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Silent Observer
Christy MacKinnon
Gallaudet University Press, 1993
Rendered in lovely, full-color illustrations, Silent Observer traces the early life of author Christy MacKinnon in Nova Scotia at the turn of the century. Born in 1889, the author lost her hearing from “the Winter fever” at the age of two. Her story tells of a simple, charming life on her family’s farm by the bay and in the schoolhouse where her father taught her in their hometown of Boisdale.

Silent Observer is an affectionate, poignant memoir of childhood as seen through the eyes of a vivacious young girl. Teachers, parents, and children will share in their enjoyment of this beautiful, sensitive story of a harder but wonderful time that has passed.
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Conversational Sign Language II
An Intermediate Advanced Manual
Willard J Madsen
Gallaudet University Press, 1972

This book presents English words and their American Sign Language (ASL) equivalents in 63 lessons. Part one covers 750 words and their signs. Part two deals with the interpretation of 220 English idioms (which have over 300 usages in ASL). Part three presents over 300 ASL idioms and colloquialisms prevalent in informal conversations.

       Conversational Sign Language II is excellent for the classroom or for self-instructional use and includes a separate index for each part as well as a bibliography. Each of the 63 lessons in the text is illustrated and has follow-up exercises. A practice test is included after every third lesson.

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Intermediate Conversational Sign Language
Willard J Madsen
Gallaudet University Press, 1982

This fully illustrated text offers a unique approach to using American Sign Language (ASL) and English in a bilingual setting. Each of the 25 lessons involve sign language conversation using colloquialisms that are prevalent in informal conversations. Each lesson includes equivalent expressions in English, plus:

  • Glossed Vocabulary Review
  • Translation Exercises from ASL to English to ASL
  • Grammatical Notes
  • Substitution Drills
  • Suggested Activities

       The text also includes practice tests, a bibliography, and a glossed alphabetical index.

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Seeing Language in Sign
The Work of William C. Stokoe
Jane Maher
Gallaudet University Press, 1996

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A Constant Struggle
Deaf Education in New South Wales Since World War II
Naomi Malone
Gallaudet University Press, 2019
Deaf education in New South Wales has made tremendous progress since the end of World War II, yet issues remain for students from their early years of education through secondary high school. Naomi Malone traces the roots of these issues and argues that they persist due to the historical fragmentation within deaf education regarding oralism (teaching via spoken language) and manualism (teaching via sign language). She considers the early prevalence of oralism in schools for deaf students, the integration of deaf students into mainstream classrooms, the recognition of Australian Sign Language as a language, and the growing awareness of the diversity of deaf students. Malone’s historical assessments are augmented by interviews with former students and contextualized with explanations of concurrent political and social events. She posits that deaf people must be consulted about their educational experiences and that they must form a united social movement to better advocate for improved deaf education, regardless of communication approach.
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Advances in Cognition, Education, and Deafness
David S. Martin
Gallaudet University Press, 2001

The Second International Symposium on Cognition, Education, and Deafness in 1989 broadened and deepened the scope of investigation initiated at the first conference held five years earlier. Advances in Cognition, Education, and Deafness provides the results in a single integrated volume. The 39 scholars from 14 nations who attended offered consistent progress from the first symposium and new areas of research, especially in the study of applications in education and the new field of neuro-anatomical dimensions of cognition and deafness.

This important book has been organized under six major themes: Cognitive Assessment; Language and Cognition; Cognitive Development; Neuroscientific Issues; Cognitive Processes; and Cognitive Intervention Programs. This useful study also features programs designed to facilitate the learning of deaf individuals in cognitive realms, and questions about methodological problems facing researchers in deafness.

Advances in Cognition, Education, and Deafness also synthesizes this wealth of data with the added value of the objective perspective of a cognitive psychologist not directly involved in the field of deafness. Teachers, students, scholars, and researchers will consider this an indispensable reference for years to come.

