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In line with the philosophy of inclusion and various legislative instruments which encourage 'education for all', ODL institutions have made provision for sign language interpreters (SLIs) to facilitate participation for deaf students. Although, some studies have examined issues of virtual learning and the ODL programme; a paucity of studies assessing virtual sign language interpretation (VSLI) in remote educational activities is evident. Therefore, a research study was instituted to probe into perceived enablers and or constraints of providing VSLI during the Covid-19 lockdown in Nigeria. Based on the Job Demand Resources Model, two research questions were raised and answered in this paper. This study adopted the qualitative research design and seven SLIs who had participated in virtual teaching and learning activities during the lockdown were purposively selected to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and the data collected were coded and analysed thematically through using an iterative process. Government policies and the empathetic nature of SLIs were found to be enablers of VSLI, while four themes, namely epileptic power supply; internet connectivity; lack of institutional support and the comprehensibility of deaf students who attended remote lectures were found to serve as barriers to effective and efficient VSLI. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made.

The purpose of this research is to describe the challenges and factors causing difficulties of deaf students in mastering writing skills at inclusive universities in Indonesia. This research is focused in Central Java province because of the more universities are considered as inclusive universities. This research was conducted in September-December 2022. The subjects in this research were selected using the purposive sampling method. Based on these limits, 35 Deaf students from six inclusive universities were obtained as respondents. The data collection techniques used questionnaires, observations, interviews, and concentrated discussions. Furthermore, the data analysis steps undertaken consisted of: (a) data analysis, (b) data revision, and (c) data verification. The results of this research concluded that the challenges experienced by students were broadly related to: (a) difficulty in mastering vocabulary, (b) understanding punctuation, and (c) difficulty if mastering complex sentences. As for more specifically related to academic text writing skills, the obstacles experienced by students including: (a) composing effective sentences, (b) developing paragraphs, (c) paraphrasing techniques, (d) writing academic texts in accordance with linguistic rules, and (e) writing bibliography. Furthermore, factors causing the occurrence of the obstacles in the mastery of academic text writing skills including: (a) unaccessible learning resources, (b) less effectively interwoven communication during lectures, and (c) different sentence structure in Sign Language with Indonesian sentence structure.

Disabled people encounter numerous barriers to accessibility and face discrimination and inequalities in their daily lives. The situation is even more complex for migrants with a disability, who have to learn how to navigate a new bureaucratic system. This study focuses on deaf adult migrants and the linguistic and bureaucratic challenges they face in Swedish society. The data consists of interviews with 43 deaf migrants participating in language learning courses in four folk high schools catering to deaf people in Sweden. Crip Theory and Crip Linguistics are used as lenses to explore the impact of able-bodiedness and linguistic norms on this particular group. The findings show that deaf migrants experience infantilisation, that sign language interpreters are often seen as a one-size-fits-all solution without much consideration for other factors influencing communication, and that normative able-bodiedness underlies many of the bureaucratic issues deaf migrants face.

Purpose: There are well-established guidelines for the recording, transcription, and analysis of spontaneous oral language samples by researchers, educators, and speech pathologists. In contrast, there is presently no consensus regarding methods for the written documentation of sign language samples. The Handshape Analysis Recording Tool (HART) is an innovative method for documenting and analyzing word level samples of signed languages in real time. Fluent sign language users can document the expressive sign productions of children to gather data on sign use and accuracy. Method: The HART was developed to document children's productions in Australian Sign Language (Auslan) in a bilingual-bicultural educational program for the Deaf in Australia. This written method was piloted with a group of fluent signing Deaf educational staff in 2014-2016, then used in 2022-2023 with a group of fluent signing professionals to examine inter- and intrarater reliability when coding parameters of sign accuracy. Results: Interrater reliability measured by Gwet's Agreement Coefficient, was "good" to "very good" across the four phonological parameters that are components of every sign: location, movement, handshape, and orientation. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that the HART can be a reliable tool for coding the accuracy of location, orientation, movement, and handshape parameters of Auslan phonology when used by professionals fluent in Auslan. The HART can be utilized with any sign language to gather word level sign language samples in a written form and document the phonological accuracy of signed productions.

Recent evidence suggests that deaf children with CIs exposed to nonnative sign language from hearing parents can attain age-appropriate vocabularies in both sign and spoken language. It remains to be explored whether deaf children with CIs who are exposed to early nonnative sign language, but only up to implantation, also benefit from this input and whether these benefits also extend to memory abilities, which are strongly linked to language development. The present study examined the impact of deaf children's early short-term exposure to nonnative sign input on their spoken language and their phonological memory abilities. Deaf children who had been exposed to nonnative sign input before and after cochlear implantation were compared to deaf children who never had any exposure to sign input as well as to children with typical hearing. The children were between 5;1 and 7;1 years of age at the time of testing and were matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that even short-term exposure to nonnative sign input has positive effects on general language and phonological memory abilities as well as on nonverbal working memory--with total length of exposure to sign input being the best predictor of deaf children's performance on these measures. The present data suggest that even access to early short-term nonnative visual language input is beneficial for the language and phonological memory abilities of deaf children with cochlear implants, suggesting also that parents should not be discouraged from learning and exposing their child to sign language.

