Deaf Resources in the TCC Library: Sign Language Resources

The Deaf History Reader presents nine masterful chapters that bring together a remarkably vivid depiction of the varied Deaf experience in America. This collection features the finest scholarship from a noteworthy group of historians, including Reginald Boyd, Barry A. Crouch, Mary French, Brian H. Greenwald, Harlan Lane, Harry G. Lang, Kent R. Olney, Richard Pillard, Jill Hendricks Porco, Michael Reis, and volume editor John Vickrey Van Cleve. The incisive articles collected here include an exploration of the genesis of the Deaf community and early evidence of the use of sign language; a comparison of a failed, oralist school for deaf students in Virginia to the success of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut; the development of Deaf consciousness among people who carried a dominant gene for deafness; a biographical sketch of Mary Ann Walworth Booth, an accomplished deaf woman who lived on the Western frontier; an account of Deaf agency in the Indiana Institution and the Evansville Day School; the early antecedents of mainstreaming deaf children despite the objections of their parents; a profile of Alexander Graham Bell that contrasts his support of eugenics to his defense of Deaf rights; the conflicting actions of supervisors of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf; and finally, the critical role played by deaf people in the Chicago Mission for the Deaf's success in maintaining the Deaf community for more than five decades. The remarkably rich range of topics treated in The Deaf History Reader assure its future status as a standard resource for all Deaf scholars and students.

Ann Mindess examines a culture not widely understood - American deaf culture. Collectivist and high-context, it contrasts with mainstream individualistic, low-context American culture. Both cultures are examined and the interpreter's role and responsibilities are discussed.

Debates about methods of supporting language development and academic skills of deaf or hard-of-hearing children have waxed and waned for more than 100 years: Will using sign language interfere with learning to use spoken language or does it offer optimal access to communication for deaf children? Does placement in classrooms with mostly hearing children enhance or impede academic and social-emotional development? Will cochlear implants or other assistive listening devices provide deaf children with sufficient input for age-appropriate reading abilities? Are traditional methods of classroom teaching effective for deaf and hard-of-hearing students? Although there is a wealth of evidence with regard to each of these issues, too often, decisions on how to best support deaf and hard-of-hearing children in developing language and academic skills are made based on incorrect or incomplete information. No matter how well-intentioned, decisions grounded in opinions, beliefs, or value judgments are insufficient to guide practice. Instead, we need to take advantage of relevant, emerging research concerning best practices and outcomes in educating deaf and hard-of-hearing learners. In this critical evaluation of what we know and what we do not know about educating deaf and hard-of-hearing students, the authors examine a wide range of educational settings and research methods that have guided deaf education in recent years--or should. The book provides a focus for future educational and research efforts, and aims to promote optimal support for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners of all ages. Co-authored by two of the most respected leaders in the field, this book summarizes and evaluates research findings across multiple disciplines pertaining to the raising and educating of deaf children, providing a comprehensive but concise record of the successes, failures, and unanswered questions in deaf education. A readily accessible and invaluable source for teachers, university students, and other professionals, Evidence-Based Practice in Educating Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students encourages readers to reconsider assumptions and delve more deeply into what we really know about deaf and hard-of-hearing children, their patterns of development, and their lifelong learning.

Reflecting the exponential growth of college courses offering American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language, high schools have followed suit with significant increases in ASL classes during the past two decades. Despite this trend, high school ASL teachers and program administrators possess no concrete information on why students take ASL for foreign language credit, how they learn new signs and grammar, and how different learning techniques determines their achievement in ASL. This new book addresses these issues to better prepare high schools in their recruitment and education of new ASL students.        Author Russell S. Rosen begins with the history of ASL as a foreign language in high schools, including debates about the foreign language status of ASL, the situation of deaf and hard of hearing students in classes, and governmental recognition of ASL as a language. Based on his study of five high school ASL programs, he defines the factors that motivate students, including community and culture, and analyzes strategies for promoting language processing and learning.  Learning American Sign Language in High School provides strategies for teaching ASL as a second language to students with learning disabilities as well. Its thorough approach ensures the best opportunity for high school students to attain high levels of achievement in learning ASL.