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Cognition, Education, and Deafness
Directions for Research and Instruction
David S. Martin
Gallaudet University Press, 1985
Now available in paperback; ISBN 1-56368-149-8
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Language, Power, and Resistance
Mainstreaming Deaf Education
Elizabeth S. Mathews
Gallaudet University Press, 2017
The current policy of educating d/Deaf and h/Hard of hearing (DHH) students in a mainstream setting, rather than in the segregated environments of deaf schools, has been portrayed as a positive step forward in creating greater equality for DHH students. In Language, Power, and Resistance, Elizabeth S. Mathews explores this claim through qualitative research with DHH children in the Republic of Ireland, their families, their teachers, and their experiences of the education system. While sensitive to the historical context of deaf education, Mathews focuses on the contemporary education system and the ways in which the mainstreaming agenda fits into larger discussions about the classification, treatment, and normalization of DHH children.
               The research upon which this book is based examined the implications that mainstreaming has for the tensions between the hegemonic medical model of deafness and the social model of Deafness. This volume explores how different types of power are used in the deaf education system to establish, maintain, and also resist medical views of deafness. Mathews frames this discussion as one of power relations across parents, children, and professionals working within the system. She looks at how various forms of power are used to influence decisions, to resist decisions, and to shape the structure and delivery of deaf education. The author’s findings are a significant contribution to the debates on inclusive education for DHH students and will resonate in myriad social and geographic contexts.
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Comparative Studies in Special Education
Kaz Mazurek
Gallaudet University Press, 1994
This unequaled collection of international programs will enable educators worldwide to investigate special education practice within its social context to enhance their own initiatives with new ideas. Comparative Studies divides into five sections, each with an introduction to the chapters within. This thorough text begins with limited special education in such venues as South Africa and Senegal. Section Two addresses emerging special education in Nigeria, Brazil, and several other locales. Segregated special education in Japan, Russia, and other countries makes up Section Three, and Section Four explores countries that are approaching integration, such as Poland and Australia. Integrated special education is described in Scandinavia, New Zealand and other nations in the final section. More than 50 noted scholars have contributed to this important work, offering an indispensable, detailed frame of reference for assessing education programs worldwide for all special populations -- blind, deaf, physically and mentally disabled, and all others. Kas Mazurek is Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, at the University of Lethbridge, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Margret A. Winzer is Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, at the University of Lethbridge, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. ISBN 1-56368-027-0, 7 x 10 casebound, 516 pages, photos, illustrations, tables, author index, subject index
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The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL
Its History and Structure
Carolyn McCaskill
Gallaudet University Press, 2020

Black ASL has long been recognized as a distinct variety of American Sign Language based on abundant anecdotal evidence. The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL, originally published in 2011, presents the first sociohistorical and linguistic study of this language variety. Based on the findings of the Black ASL Project, which undertook this unprecedented research, Hidden Treasure documents the stories and language of the African American Deaf community. With links to online supplemental video content that includes interviews with Black ASL users (formerly on DVD), this volume is a groundbreaking scholarly contribution and a powerful affirmation for Black Deaf people.

This paperback edition includes an updated foreword by Glenn B. Anderson, a new preface that reflects on the impact of this research, and an expanded list of references and resources on Black ASL.

The supplemental video content is available online at the Gallaudet University Press YouTube Channel. Under Playlists, click “The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Companion Video to the Book.” The original Black ASL Project research videos are also available. 

Featured in the film Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL, produced by The Language and Life Project at North Carolina State University (Dr. Walt Wolfram, Executive Producer). Look for it on PBS.

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The Art of Being Deaf
A Memoir
Donna McDonald
Gallaudet University Press, 2014
Concerned about aspects of her romantic relationships, Donna McDonald consulted with a psychologist who asked, “Your hearing loss must have had a big impact on you?” At age 45, with a successful career in social work policy, McDonald took umbrage at the question. Then, she realized that she never had addressed the personal barrier she had constructed between her deaf-self and her hearing persona. In The Art of Being Deaf, she describes her long, arduous pursuit of finding out exactly who she was.
 
       Born in 1950s Australia, McDonald was placed in an oral deaf school when she was five. There, she was trained to communicate only in spoken English. Afterwards, she attended mainstream schools where she excelled with speechreading and hard work. Her determination led to achievements that proved her to be “the deaf girl that had made good.” Yet, despite her constant focus on fitting in the hearing world, McDonald soon realized that she missed her deaf schoolmates and desired to explore her closed-off feelings about being deaf.
 
