Deaf Children Creating Written Texts: Contributions of American Sign Language and Signed Forms of English

• Published in: American annals of the deaf (Washington, D.C. 1886) Vol. 145; no. 5; pp. 394 - 403
• Main Authors: Mayer, Connie, Akamatsu, C. Tane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf 01.12.2000; Gallaudet University Press; American Annals of the Deaf
• Subjects: Adolescent; American Sign Language; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Cognition; Comparative Linguistics; Comprehension; Deaf education; Deafness; Deafness - psychology; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; English; Fables; Female; Foxes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Goats; Humans; Instructional Effectiveness; Interpersonal communication; Junior High School Students; Junior High Schools; Language; Linguistics; Listening Comprehension; Literacy; Male; Manual Communication; Medical sciences; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Production and perception of written language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reading Comprehension; Reading Skills; Sign Language; Spoken Written Language Relationship; Stone walls; Writing; Writing (Composition); Writing Processes; Canada; North America; America; Human; Performance evaluation; Literature; American Sign Language; Auditory disorder; Text; Grammar; Hearing loss; Educational program; English; Language comprehension; Sign language; Descriptive study; Hand writing; Written communication; Writing; ENT disease; Child; Language recognition; Lexical analysis
• ISSN: 0002-726X; 1543-0375; 1543-0375
• DOI: 10.1353/aad.2012.0135

The objectives of this descriptive study were to investigate the ways in which American Sign Language (ASL) and Englishbased sign allow for comprehension of text content, and to determine how these two avenues of communication might mediate the process of reconstructing "signed meaning" in a written text. The authors argue that comprehensible input in a visual mode is possible in either ASL or English-based sign. They further claim that English-based signing may be an effective means of bridging the gap between inner speech and written text.