This exploratory study provides an overview of prominent themes pertaining to portrayals of sign languages (SLs) and Deaf people in the South African press (2011-2019), as well as an analysis of a subset of articles to illustrate the discursive constructions of each of the prominent ideological framings. The findings of the paper suggest that many ways of representing South African Sign Language (SASL) and their users align with international trends. The two most prominent ideological framings are the medical/disability model and the linguistic minority model. Within the medical model, SLs are seen as inferior means of communication used by a disabled minority. Within the linguistic minority framework SLs are regarded as natural, legitimate languages deserving equal status to spoken languages. The paper also identifies an ideological framing that is not predicted by the international literature, coined here as 'diversity tokenism'. Diversity tokenism is when SL is mentioned only to increase perceived diversity, where diversity is a commodity that holds social capital. This portrayal of SASL seems to be increasing and holds a warning: although SASL users have received official recognition and rights through the recent declaration of SASL as an official language, it might not be the end of the battle to ensure that users of SASL can live out their linguistic citizenship.

Prior to the emergence of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), studies revealed lower involvement of fathers in the education of learners who are Deaf and Hard of hearing (LDHH). Although research evidence reveals that work structure and other commitments may be responsible for fathers' limited involvement in the education of their children, there is limited research evidence on the involvement of fathers of LDHH in remote education during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Based on the perceptions of mothers of LDHH, this study therefore explored fathers' involvement in the remote education of their LDHH. Hinged on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, two research questions were raised and answered in the study. Eight mothers of LDHH from KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa participated in this qualitative study. Data was gathered via a semi-structured telephonic interview, and the collected data was analysed thematically. The findings revealed that: (1) the involvement of fathers in the remote education of LDHH saw a fair increase during the lockdowns when compared to the pre-COVID-19 era; (2) father-child communication approaches, technical devices needed for remote learning, and ability to intervene promptly when technical glitches arises were factors that influenced the perceptions of the fathers' involvement in the remote education of LDHH during the lockdowns. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made for policy and practice.

Pre-school education is significant in the education of deaf children. The pre-school teacher is a gateway to realising the inclusion of deaf children in schools. In this study we investigated prospective pre-school teachers' opinions and thoughts about sign language in deaf children's education. In this descriptive study we employed the qualitative research method: semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 prospective pre-school teachers who took the elective sign language course in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The main themes obtained from the interviews were as follows: "Quality in early childhood education", "Innovative practices in teacher training", "Inclusive education in the pre-school period", "Effective teaching for deaf children" and "Sign language competence of teachers." The research findings suggest that prospective teachers must learn sign language that would contribute to their professional competence and that they would actively use sign language in their future professional lives.

Background: Early intervention is recommended for pre-school children with low language. However, few robustly evaluated language interventions for young children exist. Furthermore, in many interventions the theoretical underpinnings are underspecified and the 'active ingredients' of the interventions not tested. This paper presents a quasi-experimental study to test the efficacy and examine the active ingredients of Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST): an intervention based on usage-based theory designed to support young children to understand and produce two-, three- and four-clause element sentences. BEST manipulates the input children hear to support them to harness the cognitive mechanisms hypothesized in usage-based theories to promote the development of abstract linguistic representations. One such input manipulation is the use of signing alongside verbal input signalling both content and morphology of target sentences. Aims: To examine whether (1) BEST is more efficacious than treatment as usual (TAU); and (2) signing of content and morphology is an active ingredient of the intervention. Methods & Procedures: A quasi-experimental study recruited children aged 3;5-4;5 years from 13 schools. Schools were assigned to receive either BEST with sign, BEST without sign or TAU. The TAU group received their usual classroom provision. Across arms schools were matched with respect to classroom oral language environment and indices of deprivation. Participants were 48 children (28 boys) with expressive and/or receptive language abilities = 16th centile measured using the New Reynell Developmental Language Scales (NRDLS). Outcomes gathered by researchers blind to treatment arm were NRDLS production and comprehension standard scores and measures of production of targeted sentence structures. Outcomes & Results: Primary outcomes indicate that BEST with sign was significantly more efficacious than TAU with respect to NRDLS production standard score, but not comprehension. The advantage for production was maintained at follow-up. BEST without sign was significantly more efficacious than TAU on measures of targeted vocabulary, sentence structure and morphology. The results from this quasi-experimental study provide evidence for the efficacy of a usage-based intervention on expressive language outcomes for preschool children with low language abilities. There is also evidence to support the inclusion of sign as an active ingredient, and so efforts to train interventionists in its use are worthwhile. Conclusions & Implications: Patterns of findings across outcomes suggest signing of content and morphology may support the development of abstract linguistic representations and accelerate language learning. Given these positive results and the scale of this study, a fully powered randomized controlled trial is warranted.

This paper discusses language use and identity patterns in ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families in Romania, where at least one of the family members belongs to the ethnic Hungarian minority. Early childhood and school linguistic socialization, language use within the family, and cross-generational transmission of identity to children are explored. The research is based on five ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf family case studies. The research results show that within ethnic-national minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families, complex identity patterns may develop and multifaceted linguistic communication models may prevail, including the use of national oral languages and national sign languages of the parties involved. At the same time, a kind of special linguistic and cultural enrichment, a striving for cultural-linguistic balance, may occur.