       When she reconnected with her friends, one urged her to write about her experiences to tell all about “the Forgotten Generation, the orally-raised deaf kids that no one wants to talk about.” In writing her memoir, McDonald did learn to reconcile her deaf-self with her “hearing-deaf” persona, and she realized that the art of being deaf is the art of life, the art of love.
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Interpreting in Multilingual, Multicultural Contexts
Rachel Locker McKee
Gallaudet University Press, 2010

The Seventh Volume in the Studies in Interpretation Series

Nineteen international authorities contribute their research and findings to Interpreting in Multilingual, Multicultural Contexts, probing the complex nature of interpreted interaction involving Deaf and hearing people of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. They also analyze the contextualized interpreting practices and considerations that transpire from this diversity.

     In three parts, this trenchant collection shows how Deaf and hearing people use language in fluctuating ways to connect with each other. The chapters in Part 1 — Expanding Frontiers: ASL-English-Spanish Interpreting in the United States — consider sign language interpreting at the border between Baja California and the state; trilingual video relay service (VRS) interpreting; and constructing a valid, reliable trilingual interpreting testing instrument. Part 2 — Mediating Indigenous Voices — explores how to construct roles in a Maori Deaf trilingual context; considerations for interpreting signed languages of American Indian Communities; and interpreting for indigenous Deaf clients in far north Queensland, Australia.

     In the final section, Part 3 — Globalizing: Interpreting in International Contexts — protocols for interpreting in multilingual international conferences are analyzed. The last chapter describes the arduousness of sign language interpreting in multilingual, international settings. It acts as a fitting conclusion to this examination of the challenges to the sociolinguistic repertoire of interpreters mediating across multiplex combinations of culture and language.


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Parents and Their Deaf Children
The Early Years
Kathryn P. Meadow-Orlans
Gallaudet University Press, 2003

To correct the paucity of information on deaf or hard of hearing children and their parents’ experiences with early intervention services, researchers explored these relationships as part of the National Parent Project. From this investigation, Parents and Their Deaf Children details the experiences of a group of parents and their deaf children from the first identification of the latter’s hearing loss through their early years in elementary school. Renowned scholars Kathryn Meadow-Orlans, Donna Mertens, and Marilyn Sass-Lehrer reveal here for the first time the goals and expectations of the parents, the children’s achievements and troubles, and the families’ satisfaction and disappointment with health and educational systems.

       Parents and their Deaf Children stems from a nationwide survey of parents with six-to-seven-year-old deaf or hard of hearing children, followed up by interviews with 80 parents. The authors not only discuss the parents’ communication choices for their children, but also provide how parents’ experiences differ, especially for those whose children are hard of hearing, have additional conditions, or have cochlear implants. Also, one chapter is devoted to families from minority cultures. The final section of this distinctive study offers solid advice for other parents of deaf children and also the professionals who serve them.

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Deaf Daughter, Hearing Father
Richard Medugno
Gallaudet University Press, 2005
When Richard Medugno and his wife Brenda learned in 1993 that their 17-month-old daughter Miranda was deaf, they grieved, as many hearing parents do. Soon, however, Medugno seized hold of the need to take positive action for Miranda. Deaf Daughter, Hearing Father recounts the remarkable story of their journey during the past fourteen years.

Medugno first researched the best communication mode for Miranda. Quickly dismissing the speech pathology model, he and his wife chose ASL alone as the best, natural language for Miranda. He surrounded his daughter with opportunities to learn ASL, by arranging to meet deaf individuals and families, and also by hiring deaf babysitters. He also determined to learn ASL himself, to ensure communication with his daughter. As Miranda neared school age, Medugno spearheaded a transcontinental search for exactly the right school for her education. So that Miranda could attend the California School for the Deaf (CSD), the Medugno family moved from Toronto, Canada to Fremont, CA.

In Deaf Daughter, Hearing Father, Medugno shares practical information on many of the common challenges faced by hearing parents. He provides a list of games that hearing and deaf children can play together, an important consideration for many families. His enthusiasm for all possibilities, from exploring the potential of video phones to helping stage CSD musicals, reveals his abiding devotion to Miranda. Such a foundation has enabled her to feel proud, confident, and happy in her pursuits. At the same time, Medugno recognizes that the rewards of having a deaf daughter are far greater than he could have hoped for or imagined.
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Kid-Friendly Parenting with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children
Daria Medwid
Gallaudet University Press, 1995

For the parents of thousands of deaf and hard of hearing children, this step-by-step guide offers hundreds of ideas and methods that work with children ages 3 to 12. It provides scores of play activities to help parents enhance communication, solve problems, and strengthen relationships in skillful, fun ways. Also, parenting techniques are concisely presented to help parents set limits while avoiding power struggles and help foster positive behavior changes. In addition, this manual provides information about special resources and support services.

