Research at
Gallaudet University
2005 - 2006

Signs of Literacy: A Longitudinal Study of ASL and English Literacy Acquisition

Status: Ongoing Begin date: October 1, 1993 End date: No set date

Description

This interdisciplinary, longitudinal study examines cultural, linguistic, and cognitive development in deaf and hard of hearing children from diverse backgrounds. The first phase of data collection was carried out from 1994-1996 when 12 teachers and 60 children were videotaped biweekly in their preschool classrooms. In FY2003, follow-up data were collected on six children selected for in-depth, longitudinal study. The goals were (1) to describe the ASL and English literacy acquisition of six deaf and hard of hearing children in preschool classrooms where ASL and English are the languages of instruction, (2) to describe the pedagogy, including the philosophy, teaching strategies, and classroom literacy environments of nine preschool teachers as well as the early literacy practices in a Deaf home, and (3) to document the ASL, English literacy, and academic achievement of the six target students from the time the classroom data collection ended in 1996 through 2002. The central focus of the ongoing analysis of the videotapes is on how ASL and English literacy are acquired by individual children who differ in theoretically important ways, how the parents', teachers', and children's use of ASL is linked to and supports emerging English literacy, and how this linguistic and cultural knowledge contributes to academic achievement during interaction with adults and peers.

Investigators