Research has demonstrated that deaf children of deaf signing parents (DOD) are afforded developmental advantages. This can be misconstrued as indicating that no DOD children exhibit early language delays (ELDs) because of their early access to a visual language. Little research has studied this presumption. In this study, we examine 174 ratings of DOD 3- to 5-year-old children, for whom signing in the home was indicated, using archival data from the online database of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist. Our goals were to (1) examine the incidence of ELDs in a cohort of DOD children; (2) compare alternative scaling strategies for identifying ELD children; (3) explore patterns among behavioral ratings with a view toward developing a greater understanding of the types of language behaviors that may lie at the root of language delays; and (4) suggest recommendations for parents and professionals working with language-delayed DOD children. The results indicated that a significant number of ratings suggested ELDs, with a subset significantly delayed. These children likely require further evaluation. Among the less delayed group, ASL skills, rather than communication or cognition, were seen as the major concern, suggesting that even DOD children may require support developing linguistically accurate ASL. Overall, these findings support the need for early and ongoing evaluation of visual language skills in young DOD children.

This longitudinal multiple-case study research focused on the scaffolding strategies that two Israeli deaf mothers use to boost their young hearing children's engagement in reading interactions. Despite being significant to language learning, few studies have examined the dialogic reading practices of deaf-signing mothers. The study shows that until the age of 22 months, the mothers shared picture books with their children. Between the ages of 12 to 24 months, the mothers used mostly low-demand cognitive prompts and responsive utterances. Between the ages of 24 to 36 months, they used more high-demand prompts (including open-ended questions) and expanded their responses. In line with previous studies, this research demonstrated that the Israeli deaf mothers used the books as a foundation for storytelling and reading conversations. The shared reading provided the mothers with opportunities to model the construction of ISL narratives and language functional behaviors, such as asking questions, describing things or expanding on the text.

In Sri Lanka, about 300,000 Sinhala speaking people are either deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and would benefit from a common Sinhala sign language, technological resources such as captioning, and educational and social support. There is no fully developed common sign language for members of the Sinhalese community, a severe shortage of sign language interpreters, and few resources for teachers. This exploratory study was undertaken in all nine provinces of Sri Lanka into the use of sign language, access to education for people with disabilities, and the availability of trained or qualified educators to work with the DHH people. Data were gathered via interviews and focus groups with Special Education Assistant Directors, Principals and Teachers in Deaf Schools, and Teachers of Special Education Deaf Units in mainstream schools. The DHH members of Sri Lankan society are marginalized, under-supported, and require urgent attention to their educational and social needs. This study provides a basis for much needed attention and reform.

This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Wechsler-4 Intelligence Scale who are deaf with Mild Intellectual Disability. Descriptive survey method was used. The sample included (174) deaf students in Jordan, ranging in age from (6-16.11) years. The scale was also applied in sign language. Validity indicators were found which were Content Validity (80%), Construct Validity (1.939- 0.489), Concurrent Validity with Goodenough- Harris Drawing Test (0.688) and Achievement (0.887), and the correlation coefficients ranged between subtests and the total score of the scale Between (0.487 - 0.898). Also, the significance of Reliability scale was the Test Re-test method (0.866), the arbitrator's agreement (78.2%), and the half-way method for individual questions (0.76), the marital questions (0.75), and the correlation coefficient between odd and even paragraphs (0.868). The results showed that the level of total intelligence was (IQ = 62.54). And the existence of differences in the level of arithmetic average intelligence (Verbal Comprehension Index, VCI) = (62.02), (Perceptual Reasoning Index, PRI) = (66.63), (Working Memory Index, WMI) = (74.50), and (Processing Speed Index, PSI) = (82.68), and Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ) = (62.54).And the presence of statistically significant differences in the level of Intelligence (WMI and PSI) in favor of females. There were no differences in IQ, attributable to the variable degree of hearing impairment for each of the tests (VCI, PRI, WMI, PSI, and FSIQ). The study recommends related to the understanding of sign language of deaf Mild Intellectual Disability.

In an increasingly globalised society, the internationalisation of higher education has become a prime goal for many universities, which seek to promote the development of intercultural competencies and insert their actors in dynamics of academic cooperation, knowledge construction and negotiation of meanings in an environment of respect. What is sometimes overlooked, however, is the fact that university campuses are already intercultural spaces by nature, even in the absence of internationalisation initiatives; in other words, university campuses are places where diversity abounds, making it possible to experience intercultural encounters, leading to the development of intercultural competencies. This article presents the narratives of four students and their home-making experiences at a Colombian university. Through their stories, these students give us a glimpse of the intercultural challenges they face when they try to create a sense of belonging while developing, constraining or reaffirming their identities on campus. The article analyses the student narratives through the lenses of new materialism, social semiotics, intersectionality and intercultural communication to understand the complexity of building a home with others amid diversity and, sometimes, adversity.

The term "inclusive education" has become a frequently used keyword for research due to the aim of achieving inclusivity in education and society. The term is used and translated in and across global documents that shape national policy and research as well as international research. The popularity, but also the emergency of, inclusion thus yields to international research that takes place in a multilingual context. However, this goes beyond the ability to speak such languages or translate research findings correctly. In this article, we will discuss the barriers toward translating "inclusive education" as a challenging concept across different languages and cultures. As an increasingly popular concept, "inclusion" is encountered as the topic of several studies from multiple disciplines. Transferring the meaning of "inclusion" can be challenging due to the global usage of the concept in several contexts. However, there are challenges even when the issue is confined to the educational context. This article will tackle the ways used to validate the translation based on three cases derived from three studies, respectively, international research set in multiple country contexts, research translating sign languages into written language, and multilingual research in a national context. The first case will focus on the barriers due to the cultural discrepancies between written and sign languages by concentrating on the pragmatic usages of "inclusive education" in Deaf culture in Austria, while the second case examines translingual processes while conducting research on "inclusive education" within the collaboration of Austria and Thailand and presenting research findings in native languages and English. The third case will tackle multilingual and multicultural research on "inclusive education" conducted with migrants in Austria.