       At each chapter’s beginning, experts (some deaf, some hearing), including I. King Jordan, Jack Gannon, Merv Garretson, and others, offer their insights on the subject discussed. Designed for parents with various styles, Kid-Friendly Parenting is a complete, step-by-step guide and reference to raising a deaf or hard of hearing child.

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Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities
Melanie Metzger
Gallaudet University Press, 2000

Is perception reality? Editor Melanie Metzger investigates the cultural perceptions by and of deaf people around the world in Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities.

       “All sociocultural groups offer possible solutions to the dilemma that a deaf child presents to the larger group,” write Claire Ramsey and Jose Antonio Noriega in their essay, “Ninos Milagrizados: Language Attitudes, Deaf Education, and Miracle Cures in Mexico.” In this case, Ramsey and Noriega analyze cultural attempts to “unify” deaf children with the rest of the community. Other contributors report similar phenomena in deaf communities in New Zealand, Nicaragua, and Spain, paying particular attention to how society’s view of deaf people affects how deaf people view themselves.

       A second theme pervasive in this collection, akin to the questions of perception and identity, is the impact of bilingualism in deaf communities. Peter C. Hauser offers a study of an American child proficient in both ASL and Cued English while Annica Detthow analyzes “transliteration” between Spoken Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. Like its predecessors, this sixth volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series distinguishes itself by the depth and diversity of its research, making it a welcome addition to any scholar’s library.

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Sign Language Interpreting
Deconstructing the Myth of Neutrality
Melanie Metzger
Gallaudet University Press, 1998
As with all professional interpreters, sign language interpreters strive to achieve the proper protocol of complete objectivity and accuracy in their translation without influencing the interaction in any way. Yet, Melanie Metzger's significant work Sign Language Interpreting: Deconstructing the Myth of Neutrality demonstrates clearly that the ideal of an interpreter as a neutral language conduit does not exist. Metzger offers evidence of this disparity by analyzing two videotaped ASL-English interpreted medical interviews, one an interpreter-trainee mock interview session, and the other an actual encounter between a deaf client and a medical professional.

          Sign Language Interpreting relies upon an interactional sociolinguistic approach to ask fundamental questions regarding interpreter neutrality. First, do interpreters influence discourse, and if so, how? Also, what kind of expectations do the participants bring to the event, and what do the interpreters bring to discussions? Finally, how do their remarks affect their alignment with participants in the interaction? Using careful assessments of how these interviews were framed, and also re-interviewing the participants for their perspectives, this penetrating book discloses the ways in which interpreters influence these situations. It also addresses the potential implications of these findings regarding sign language interpretation in medical, educational, and all other general interactions. Interpreter trainers and their students will join certified interpreters and Deaf studies scholars in applauding and benefiting from the fresh ground broken by this provocative study.
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front cover of From Topic Boundaries to Omission
From Topic Boundaries to Omission
New Research on Interpretation
Melanie Metzger
Gallaudet University Press, 2003
This new collection examines several facets of signed language interpreting. Claudia Angelelli’s study confirms that conference, courtroom, and medical interpretation can no longer be seen as a two-party conversation with an “invisible” interpreter, but as a three-party conversation in which the interpreter plays an active role. Laura M. Sanheim defines different turn-taking elements in a medical setting as two overlapping conversations, one between the patient and the interpreter and the other between the interpreter and the medical professional.
 
In her analysis of discourse at a Deaf revival service, Mary Ann Richey demonstrates how Deaf presenters and audiences interact even in formal settings, creating special challenges for interpreters. Jemina Napier shares her findings on the nature and occurrence of omissions by interpreters in Australian Sign Language and English exchanges. Elizabeth Winston and Christine Monikowski describe different strategies used by interpreters to indicate topic shifts when interpreting into American Sign Language and when transliterating. The study concludes with Bruce Sofinski’s analysis of nonmanual elements used by interpreters in sign language transliteration.
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Attitudes, Innuendo, and Regulators
Challenges of Interpretation
Melanie Metzger
Gallaudet University Press, 2005

The second volume in the Studies in Interpretation series delves further into the intricacies of sign language interpreting in five distinctive chapters. In the first chapter, Lawrence Forestal investigates the shifting attitudes of Deaf leaders toward sign language interpreters. Forestal notes how older leaders think of interpreters as their friends in exchanges, whereas Deaf individuals who attended mainstream schools possessed different feelings about interpreting.

