C. Tane Akamatsu

A Model for Effective Practice: Dialogic Inquiry with Students who are Deaf:

The data presented in this study come from the first year of a 4-year research project which has been undertaken to develop a model to describe exemplary communicative practice in the education of students who are deaf. Based on extensive videotaping of teacher-student interactions across a range of ages and subject areas, with participants using a variety of signed communication forms, the nature of this signed classroom discourse is considered with respect to: (a) how it mediates the activity of teaching and learning, and (b) how it encompasses more than the linguistic quality of the signed communication. Dialogic inquiry is proposed as a framework for conceptualizing a model of effective pedagogical practice in the education of learners who are deaf.

It Takes Two to be Literate: Literacy Interactions Between Parent & Child

One deaf child’s developing literacy from the age of two to the age of five is described as it shapes and is shaped by adult scaffolding. Literacy activities taped once a month over the three years were analyzed for (1) type of activity, (2) adult strategies to engage and support the child in gaining literacy, (3) strategies used by the child to engage and seek adult support, and (4) cohesive devices used in the adult-child dialogue.

Is It Time to Look Beyond Teachers' Signing Behavior?

S   s classrooms and programs for deaf students have evolved from the exclusive reliance on oral/auditory methods to combined methods of speech and English-based signing and bilingual methods that include the use of American Sign Language (ASL). Today there are many deaf students who have signed throughout their school years, and it is no longer unusual to find deaf graduates with hearing parents who have signed to them since their preschool days. In spite of all of these changes, we have seen little change in the academic abilities and in particular the literacy abilities of deaf children (Moores ; Paul ). In view of these dismal results it is surprising to see that research has done little to guide classroom practices (Moores ; Stewart and Kluwin ). One consistent strand of research has looked at the use of signs in the classroom and teachers’ attempts to provide a signed representation of English. Good communication, although desirable, does not necessarily equate with good teaching (Lytle and Rovins ; Stewart ). For teachers, instructional method and style of teaching are critical components of effective teaching. Hence, for an optimal learning environment for deaf children to occur, there

The Role of Fingerspelling in Simultaneous Communication.

This paper is intended to raise researchers’ and teachers’ awareness of fingerspelling as an important part of signed communication. Five trained teachers of deaf children were videotaped, and their fingerspelled utterances were transcribed and analyzed for form, content, and use. The data showed that these teachers did not fingerspell often, but when they did they sought to express a specific English word. The clarity of the fingerspelled utterances varied greatly, ranging from whole word gestalts to words wherein individual letters could be discerned. Implications of these findings are drawn and several hypotheses suggestions are made about the use of fingerspelling in total communication programs.