The collaboration between designers and digital humanists has indeed gained increasing significance in crafting effective projects, with design serving as a centralizing force in the realm of digital humanities by establishing interfaces for individuals to engage with technological resources. Therefore, design's methodological practices, encompassing various research and experiential facets, play a pivotal role in enhancing the usability and accessibility of digital resources within the social sphere. This study aims to expand the discourse on the characteristics and potential of the interplay between inclusive design and digital humanities practices, with a specific focus on the development of bilingual digital narratives (utilizing Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese). The research adopts a collaborative, qualitative approach, encompassing processes of evaluation, validation, and enhancement. Digital visual narratives are presented as a facilitating tool for integrating LIBRAS and Portuguese, thereby aiding in language acquisition for deaf children. The article contributes to the discussion of the humanistic approach to design, emphasizing the values of empathy, ethics, and social responsibility in the creation of inclusive and accessible projects.

At present, English holds a significant importance in numerous countries worldwide, including Thailand where learning English is compulsory for students. For students with hearing impairment, however, due to their physical limitations, English instruction is different from that of other students. Additionally, students with hearing impairment have different and specific needs for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction. To design and develop an appropriate EFL course for them, we collected 68 questionnaires from Thai senior secondary school students at two schools for the deaf in Bangkok, Thailand, and 15 from stakeholders including Thai EFL teachers and executives at schools for the deaf in Bangkok, sign language interpreters, and Thai officers from the Special Education Bureau. Then, eight senior secondary school students with hearing impairment and six stakeholders were randomly selected for an interview, and eight structured classroom observations were made at the two schools for the deaf in Bangkok. The data were then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and reported using a weaving approach. The findings revealed a wealth of both implications and recommendations (i.e., in course content, schedule management, instructional activities, methods and materials, instructional languages, teacher roles, classroom setting and environment, and assessment) useful for developing a proper EFL course for Thai senior secondary school students with hearing impairment.

Deaf education officially began in Portugal in 1823, with Pedro Aron Borg, at the invitation of D. João VI and his daughter, D. Isabel. In Brazil, it began in 1857, when Édouard Adolfo Huet Merlo founded the first institution, with the consent of D. Pedro II. The Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute and the Blind in Lisbon and the Imperial Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Rio de Janeiro shared the objective to promote the intellectual and professional development of deaf students. This study intends to identify similarities and differences in pedagogical proposals of the first deaf education institutions in the two countries during the nineteenth century. The study presents a documentary investigation that follows a qualitative approach. The research findings concluded that there were significant differences in how deaf education originated in Portugal and Brazil, and in their approaches to language acquisition. Nevertheless, there were many common aspects, including the administrative organisation of the institutes, the pedagogical proposal design, and the appointment of former students as specialised tutors of younger deaf students. In both countries, the main purpose of the schools was to prepare deaf students for adulthood through professional training.

This paper critically analyses the meaning and use of translanguaging as an inclusive pedagogical strategy in the context of a bilingual deaf education classroom where there are asymmetrical sensorial experiences of being deaf and being hearing, and different access to 'codified' (either speech or sign-language) resources. The pedagogical opportunities and constraints of translanguaging are examined through an analysis of the meaning-making resources among deaf and hearing interlocutors in face-to-face interaction. Using two short excerpts from an English class with two deaf pupils, a hearing teacher of the deaf and hearing communication support worker the authors analyse ways in which the modes of image, sound and speech, gesture and signing, gaze, body posture are coordinated in the spatial context for meaning-making. A multimodal and layered analysis of two short turn sequences describes ways in which modes are integrated and coordinated in the spatial layout of the classroom in ways that either facilitate or inhibit inclusive communication. Strategies for the analysis and deployment of multimodal resources that may facilitate the inclusive potential of translanguaging in this interactional context are discussed.

The lack of diversity in the language sciences has increasingly been criticized as it holds the potential for producing flawed theories. Research on (i) geographically diverse language communities and (ii) on sign languages is necessary to corroborate, sharpen, and extend existing theories. This study contributes a case study of adapting a well-established paradigm to study the acquisition of sign phonology in Kata Kolok, a sign language of rural Bali, Indonesia. We conducted an experiment modeled after the familiarization paradigm with child signers of Kata Kolok. Traditional analyses of looking time did not yield significant differences between signing and non-signing children. Yet, additional behavioral analyses (attention, eye contact, hand behavior) suggest that children who are signers and those who are non-signers, as well as those who are hearing and those who are deaf, interact differently with the task. This study suggests limitations of the paradigm due to the ecology of sign languages and the sociocultural characteristics of the sample, calling for a mixed-methods approach. Ultimately, this paper aims to elucidate the diversity of adaptations necessary for experimental design, procedure, and analysis, and to offer a critical reflection on the contribution of similar efforts and the diversification of the field.