     Frank J. Harrington observes in his chapter on British Sign Language-English interpreters in higher education observes that they cannot be viewed in isolation since all participants and the environment have a real impact on the way events unfold. In Chapter Three, Maree Madden explores the prevalence of chronic occupational physical injury among Australian Sign Language interpreters due to the stress created by constant demand and the lack of recognition of their professional rights.

     Susan M. Mather assesses and identifies regulators used by teachers and interpreters in mainstreaming classrooms. Her study supports other findings of the success of ethnographic methods in providing insights into human interaction and intercultural communication within the mainstreaming setting. The fifth chapter views how interpreters convey innuendo, a complicated undertaking at best. Author Shaun Tray conducts a thorough examination of innuendo in American Sign Language, then points the way toward future research based upon ethnography, gender, and other key factors.

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Translation, Sociolinguistic, and Consumer Issues in Interpreting
Melanie Metzger
Gallaudet University Press, 2007

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.

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Psychological and Psychoeducational Assessment of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Adolescents
Margery S. Miller
Gallaudet University Press, 2015
The obstacles to valid and meaningful assessment of deaf and hard of hearing children and adolescents are great, yet professionals are regularly asked to conduct comprehensive evaluations to determine resource and program eligibility, test modifications in school, classroom and home recommendations, and referrals. In this important new text, the authors define the skills required of the examiners, explain the complex nature of these assessments, and describe ways to intelligently use existing tests.

Authors Margery S. Miller, Tania Thomas-Presswood, Kurt Metz, and Jennifer Lukomski bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to this in-depth treatment of topics essential to educators and school psychologists. They cover such critical areas as test construction and measurement; the diversity in American Deaf culture; the role of parents in the assessment process; neuropsychological assessments; nonverbal methods for assessing intelligence; and the need for sign language competency when testing cognitive and language skills.

The text concludes with recommendations for the development of valid and reliable tests for all students who are deaf and hard of hearing.
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Deaf Hearing Boy
A Memoir
R.H. Miller
Gallaudet University Press, 2004

Born in 1938, R. H. Miller was the oldest of four hearing boys with deaf parents in Defiance, Ohio, a small agricultural community. Deaf Hearing Boy is Miller’s compelling account of the complex dynamics at work in his family, including the inter-generational conflicts in which he found himself, the oldest child of deaf adults (CODA), caught in the middle.

In 1942, Miller’s family moved to Toledo so that his father could find work. There, they fared well during World War II because his father worked in manufacturing as a member of Roosevelt’s “civilian army.” Miller’s mother loved urban life, where she and the family could immerse themselves in the Toledo Deaf community, especially at the Toledo Silent Club. The end of the war marked the end of prosperity for the Miller family. Returning soldiers displaced all of the deaf workers, who then had to scrape for a living. The Millers, close to destitution, returned to the family farm in Defiance.

Miller depicts the return to farm life as one of tremendous hardship, both economically and psychologically. They lived off the land from hand to mouth. He also describes his grandparents’ distrust of his parents because they were deaf, and he writes candidly of his role as an unwilling agent in the misunderstandings between them. Miller also portrays the bias he endured in school and town. Parents of girlfriends would force their daughters to stop dating him for fear that his family’s deafness would be passed down.

In the early 1950s, Miller’s grandparents sold the farm and his parents returned to industrial work. Miller excelled at school, and eventually left home for college and life in academia. His later reflections reveal a deep, abiding respect for his parents, despite his early difficulties. Deaf Hearing Boy presents an intimate depiction of a changing time for hearing and deaf Americans alike, when the family farm disappeared and the isolation of Deaf people also began to fade. In witnessing this transformation of society through his family’s life, Miller adds an important chapter to the collective narrative of Deaf people, one made all the more poignant and vivid as told by their Deaf Hearing boy.

