The role of fingerspelling as to its unique features, its use, and its function in the culture and education of the Saudi Deaf population has not been examined. Specifically, this study focuses on assessing historical and existing attitudes and beliefs of Saudi Deaf people regarding the importance of fingerspelling and situations in which they use…

This study presents a corpus-based investigation of self-repairs in hearing adult L2 (M2L2, second modality and second language) learners of Swedish Sign Language ("Svenskt teckenspråk," STS). This study analyses M2L2 learners' STS conversations with a deaf signer and examines the learners' self-repair practices and whether there are…

This paper attends to languaging in the context of visually oriented communities of sign language users through the concept of "chaining." I define chaining as the patterned, routine ways of interlinking different linguistic and multimodal elements. The goal of this paper is to discuss the concepts of chaining, languaging and…

Cosmopolitanism theory was mostly developed separately from the study of multilingualism: while language is central to cosmopolitanism as a practice, only a few scholars focusing on cosmopolitanism have taken a language-centred approach. We further theorise the relationship between cosmopolitanism and translingual practice with our focus on…

The earliest descriptions of Latin finger alphabets were recorded in southern Europe between 1579 and 1589. New literary and visual evidence for sixteenth-century Ottoman Arabic and Ottoman Turkish sign systems are presented and analyzed in this article.

Little is known about the nature of fingerspelling during sign language interpretation. In this small-scale, exploratory study, we examined the fingerspelling of interpreters working in five different sign languages: American Sign Language (ASL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan), British Sign Language (BSL), Irish Sign Language (ISL), and Italian…

The national policy in deaf education in Mainland China primarily focuses on oral/aural instruction and hearing rehabilitation. The curriculum in primary grades is specifically structured on speech and hearing skills for language development. But there is little evidence that documents what early literacy instruction looks like or how teachers…

This study, which is part of a larger longitudinal ethnographic study of young deaf children, reports on deaf children's use of fingerspelling. The children observed were early signers using Swedish Sign Language (SSL) in communication with teachers and peers. This study centres on the functions of fingerspelling in the children's everyday…

Examinations of the etymology of American Sign Language have typically involved superficial analyses of signs as they exist over a short period of time. While it is widely known that ASL is related to French Sign Language, there has yet to be a comprehensive study of this historic relationship between their lexicons. This article presents…

This paper presents a study of children's use of fingerspelling. It is part of a larger longitudinal ethnographic study of deaf children, who were 3-6 years old when the study started. They are early signers using Swedish Sign Language in communication with teachers and peers. The aim of this paper is to examine the different functions which…

The use of a multimedia program as a teaching tool, especially for special needs students, offers sufficient and personal attention to the student using it, while allowing instruction to proceed at the student's pace and also supporting in motivation. The purposes of this proposal are (1) to examine the degree of effectiveness of a multimedia…

This article presents the results from a preliminary investigation into the use of fingerspelling in Australian Sign Language (Auslan), drawing on data collected as part of the Sociolinguistic Variation in Australian Sign Language project (Schembri and Johnston 2004; Schembri, Johnston, and Goswell in press). This major project is a replication in…

This response to a previous article on aerial spelling (AS) in New Zealand Sign Language applauds the original author's effort to highlight an interesting feature of deaf communication but finds some claims questionable. These include the lack of research on AS, failure to include AS in the Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language, and imposition…

The study examined the role of sign language and fingerspelling in the development of the reading and writing skills of deaf children and youth. Twenty-six deaf participants (13 children, 13 adolescents), whose first language was Chilean Sign Language (CHSL), were examined. Their dactylic abilities were evaluated with tasks involving the reading…

Presents results of a survey of sign language interpreter training and provision in European Community countries. The questionnaire addressed such areas as: language forms used by deaf people and interpreters; training funding and priorities; interpreter evaluation, registration, availability, and salaries; and societal acceptance of sign language…