Reiterative code-switching, when one lexical item from one language is produced immediately after a semantically equivalent lexical item in another language, is a frequent phenomenon in studies of language contact. Several spoken language studies suggest that reiteration functions as a form of accommodation, amplification (emphasis), reinforcement, or clarification; however, its function in sign language seems less clear. In this study, we investigate reiterative code-switching produced in semispontaneous conversations while manipulating two important factors: interlocutor and topic. Ten bilinguals of Kufr Qassem Sign Language (KQSL), a local sign language used in central Israel, and Israeli Sign Language (ISL), the national sign language of Israel, participated in a semispontaneous conversation task in three interlocutor conditions, with: (1) another bilingual, (2) a KQSL-dominant signer, and (3) an ISL-dominant signer. They were given "local" (e.g., traditions in Kufr Qassem) and "global" (e.g., travel) topics to discuss. A total of 673 code-switches were found in the data, of which sixty-seven were reiterative. Interlocutor was found to be a significant predictor of the presence of reiterative code-switching, with more reiterations observed when participants interacted with a KQSL-dominant signer or bilingual than with an ISL-dominant signer. These results suggest that reiteration serves an accommodative function. Yet, this does not explain reiterations found in the bilingual-bilingual condition. We show that, in these cases, reiteration plays other roles beyond accommodation, including amplification.

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) is an extinct village sign language hypothesized to be a sister of British Sign Language (BSL) and a significant contributor to early American Sign Language (ASL) (Groce 1985). After the last deaf MVSL signer died, signs were elicited from five hearing signers. This study analyzes that data through a series of lexicostatistical comparisons following methodology from Woodward (1978) and Guerra Currie, Meier, and Walters (2002). The results show that a sample of 711 MVSL signs is 67 percent similar to ASL, 74 percent similar to Old ASL (OASL), 56 percent similar to Old French Sign Language (OLSF), and 59 percent similar to BSL. Subsequent etymological analysis suggests that most signs shared by ASL and MVSL originated in Old LSF or ASL, and that signs shared with BSL likely came through ASL to MVSL, not the reverse. This suggests that MVSL did not play a large role in shaping early ASL; however, MVSL data may still be useful in reconstructing OASL.

Like language teachers everywhere, Deaf teachers of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) had to suddenly move classes online when COVID-19 restrictions were implemented from March 2020. NZSL is conventionally taught through a direct immersion, communicative approach, so adapting instruction to a remote mode required NZSL teachers to develop new technical skills, and adapt teaching formats and strategies to accommodate the constraints of on-screen interaction and learning. The combination of a visual language produced in three dimensions with a screen-mediated mode of interaction creates particular challenges for sign language teachers and learners. This article reports a qualitative enquiry into 14 teachers' experiences and strategies, with the aim of contributing to practice knowledge for sign language teachers, and to extend the literature on emergency remote teaching (ERT) addressing the teaching of community and signed languages, particularly in the adult community education sector. The study does not evaluate online teaching outcomes, but rather seeks to understand how NZSL teachers adapted to new challenges and what pedagogical knowledge may be carried forward.

In many countries across the world education for deaf people is limited and sign languages are undervalued. In this paper we discuss insights from an initiative to support deaf education for young adults in India, Ghana, and Uganda. Reporting here on the work in India, our project used a bilingual approach, with Indian Sign Language as the main means of communication while developing students' English literacy through a multiliteracies pedagogy (Cope, Bill, and Mary Kalantzis, eds. 2000. "Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures." London: Routledge)?and the use of authentic texts in lessons. Our approach was designed to invite learners' agency and input. Responding to students' engagement with the approach, we encountered their demand for formal grammar teaching and we offer an example of how one of the tutors engaged with this. Illustrated with visual data from the lessons, we discuss two insights from the project: the importance of the students' 'semiotic repertoire'?(Kusters, Annelies, Massimiliano Spotti, Ruth Swanwick, and Elina Tapio. 2017. "Beyond Languages, Beyond Modalities: Transforming the Study of Semiotic Repertoires." "International Journal of Multilingualism" 14 (3): 219-232.)?; and the centrality of an inclusive educational approach that is supportive of students' agency and aspirations for learning.

One of the major impacts of hearing disability that hinders the individual's effective participation in society and full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms is his/her ability to communicate with others. Sign language is one of the main methods of communication used by people with hearing disability. Therefore, improving access to sign language services and increasing the availability of interpreters contribute to better inclusion and integration of people with hearing disability into society. This paper explores the experience of a Jordanian university that launched a pioneering initiative by offering a sign language course for its students. It reports the findings of a study that evaluated this initiative from the perspective of students. Feedback was recorded during unstructured interviews with 23 student participants who had taken the course. The paper concludes that universities can play a significant role in integrating people with disabilities into the education system and promoting their participation in society.

Educational systems change in top-down and bottom-up processes. One example is when authorities introduce a new curriculum, but it can also be changed by agents active in the system. In education, agents of change include educators, students and institutions. In this article, we explore the narratives of educators (n = 4) in the bachelor's programme for signed language interpreter education (both deaf and hearing students) at Humak University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. Data were collected through interviews conducted in 2016. We used content analysis and the theory of agency as a framework for analysis. Here, agency is understood as threefold building on the past, present and future. We explore the different dimensions of becoming an agent of change, being an agent of change and being an agent in a changing field. We find that within the context of this sign language interpreting programme, educators' previous experiences, intercultural competence and ideas about the future contribute to changes in the curriculum and possibly to social change.

