Teacher-as-Researcher Paradigm for Sign Language Teachers: Toward Evidence-Based Pedagogies for Improved Learner Outcomes

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-116
Author(s):  
Russell S. Rosen ◽  
Meredith Turtletaub ◽  
Mary DeLouise ◽  
Sarah Drake
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Learner Outcomes ◽  
Teacher As Researcher

scholarly journals RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION AND LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE CONTEXT

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Huma Imran Khan
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Bilingual Instruction ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Learner Outcomes ◽  
Language Context ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Esl Learners

The prime purpose of this study was to explore a correlation<br />between bilingual instruction in an ESL class and the class<br />performance of the ESL learners at the secondary level. Quantitative<br />research method was used to evaluate the test performance of 60 ESL<br />learners divided into two groups: One was the controlled group (which<br />was given instructions in L2 only) and the other was the treatment<br />group (which was given instructions in both L1 and L2) in Public<br />School settings. Apart from the students, 15 language teachers’ feedback<br />upon their perceptions of L1 usage in L2 classrooms was taken<br />by using the Likert scale feedback forms. The results confirmed that<br />the instructions given bilingually are directly associated to improved<br />learner outcomes and teachers’ responses for the usage of L1 in<br />classrooms showed a strong positive response.

A theory-driven model of handshape similarity

Phonology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Keane ◽  
Zed Sevcikova Sehyr ◽  
Karen Emmorey ◽  
Diane Brentari
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Difference Method ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Joint Angles ◽  
Similarity Metric ◽  
Phonetic Similarity ◽  
Native Signer ◽  
Similarity Ratings ◽  
Articulatory Model ◽  
Similarity Method

Following the Articulatory Model of Handshape (Keane 2014), which mathematically defines handshapes on the basis of joint angles, we propose two methods for calculating phonetic similarity: a contour difference method, which assesses the amount of change between handshapes within a fingerspelled word, and a positional similarity method, which compares similarity between pairs of letters in the same position across two fingerspelled words. Both methods are validated with psycholinguistic evidence based on similarity ratings by deaf signers. The results indicate that the positional similarity method more reliably predicts native signer intuition judgements about handshape similarity. This new similarity metric fills a gap in the literature (the lack of a theory-driven similarity metric) that has been empty since effectively the beginning of sign-language linguistics.

scholarly journals Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1824) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Etxepare ◽  
Aritz Irurtzun
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Plains Indians ◽  
Cave Wall

Several Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites from the Gravettian period display hand stencils with missing fingers. On the basis of the stencils that Leroi-Gourhan identified in the cave of Gargas (France) in the late 1960s, we explore the hypothesis that those stencils represent hand signs with deliberate folding of fingers, intentionally projected as a negative figure onto the wall. Through a study of the biomechanics of handshapes, we analyse the articulatory effort required for producing the handshapes under the stencils in the Gargas cave, and show that only handshapes that are articulable in the air can be found among the existing stencils. In other words, handshape configurations that would have required using the cave wall as a support for the fingers are not attested. We argue that the stencils correspond to the type of handshape that one ordinarily finds in sign language phonology. More concretely, we claim that they correspond to signs of an ‘alternate’ or ‘non-primary’ sign language, like those still employed by a number of bimodal (speaking and signing) human groups in hunter–gatherer populations, like the Australian first nations or the Plains Indians. In those groups, signing is used for hunting and for a rich array of ritual purposes, including mourning and traditional story-telling. We discuss further evidence, based on typological generalizations about the phonology of non-primary sign languages and comparative ethnographic work, that points to such a parallelism. This evidence includes the fact that for some of those groups, stencil and petroglyph art has independently been linked to their sign language expressions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

scholarly journals Praxis, Pedagogy and Teachers’ Professionalism in England

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Andrea Raiker
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Teacher Professionalism ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Research Association ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Learner Outcomes ◽  
Teacher As Researcher ◽  
Knowledge Economies ◽  
Alternative Practices ◽  
British Education

