction. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/LB)

"Patterns of the Mind," by Ray Jackendoff, and "The Language Instinct," by Steven Pinker, are reviewed. Each are written to support the theory that language is predetermined by genetically endowed brain structure but also include discussions of studies that use sign language to confirm the standard model of linguistic theory. (Contains seven…

A survey instrument for determining the competence that educational interpreters are perceived to need in 3 areas (skill, knowledge, attitude) was administered to 71 participants from the Alabama Registry of Interpreters for the deaf, students completing a training program, and classroom teachers who use interpreters. Differences among the groups…

Data from the job Analysis of Teaching American Sign Language (ASL) survey, which surveyed practicing ASL teachers, was used to compare group perceptions regarding skills and knowledge important to teaching ASL. Results show strong consensus regarding the skills and knowledge important to teaching ASL and support the use of the survey results to…

Examines arguments that language comes from innate, abstract knowledge of universal grammar that signers use to create new grammatical features. (12 references) (CK)

Reviews Barbara J. King's detailed observations of free-ranging baboons in Amboseli, Kenya; these observations contain a mass of recent research and report studies of divergent theories in primatology and paleontology. King's studies supply direct evidence about primate behavior that conveys information and show how natural information transfer is…

This study seeks to understand American Sign Language (ASL) as heterogeneous communication and to use it as a model for developing in other modalities alternative heterogeneous communication systems with the same advantages. (26 references) (CK)