Although automated spoken language assessment is rapidly growing, such systems have not been widely developed for signed languages. This study provides validity evidence for an automated web application that was developed to assess and give feedback on handshape and hand movement of L2 learners' Swiss German Sign Language signs. The study shows good machine-internal and human-machine agreement through many-facet Rasch analysis. Learner perceptions examined through questionnaire responses indicate that the automated system occasionally generated ratings which impacted the quality of feedback at the level of individual signs for individual learners. Implications are discussed from a learning-oriented assessment perspective.

Bimodal bilingualism involves the use of a sign language and a spoken language, and offers a unique opportunity to explore the cognitive effects of growing up bilingual. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between bimodal bilingualism and executive function (EF) in hearing children who are native users of a sign language. We studied three groups of children: bimodal bilinguals (users of a sign language and a spoken language), unimodal bilinguals (users of two spoken languages), and monolinguals, performing three cognitive tasks to measure different components of EF: visuospatial working memory (Odd One Out task), cognitive flexibility (Children's Colored Trails Test) and conflict resolution (Simon task). All groups of children obtained similar scores on the Odd One Out task and the Children's Colored Trails Test. Bimodal bilinguals displayed distinct patterns of conflict resolution in comparison to monolingual children: bimodal bilinguals had better overall accuracy and slower overall reaction time in the Simon task. The subsequent analysis did not find a straightforward trade-off between speed and accuracy. These results suggest that bimodal language experience and/or visual-spatial language usage may explain the small bimodal bilingual advantage in the Simon task that we observed in hearing children who are native signers.

The process of reform of the education system of the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century was central for the establishment of new institutes for the less advantaged members of the society. Among these, special schools for D/deaf students stand out, not least because all the communities that were part of the Empire could be enrolled in these institutes. Allowing traditional school subjects to be taught to D/deaf people, the establishment of these schools represents a turning point in the history of the Ottoman education system. Through an analysis of the legal and historical framework that led to their institution, the aim of this article is to contextualise the schools for the D/deaf within the education policies of the Ottoman Empire from the second half of the nineteenth to the first decade of the twentieth century. Moreover, through an examination of their academic programmes, this article proposes to investigate the role of these institutions and their educational curricula in the attempt to make D/deaf people an active part of the Ottoman civil society.

Researchers examining the structure of questions in signed languages, often using elicited data from informants, have proposed that there are specific manual and nonmanual actions produced by signers to indicate different question types (e.g., Zeshan 2004), for example, raised eyebrows for polar questions. In the current study, we add to this body of work with an investigation into the use of two common interactional behaviors -- finger pointing and palm-up actions -- as they occur in questions asked during naturalistic conversations in Norwegian Sign Language. The interactional work finger pointing and palm-up actions can achieve in various settings is well-documented (e.g., Bavelas 1994), and their presence in question contexts has been observed in Norwegian Sign Language (Ferrara 2020). In total, 455 questions produced by thirty-four deaf signers were examined as they appeared across dyadic, triadic, and multiparty conversations recorded in the Norwegian Sign Language Corpus (Ferrara and Ringsø 2021; Ferrara and Bø 2022; Ferrara in prep). These questions were then examined for the presence of interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions. Analyses firstly revealed that interactional finger pointing and palm-up actions appeared in many of the questions examined. Within this subset of the data, further analysis showed that these forms may be the only manual action that signals an utterance as a question, or they may occur in combination with other manual (e.g., WH-question forms: HOW, WHERE) and nonmanual actions (e.g., furrowed or raised brows). In many of these questions, the two forms appear in utterance-final position, thereby indexing an interlocutor in order to solicit a response. Such initial observations suggest that these two manual actions must be considered as part of the constellation of behaviors that characterize the highly indexical and interactional nature of question-asking in Norwegian Sign Language.

This article explores turn-taking in Japanese Sign Language ( JSL) by using Baker's (1977) framework. JSL as a language is wholly unrelated to American Sign Language (ASL), but because Baker and other discourse analysts have always been concerned mostly with ASL and European sign languages, it remains to be seen if Asian sign languages such as JSL have similar discourse mechanisms at work. Baker introduces three types of regulators that manage who has the floor in ASL conversations: initiation regulators, continuation regulators, and shift regulators. The sequential analysis, which looks closely at each case of regulatory behavior as they happen in chronological order, will be used. The video analyzed consists of three fluent deaf JSL users recorded on a virtual platform. While Baker's turn-taking system holds water for the most part, there are some crucial differences that deserve further examination. As the recording was done remotely rather than in person, a turn-taking mechanism not made explicit by Baker has been observed, and an addition to the sign language turn-taking process is put forward.

Minimal expressions are at the heart of interaction: Interjections like "Huh?" and "Mhm" keep conversations flowing by establishing and reinforcing intersubjectivity among interlocutors. Crosslinguistic research has identified that similar interactional pressures can yield structurally similar words (e.g., to initiate repair across languages). While crosslinguistic comparisons that include signed languages remain uncommon, recent work has revealed similarities in discourse management strategies among signers and speakers that share much of their cultural background. This study contributes a crossmodal comparison of repair initiators and continuers in speakers of English and signers of British Sign Language (BSL). We combine qualitative and quantitative analyses of data from sixteen English speakers and sixteen BSL signers, resulting in the following: First, the interactional infrastructure drawn upon by speakers and signers overwhelmingly relies on behaviors of the head, face, and body; these are used alone or sometimes in combination with verbal elements (i.e., spoken words or manual signs), while verbal strategies alone are rare. Second, discourse management strategies are remarkably similar in form across the two languages: A held eye gaze or "freeze-look" is the predominant repair initiator and head nodding the main continuer. These results suggest a modality-agnostic preference for visual strategies that do not occupy the primary articulators, one that we propose is founded in recipiency; people maintain the flow of communication following principles of minimal effort and minimal interruption.

