Georgia State University, Department of Learning Sciences.
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder.
J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2021 Jan 1;26(1):159-169. doi: 10.1093/deafed/enaa033.
Bilingual education programs for deaf children have long asserted that American Sign Language (ASL) is a better language of instruction English-like signing because ASL is a natural language. However, English-like signing may be a useful bridge to reading English. In the present study, we tested 32 deaf children between third and sixth grade to assess their capacity to use ASL or English-like signing in nine different languages and reading tasks. Our results found that there was no significant difference in the deaf children's ability to comprehend narratives in ASL compared to when they are told in English-like signing. Additionally, language abilities in ASL and English-like signing were strongly related to each other and to reading. Reading was also strongly related to fingerspelling. Our results suggest that there may be a role in literacy instruction for English-like signing as a supplement to ASL in deaf bilingual schools.
聋童双语教育项目长期以来一直主张美国手语 (ASL) 是一种比英语式手语更好的教学语言，因为 ASL 是一种自然语言。然而，英语式手语可能是学习英语阅读的有用桥梁。在本研究中，我们测试了 32 名三到六年级的聋童，以评估他们在九种不同语言和阅读任务中使用 ASL 或英语式手语的能力。我们的结果发现，聋童在理解 ASL 叙述和英语式手语叙述方面的能力没有显著差异。此外，ASL 和英语式手语的语言能力彼此之间以及与阅读都有很强的相关性。阅读也与手语字母高度相关。我们的结果表明，在聋人双语学校的教学中，英语式手语可能作为 ASL 的补充，在识字教学中发挥作用。