The article considers current teachers’ participation in educational research in England and whether Stenhouse’s perception that such involvement was necessary to stall the political undermining of democratic teacher professionalism has been addressed. Stenhouse instigated the emergence of the teacher-as-researcher movement, whereby teachers engaged with a process that created knowledge and practice. From 1979, when the Conservative Margret Thatcher became Prime Minister, the increasing dominance of globalised knowledge economies turned knowledge away from being a process into a product. Teacher and student education became controlled and consumed by increasingly competitive educational institutions.  Learning became aimed at assuring the attainment of higher grades to increase the country’s economic growth and profit, leading to democratic teacher professionalism being undermined. However, contemporary research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has indicated that teacher professionalism should involve teachers in conducting classroom-based individual or collaborative research. In addition, a recent academic inquiry by the British Education Research Association has concluded that teachers as researchers, in both literate and practical terms, will have a positive impact on learner outcomes by developing an education system that has the internal capacity to direct its own progress. At the same time, the Department for Education in England commissioned a two-year study to assess progress towards an evidence-informed teaching system. Taking a systematic literature approach, the present article considers the extent to which current teacher education and practice encourage teacher research as a form of developing pedagogical practice, in other words, praxis, in order to re-establish democratic teacher professionalism in England. It also explores whether there are alternative practices to create the same, or a similar, outcome.

ON THE USE OF SIGN LANGUAGE IN TEACHING HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-179
Author(s):  
G.A. Abayeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Educational Organizations ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Verbal Form ◽  
The Status ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Impaired Children

Teaching children with hearing impairment for a long time, mainly a verbal form of education is used in Kazakhstan, based on the development of auditory perception. Subsequently, along with a relatively small number of positive cases, we have a number of generations of deaf citizens who are not able to read and write correctly, express their thoughts, etc. Grown - up children with hearing impairment, despite the efforts of sign language teachers and teachers, still communicate with each other in sign language and use written speech when communicating with hearing people. At the same time, the role of sign language in teaching the deaf cannot be overestimated, since it meets the special educational needs of children with hearing impairment. This article discusses traditional and alternative approaches to teaching the deaf; provides a brief overview of the existing normative legal acts regulating the status of sign language; presents the results of a survey of teachers on the use of sign language in teaching deaf children; identifies strategic aspects and conditions for using of sign language in educational organizations.

De Nederlandse Gebarentaal En Taalonderwijs

1991 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
Beppie van den Bogaerde
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Teaching Materials ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Native Signers

Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) is considered to be the native language of many prelingually deaf people in the Netherlands. Although research has provided evidence that sign languages are fully fletched natural languages, many misconceptions still abound about sign languages and deaf people. The low status of sign languages all over the world and the attitude of hearing people towards deaf people and their languages, and the resulting attitude of the deaf towards their own languages, restricted the development of these languages until recently. Due to the poor results of deaf education and the dissatisfaction amongst educators of the deaf, parents of deaf children and deaf people themselves, a change of attitude towards the function of sign language in the interaction with deaf people can be observed; many hearing people dealing with deaf people one way or the other wish to learn the sign language of the deaf community of their country. Many hearing parents of deaf children, teachers of the deaf, student-interpreters and linguists are interested in sign language and want to follow a course to improve their signing ability. In order to develop sign language courses, sign language teachers and teaching materials are needed. And precisely these are missing. This is caused by several factors. First, deaf people in general do not receive the same education as hearing people, due to their inability to learn the spoken language of their environment to such an extent, that they have access to the full eduational program. This prohibits them a.o. to become teachers in elementary and secondary schools, or to become sign language teachers. Althought they are fluent "signers", they lack the competence in the spoken language of their country to obtain a teacher's degree in their sign language. A second problem is caused by the fact, that sign languages are visual languages: no adequate system has yet been found to write down a sign language. So until now hardly any teaching materials were available. Sign language courses should be developed with the help of native signers who should be educated to become language-teachers; with their help and with the help of video-material and computer-software, it will be possible in future to teach sign languages as any other language. But in order to reach this goal, it is imperative that deaf children get a better education so that they can contribute to the emancipation of their language.

scholarly journals Offering research education for in-service language teachers

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-293
Author(s):  
Camilla Bardel ◽  
Gudrun Erickson ◽  
Jonas Granfeldt ◽  
Christina Rosén
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
School System ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Graduate Schools ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Swedish School

Since 2008, the Swedish government has launched occasional offers of funding for graduate schools aimed at practising teachers. The fundamental purpose of this initiative is to enhance quality in the Swedish school system by implementing what is stated in the Education Act, namely that education at all levels should be based upon scientific knowledge and evidence-based experience.

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