The term "repair" refers to strategies deployed by language users to resolve breakdowns in communication. In this study, I ask what strategies for conversational repair are deployed, and who takes responsibility for their execution, when a language is used in a small local signing ecology. I focus on signers from a single family within a larger speech community that does not use a national signed language and analyze conversations from four dyads of signers who engaged in a "director-matcher" referential communication task. I find that for three of the four dyads, there is a preference for "restricted" repairs that closely matches studies of repair in other signed and spoken languages. I also find a strong connection between participant role and repair type--with matchers more likely to use other-initiated repairs while directors produced self-repairs. The findings from this study highlight the complex relationship between participant identities and pragmatic strategies and the complicated social function of different types of repair in interaction.

Deaf-sighted, deaf-blind, and hearing-sighted people have been interacting within a small community in the Bay Islands of Honduras for over a century (Ali 2023; Ali and Braithwaite 2020). In this article, we sketch the history of the community and the ways in which signers make use of their own and their interlocutor's bodies to co-construct meaning. Based on a short conversation between two deaf-blind signers, we identify mechanisms used to regulate turn-taking, including some which are familiar from other visual and tactile sign languages, and some which are rather novel in the literature. We show that signers make use of visual and tactile-proprioceptive channels, bearing in mind, but not entirely determined by, the sensorial orientations of their interlocutors. We conclude that this way of languaging is not a visual sign language and not yet fully adapted to the tactile modality, nor is it undeveloped or disordered in any other sense. Rather, we believe that this case demonstrates the ways in which human languaging makes use of multiple modalities and adapts to the needs of each interactional context. While linguists have sometimes been inclined to classify languages into neat modality boxes (auditory-vocal, visual-gestural, tactile-gestural), this analysis supports Henner and Robinson's (2023) calls for what they term a "crip linguistics," which embraces disabled ways of languaging, rejects ideas of disordered language, and recognizes languaging as multimodal.

This study focuses on the practice of simultaneous co-interpreting in the media, specifically examining the interaction between a hearing interpreter (HI) and a deaf interpreter (DI). The HI's role in this context is to interpret the spoken source speech in Belgian French into French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) for the DI, who, in turn, conveys the discourse to a deaf audience. The main objective of this research is to explore the phenomenon of adjustment within the HI-DI interaction and the strategies used by the HIs to overcome the inherent challenges of this configuration. To do so, the study analyzes a collection of recorded press conferences related to the COVID-19 crisis, featuring four HI-DI teams. By analyzing a set of video data from press conferences, this study aims to identify the types of information exchanged during the interpretation process, such as specific concepts, meta-comments, the speaker's intentions, and so on. Additionally, the study aims to identify the strategies used by the HIs throughout the process. This analysis reveals the complex dynamics of the HI-DI interaction, shedding light on the HIs' efforts to convey content and meaning from the source speech, as well as their use of metalinguistic indications to make effective adjustments. This article focuses on three specific strategies employed by the HIs: compression strategies, whose goal is to provide the DI with time and space to reformulate the (pre)interpreted message; explicitation strategies, used to make explicit logical connections and prosodic information in the discourse; and interactional signaling strategies, which facilitate interaction between the interpreters.

This article describes the current landscape of teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students in a multilingual, multi-cultural classroom amid the pandemic. The article highlights the uniqueness of Filipino Deaf students as multilingual learners in a multi-cultural classroom and the lack of literature and research on Deaf multilingualism both locally and globally. Moreover, the article focuses on the role of Deaf teachers in teaching Filipino Deaf students, especially in their literacy development. The steps being done to ensure that the curriculum is inclusive of Deaf learners who use Filipino Sign Language (FSL), teacher preparation and materials development, and the challenges in the shift to distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic are also discussed. Future directions and recommendations include review of curriculum and adaptation, enhancement of teacher preparation, promotion of collaborative teaching and research efforts, and the production of more appropriate and accessible instructional materials for Deaf students.

In this article, we visualize a framework of the intersectionality of literacy, spatial justice, and multimodality in teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students. We propose a metaphor-based framework and discuss how it can be used in teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students through classroom examples as well as suggestions and recommendations for teachers. We do this mainly through redefining the term "literacy," allowing students access to different modalities, and restructuring learning spaces. We also explore the relationship between spatial justice and the concept of Deaf Space and how this applies in the "new normal" of online learning due to the pandemic. We also address the issue of how classroom and education structure may inadvertently produce spatial injustice, especially for Deaf students. Implications and additional questions in teaching Filipino Deaf students are also discussed.