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Many Ways to Be Deaf
International Variation in Deaf Communities
Leila Monaghan
Gallaudet University Press, 2003
The recent explosion of sociocultural, linguistic, and historical research on signed languages throughout the world has culminated in Many Ways to Be Deaf, an unmatched collection of in-depth articles about linguistic diversity in Deaf communities on five continents. Twenty-four international scholars have contributed their findings from studying Deaf communities in Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the United States. Sixteen chapters consider the various antecedents of each country’s native signed language, taking into account the historical background of their development and also the effects of foreign influences and changes in philosophies by the larger, dominant hearing societies.
 
     The remarkable range of topics covered in Many Ways to Be Deaf will fascinate readers, from the evolution of British fingerspelling traced back to the 17th century; the comparison of Swiss German Sign Language with Rhaeto-Romansch, another Swiss minority language; the analysis of seven signed languages described in Thailand and how they differ in relation to their distance from isolated Deaf communities to Bangkok and other urban centers; to the vaulting development of a nascent sign language in Nicaragua, and much more. The diversity of background and training among the contributors to Many Ways to Be Deaf distinguishes it as a genuine and unique multicultural examination of the myriad manifestations of being Deaf in a diverse world.
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Conversations with Interpreter Educators
Exploring Best Practices
Christine Monikowski
Gallaudet University Press, 2017
Sign language interpreter education is a relatively young field that is moving toward more theory-based and research-oriented approaches. The concept of sharing research, which is strongly encouraged in this academic community, inspired Christine Monikowski to develop a volume that collects and distills the best teaching practices of leading academics in the interpreting field.
       In Conversations with Interpreter Educators, Monikowski assembles a group of 17 professors in the field of sign language interpretation. Through individual interviews conducted via Skype, Monikowski engages them in informal conversations about their teaching experiences and the professional publications that have influenced their teaching philosophies. She guides each conversation by asking these experts to share a scholarly publication that they assign to their students. They discuss the merits of the text and its role in the classroom, which serves to highlight the varying goals each professor sets for students. The complexity of the interpreting task, self-reflection, critical thinking, linguistics, backchannel feedback, and cultural understanding are a sampling of topics explored in these exchanges. Engaging and accessible, Monikowski’s conversations offer evidence-based practices that will inform and inspire her fellow educators.
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Partners in Education
Issues and Trends from the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf
Donald F. Moores
Gallaudet University Press, 2011

The 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) witnessed revolutionary exchanges on the vital themes in education. Presenters addressed topics encompassing seven major strands: Educational Environments, Language and Literacy, Early Intervention, Unique Challenges in Developing Countries, Educating Learners with Diverse Needs, Technology in Education, and Sign Language and Deaf Culture. These presentations and ensuing dialogues raised many complex questions. Partners in Education: Issues and Trends from the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf features all of the keynote addresses by renowned luminaries in deaf education: Breda Carty, Karen Ewing, Nassozi Kiyaga, John Luckner, Connie Mayer and Beverly Trezek, volume editor Donald F. Moores, Peter V. Paul, Antti Raike, Claudine Storbeck, James Tucker, and Alys Young.

Most critically, the contributors to this collection explore the many multifaceted challenges facing the world’s deaf students. Deaf children are being diagnosed with overlays of disabilities; more deaf children are growing up in poverty; and many deaf children represent minority racial/ethnic groups or are immigrants to their country of residence. The situation for deaf individuals in the most impoverished countries of the world is desperate and of crisis proportions. This volume brings these themes to light through its exceptional synthesis of the outstanding discourse that took place at ICED 2010, including abstracts from 30 celebrated conference presentations.

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Deaf Learners
Developments in Curriculum and Instruction
Donald F. Moores
Gallaudet University Press, 2006
This in-depth collection by 17 renowned international scholars that details a developmental framework to maximize academic success for deaf students from kindergarten through grade 12. Part One: The Context commences with an overview of the state of general education and that of deaf learners, followed by a state-of-the art philosophical position on the selection of curriculum. Part Two: The Content considers critical subjects for deaf learners and how to deliver them, including mathematics, print literacy, science, social studies, and physical education. This section also addresses the role of itinerant services, as well as how to teach Deaf culture, provide for students with multiple disabilities, and facilitate school-to-work transitions.
 