The Random House Webster’s Compact American Sign Language Dictionary is a treasury of over 4,500 signs for the novice and experienced user alike. It includes complete descriptions of each sign, plus full-torso illustrations. There is also a subject index for easy reference as well as alternate signs for the same meaning.

The Third Volume in the Studies in Interpretation Series This new volume focuses on scholarship over a refined spectrum of issues that confront interpreters internationally. Editors Melanie Metzger and Earl Fleetwood call upon researchers from the United States, Ireland, Australia, and the Philippines to share their findings in six chapters. In the first chapter, Roberto R. Santiago and Lisa A. Frey Barrick reveal how interpreters deal with translating source language idioms into American Sign Language (ASL). In Chapter 2, Lorraine Neeson and Susan Foley-Cave review the particular demands for decision-making that face interpreters on several levels in a class on semantics and pragmatics. Liza B. Martinez explains in Chapter 3 the complicated, multilingual process of code switching by Filipino interpreters when voice-interpreting Filipino Sign Language. Chapter 4 offers a deconstruction by Daniel Roush of the stereotype that Deaf ASL-users are direct or blunt, based on his analysis of two speech/social activities of requests and refusals. Jemina Napier investigates interpreting from the perspective of deaf consumers in Australia in Chapter 5 to explore their agenda for quality interpreting services. In the final chapter, Amy Frasu evaluates methods for incorporating visual aids into interpretations from spoken English to American Sign Language and the potential cognitive dissonance for deaf persons that could result.

The Fifth Volume in the Studies in Interpretation Series In interpreting, professionals must be able to convey to their clients the rhythm, stress, and length of phrases used by the communicating parties to indicate their respective emotional states. Such subtleties, which can signal sarcasm and irony or whether a statement is a question or a command, are defined in linguistics as prosody. Brenda Nicodemus's new volume, the fifth in the Studies in Interpretation series, discusses the prosodic features of spoken and signed languages, and reports the findings of her groundbreaking research on prosodic markers in ASL interpretation. In her study, Nicodemus videotaped five highly skilled interpreters as they interpreted a spoken English lecture into ASL. Fifty Deaf individuals viewed the videotaped interpretations and indicated perceived boundaries in the interpreted discourse. These identified points were then examined for the presence of prosodic markers that might be responsible for the perception of a boundary. Prosodic Markers and Utterance Boundaries reports on the characteristics of the ASL markers, including their frequency, number, duration, and timing. Among other findings, the results show that interpreters produce an average of seven prosodic markers at each boundary point. The markers are produced both sequentially and simultaneously and under conditions of highly precise timing. Further, the results suggest that the type of prosodic markers used by interpreters are both systematic and stylistic.

Useful for those interested in understanding and utilizing American Sign Language (ASL), this phrase book serves as a reference tool and a study guide.

Lucas, Valli (both Gallaudet U.) and Bayley (U. of Texas, San Antonio) present materials designed to introduce members of the Deaf community and the general public to the sociolinguistic variation in American Sign Language (ASL). These materials are a part of the resulting products from a seven-year

The Third Volume in the Interpreter Education Series The latest addition to the Interpreter Education series expands the tools available to instructors with six new, vital chapters on new curricula and creative teaching methods. Series editor Cynthia B. Roy leads the way by calling for the use of a discourse-oriented curriculum for educating interpreters. In the following chapter, Claudia Angelelli outlines the bottom-line principles for teaching effective health-care interpreting, postulating a model that depends upon the development of skills in six critical areas: cognitive-processing, interpersonal, linguistics, professional, setting-specific, and sociocultural. Risa Shaw, Steven D. Collins, and Melanie Metzger collaborate on describing the process for establishing a bachelor of arts program in interpreting at Gallaudet University distinct from the already existent masters program. In the fourth chapter, Doug Bowen-Bailey describes how to apply theories of discourse-based interpreter education in specific contexts by producing customized videos. Jemina Napier blends three techniques for instructing signed language interpreters in Australia: synthesizing sign and spoken language interpreting curricula; integrating various interpreting concepts into a theoretical framework; and combining online and face-to-face instruction. Finally, Helen Slatyer delineates the use of an action research methodology to establish a curriculum for teaching ad hoc interpreters of languages used by small population segments in Australia.