Bringing the Field into the Classroom: A Field Methods Course on Saudi Arabian Sign Language

The methodology used in one graduate-level linguistics field methods classroom is examined through the lens of the students’ experiences. Four male Deaf individuals from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia served as the consultants for the course. After a brief background information about their country and its practices surrounding deaf education, both successful and less-than-successful attempts at elicitation are discussed, providing the impetus for the current article. The article concludes with constructive suggestions for future field methods classes. The article also serves as a preface to the other articles on Saudi Arabian Sign Language in this volume. The references for all the articles herein on Saudi Arabian Sign Language are at the end of this special section.