Part Three: Instructional Considerations Across the Curriculum provides suggestions and guidelines for assessing and planning programs for deaf students using meaningful contexts; optimizing the academic performance of deaf students with emphasis on access and opportunities; implementing a cognitive strategy that encourages teaching for and about thinking as an overriding principle; establishing instructional and practical communication in the classroom, especially in relation to ASL and English-based signing; and solving old problems with new strategies, including Web-based technologies, resources, and applications. The lessons of these assembled scholars coalesce in the Part Four: Summary as a general recommendation for ongoing adaptability, a fitting capstone to this extraordinary volume of work.
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Educational and Developmental Aspects of Deafness
Donald F. Moores
Gallaudet University Press, 1990

Educational and Developmental Aspects of Deafness details the ongoing revolution in the education of deaf children. More than 20 researchers contributed their discoveries in anthropology, education, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and other major disciplines, with special concentration upon the education of deaf children.

       Divided into two parts on education at home and in school, this incisive book documents breakthroughs such as the public's interest in sign language, the increasing availability of interpreters, the growing perception of deafness as a social condition, not a pathology, and other positive trends. It is unique as the first purely research-based text and reference point for further study of the education of deaf children.

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Deaf People Around the World
Educational and Social Perspectives
Donald F. Moores
Gallaudet University Press, 2009

In Deaf People Around the World: Educational and Social Perspectives, the leading researchers in 30 nations describe the shared developmental, social, and educational issues facing deaf people filtered through the prism of unique national, regional, ethnic, and racial realities. Editors Donald F. Moores and Margery S. Miller have organized this remarkable collection in five major sections: Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, North and South America, and International Developments, which includes the International Committee on Sports for the Deaf and the World Federation of the Deaf.

More than 50 internationally recognized scholars provide a historical view of the education and treatment of deaf people in their respective countries. They examine a wide range of issues, including current academic placement; communication modes used in schools; the recognition of sign languages; the curricula of the deaf schools versus that of regular schools; for secondary and postsecondary opportunities; the status of deaf adults; deaf teachers; special laws if any; the preparation of teachers, psychologists, therapists, and other special personnel who work with deaf clients; and current trends and developments in their countries.

Deaf People Around the World reveals that deaf people generally have gained a sense of confidence, empowerment, and global awareness of their shared experience. Many have seen significant improvement in their lives from greater educational and professional opportunities. Finally, more deaf leaders argue that the pathological model of deafness must be abandoned to continue this marked progress for deaf people around the world.

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Signs and Wonders
Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language
Tracy Ann Morse
Gallaudet University Press, 2014
Current academic discourse frequently understates the role of religion in the development of the American Deaf community. In her new study, Tracy Ann Morse effects a sharp course correction by delineating the frequent use over time of religious rhetoric by members of the Deaf community to preserve and support sign language.
           
       In Chapter One, Morse analyzes Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s use of religious references in his 1817 maiden address at the first American school for deaf students. She examines his and other speeches as examples of the intersection of education for deaf Americans and Protestant missionary efforts to convert them. In the second chapter, she presents the different religious perspectives of the two deaf education camps: Manualists argued that sign language was a gift from God, while Oralists viewed hand gestures as animal-like, indicative of lower evolutionary development.
 
      Chapter Three explores the religious rhetoric in churches, sanctuaries where sign language flourished and deaf members formed relationships. In the fourth chapter, Morse shows how Deaf activist George Veditz signed using religious themes in his political films. She also comments on the impact of the bilingual staging of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which began to change the hearing world’s opinion about the Deaf community. Morse concludes with speculation on the shifting terrain for deaf people due to technological innovations that might supplant religious rhetoric as a tool to support the Deaf community.
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front cover of Communication Therapy
Communication Therapy
An Integrated Approach to Aural Rehabilitation
Mary June Moseley
Gallaudet University Press, 1996

This new book for students and professionals emphasizes a functional approach to aural rehabilitation refined during the past several years. It details the use of an integrated therapy strategy designed to meet a variety of needs for each client while simultaneously working on multiple communication skill areas. Particular care has been taken to address the different requirements of deaf and hard of hearing adolescents and adults, including information about the unique needs of the culturally Deaf population. Throughout this practical text, clinicians receive encouragement to learn American Sign Language to enhance communication with Deaf clients.

       Communication Therapy calls upon the expertise of various authorities well-versed in integrated therapy. They explain fully the state-of-the-art practices for all therapy areas, from global areas in communication therapy, to technology for aural rehabilitation, auditory skills, speechreading, speech and voice, pronunciation, and language skills, and telephone communication training. Case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the integrated approach, making this book a significant advancement in communication therapy.

