The role of languages is a central issue in deaf education. The function of sign languages in education and deaf students' opportunities to develop linguistic abilities in both sign languages and the dominant language(s) of a society are key considerations (Hogan-Brun 2009; Reagan 2010, 53; Swanwick 2010a). Accordingly, what Kaplan and Baldauf…

This investigation examined whether access to sign language as a medium for instruction influences theory of mind (ToM) reasoning in deaf children with similar home language environments. Experiment 1 involved 97 deaf Italian children ages 4-12 years: 56 were from deaf families and had LIS (Italian Sign Language) as their native language, and 41…

Examined cerebral activation during sign language comprehension in six persons with deafness and nine hearing persons, all of whose parents were deaf. The group with deafness showed more activation than the hearing group in the right parieto-occipital region, indicating that they were more dependent on the spatial components in sign language than…

This paper explores linguistic landscapes and the enactment of public visibility and presence of non-majority linguistic groups in EU member states. Non-majority linguistic groups gain power, visibility and presence through the introduction of bilingual or multilingual signposts on roads, streets, squares, and public buildings in towns and cities…

This paper discusses the concept of "noticing" (Schmidt, 1990; cf. Smith, 2010) in relation to text-based second language interaction (instant messaging). Data has been collected at an upper secondary school, where students of English as a foreign language interact with the researcher, providing feedback on language and content. In…

Web-based distance education has become a "real" teaching alternative which has instigated more research particularly in the past decade. This research has commonly focused on four major perspectives: (1) information-technology; (2) course management systems (including course communication tools); (3) information design; and (4) online…

Early reading and spelling abilities in children from Ireland and Sweden with severe speech and physical impairment (SSPI) were studied and compared. The aim was to look for similarities as well as for differences that could be related to the different linguistic environments. Both group consisted of 15 children, and were matched on linguistic…

A replication of a previous study assessed the construct validity of a national test for academically oriented Swedish upper secondary students. The analysis consisted of a comparison of test results of 10 percent of the Swedish test population to results obtained from a sample of native English speakers of the same age. Analyses of the Swedish…