The inclusive education debate is often framed as a choice between outmoded special schools and progressive inclusive general education schools. However, the rhetoric of 'choice' hides what is in reality a context of restricted resources, both in general education and in special congregated settings. We interview three deaf-parented families with a total of six deaf children enrolled in different educational settings in Belgium. We explore the educational choices parents made for their children and how these choices are influenced (1) by their own knowledge of and lived experience with the educational choices available and (2) actually existing resources. Our study shows a clear contrast between the capital parents bring to their children's educational experiences and the choices available. Parents want to send their children to congregated settings to give them an education in sign language but are hindered from doing so because of the schools' lack of adherence to educational standards. Instead they are pushed into a general education system that tasks their time and energy, as well as their child's bodies. The paucity of options for these parents calls for a rethinking of the parameters of the inclusive education debate, moving beyond placement to a holistic focus on deaf children's linguistic, educational, and social development.

Parallel support is a Greek type of special education provision aiming at providing additional support to students identified with special educational needs and/or disability in mainstream classrooms. Drawing from quantitative data for the school-year 2018-2019 this paper presents findings on certain characteristics of primary and pre-primary teachers who work in parallel support including gender, educational qualifications, teaching experience and further certifications in braille and/or sign language. In so doing, the paper analyses several shortcomings regarding the staffing of parallel support, especially in relation to teachers' qualifications and teaching experience. Additionally, it reports data on the recruitment procedures of teachers revealing significant delays in the hiring of teachers who work in parallel support. Finally, the paper discusses how the current educational policy creates structural barriers that hinder the educational inclusion of students with special educational needs and/or disability.

Incorporating Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) evolved from Taiwan's historical linguistic ecology and intertwined with the linguistic ecology of Taiwan's Deaf community. Utilising a qualitative document analysis incorporating a language planning and policy framework [Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge University Press; Reagan, T. (2022). Language planning and language policies for sign languages: an emerging civil rights movement. Sociolinguistica, 36(1-2), 169-182], we analyze how this law fits into Taiwan's multicultural milieu. Specifically, we analyze the transmission, revival, and development of TSL by legislating status, acquisition, corpus, and prestige planning for teaching TSL to hearing learners. Secondly, gaps are identified, such as establishing early TSL access to the birth to age five deaf learners and their caregivers, promoting Chinese literacy with TSL strategies, and hiring native Deaf signing teachers. Limitations and future directions for research and practice are then outlined.

The aim of this study was to examine how sign language policies are being implemented in special schools for the Deaf in Zimbabwe. It employed in-depth interviews to solicit data from 29 participants who were four district school inspectors, four educational psychologists, four school heads and 17 grade one to three specialist teachers. Data were analysed using deductive thematic analysis at the semantic level. The study revealed inconsistencies in sign language policy implementation as consequences of ambiguity of policy goals and conflict of the means of achieving the policy goals. The study further revealed that government officers were not proficient in sign language and so could not monitor policy implementation. Several other factors influenced the implementation of sign language policies in the special schools. Policy implementers were not aware of the meaning of sign language policies and how the policies were supposed to be implemented. There were, therefore, misunderstandings regarding how policies were to be implemented. Schools used various forms of sign language as a way of implementing the policies. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that policymakers ensure that they formulate sign language policies whose goals and means are not ambiguous to avoid conflict in the way the policies are implemented. It was also recommended that the Ministry of Education provides capacity development opportunities to sign language policy implementers starting from those at national, provincial, district and down to school levels where classroom teachers need to be taught how the sign language policies can be implemented.

This paper examines recent lexical expansion in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) in the context of change in the status of the language and ongoing contact with other (spoken and signed) languages. We categorised 917 new signs documented in the past five years according to their source, semantic field, and sign formation mechanism(s), both language-internal and language-external (contact induced). Lexical expansion in NZSL uses known sign formation mechanisms with a high proportion of (iconic) depicting constructions but also a large number of contact-induced signs including loans, calques and bimodal loan-shifts. Differences were found between planned (curriculum-related) terminology and community generated neologisms both in semantic field and prevalence of sign formation mechanisms. Variation in neologisms and non-lexical paraphrases were common, suggesting that while the semiotic repertoires of signers are diversifying, acceptance and standardisation of neologisms are uncertain. Our findings indicate that lexical expansion reflects new contexts of NZSL use (including pressure to disseminate information through interpreting and translation, and use in education) and interaction with the culture of wider society.

The ability to associate different types of number representations referring to the same quantity (symbolic Arabic numerals, signed/spoken number words, and nonsymbolic quantities), is an important predictor of overall mathematical success. This foundational skill--mapping--has not been examined in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. To address this gap, we studied 188 4 1/2 to 9-year-old DHH and hearing children and systematically examined the relationship between their language experiences and mapping skills. We asked whether the timing of children's language exposure (early vs. later), the modality of their language (signed vs. spoken), and their rote counting abilities related to mapping performance. We found that language modality did not significantly relate to mapping performance, but timing of language exposure and counting skills did. These findings suggest that early access to language, whether spoken or signed, supports the development of age-typical mapping skills and that knowledge of number words is critical for this development.

Early childhood programs promote language play opportunities due to the well-documented positive influences on cognition, language, and literacy development. This qualitative investigation explores language play through the form of signed rhyme and rhythm among young deaf children. Teachers specializing in deaf education within an early childhood program were interviewed to assess their knowledge and implementation of signed rhyme and rhythm in their pedagogical practices. The results reveal that despite recognizing numerous advantages and deeming signed rhyme and rhythm as essential for deaf children's development, these teachers perceive themselves as lacking adequate knowledge and preparation to effectively incorporate this approach in their classrooms. To address this gap, professional development opportunities should be provided to develop knowledge and confidence in teachers, empowering them to effectively implement signed rhyme and rhythm with deaf children.