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front cover of Assessing Deaf Adults
Assessing Deaf Adults
Critical Issues in Testing and Evaluation
Judith L. Mounty
Gallaudet University Press, 2005
Historically, deaf and hard of hearing people have demonstrated various levels of competence in a multitude of professions, but they also have experienced discrimination and oppression. In five critical sections, this volume responds to the tidal wave of high-stakes testing that has come to dominate educational policy and qualification for various occupations. It provides a digest of relevant research to meet the testing challenge, including work done by educational researchers, legal experts, test developers, and others.

Section I frames the contexts facing deaf and hard of hearing individuals and those who test them, including a telling historical perspective. In Section II, chapters explore how deaf and hard of hearing candidates can meet the rigors of test-taking, how to level the playing field with a new approach to assessment, and what to consider to develop fully accessible licensing tests. The final chapter in this part examines the psychometric properties of intellectual assessments when used with deaf and hard of hearing people. Administrative Issues constitute Section III, beginning with legal considerations related to equity testing for deaf adults. An exploration of the potential of sign language interpretation in the testing environment follows.

Section IV provides case studies of deaf and hard of hearing adults from a variety of professions, including certification testing for therapeutic recreation, preparation strategies for university students, and ways to maximize access to licensure for social workers. A separate chapter addresses the impact of recent federal mandates on assessment of deaf and hard of hearing teachers and teaching candidates. The final section summarizes the current situation and presents recommendations to manage it, concluding with an epilogue on directions for the future.
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front cover of Extraordinary from the Ordinary
Extraordinary from the Ordinary
Personal Experience Narratives in American Sign Language
Kristin J. Mulrooney
Gallaudet University Press, 2009

Personal narratives are one way people code their experiences and convey them to others. Given that speakers can simultaneously express information and define a social situation, analyzing how and why people structure the telling of personal narratives can provide insight into the social dimensions of language use. In Extraordinary from the Ordinary: Personal Experience Narratives in American Sign Language, Kristin Jean Mulrooney shows that accounts by Deaf persons expressed in ASL possess the same characteristics and perform the same function as oral personal narratives.

Mulrooney analyses12 personal narratives by ASL signers to determine how they “tell”  their stories. She examines the ASL form of textual narration to see how signers use lexical signs to grammatically encode information, and how they also convey perceived narration. In perceived narration, the presenter depicts a past occurrence in the immediate environment that allows the audience to partially witness and interpret the event. Mulrooney determined that ASL narratives reveal a patterned structure consisting of an introduction, a main events section for identifying and describing past events, and a conclusion. They also can include background information, an explication section in which the presenter expands or clarifies an event, and a section that allows the presenter to explain his or her feelings about what happened. Liberally illustrated with photographs from videotaped narratives, Extraordinary from the Ordinary offers an engrossing, expansive view of personal narratives embodying the unique linguistic elements of ASL.

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front cover of Teaching and Learning in Bilingual Classrooms
Teaching and Learning in Bilingual Classrooms
New Scholarship
Kristin J. Mulrooney
Gallaudet University Press, 2014
A new initiative known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) strives to improve education today by methodically examining and assessing the vital component of classroom interaction. This collection presents research by five professors who adopted SoTL methodology to study their own classrooms at Gallaudet University, a uniquely diverse bilingual institution that employs both American Sign Language (ASL) and written English. The Gallaudet study, called the GSTLI, intended to create an engaged learning community that investigated, reflected upon, and documented strategies that most effectively enhance learning for linguistically diverse, visually oriented populations.

     After extensive SoTL training, the GSTLI professors reviewed interaction in their respective classrooms. Through meticulous study of class videos and written assignments in three General Studies Requirements courses for first-year students, the teachers learned how to ensure connecting with students who have a variety of language differences and communication methods.

     The other professors assessed bottlenecks in classes on the linguistic structure of ASL, and on criminal justice. The linguistics professor identified the bottleneck as the students’ inability to conceptualize the interrelationship between definitions and examples, a fundamental skill to scientific thinking. In the criminal justice class, the professor saw the need to guide students through linguistic bottlenecks by providing materials in both ASL and English. The successes of the GSTLI presented in this unique volume can benefit other teachers by better preparing them to meet the needs of bilingual diverse learners in more effective ways.
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