Abstract

Research with oral deaf classrooms as well as work with signed conversations between deaf adults suggested that the differences between spoken and signed language would lead to the loss of efficiency in communication between hearing teachers and deaf students. The purpose of the study was to describe the procedures that teachers in classrooms using manual communication employ in order to get and maintain student attention. Teacher attention-getting and maintaining in hearing classrooms consists of idiosyncratic phrases at the start of speaking turns, the use of questions or directives, or the selection of specific individuals. Four secondary school English teachers were videotaped on three occasions over a 2-week period. The teachers were volunteers, and the classes were teacher selected. All the teachers had at least 3 years of teaching experience, and most teachers had about 10 years of teaching experience. The use of a mixture of deaf adult signing behavior and spoken discourse markers is reported. A functioning but inefficient system is described.

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