Bilingualism & Deafness: An Annotated Bibliography

Summer 1987 BILINGUALISM & DEAFNESS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Ceil Lucas, with Anthony Aramburo, Brian Cerney, Lynn Jacobowitz, Patti Levine, Cynthia Patschke, Brian Riley. and Julie Ward Introductory. This bibliography is the direct result of frustration experienced as I prepared a list of readings for a graduate seminar on bilingualism I taught in the fall of 1986, in the Department of Linguistics and Interpreting at Gallaudet University. Many studies in the field of deafness deal directly or indirectly with different aspects of bilingualism, but no bibliography unites all the various studies with any semblance of order. Although the frustration was originally mine, I shared it with my students, named above, inducing them to do much of the work. Our goal was a reference tool for students and researchers interested in bilingualism and deafness -- a point of departure, a way to get a handle on a fairly diverse area of study. My job was to edit, supplement, and organize the final project, which is divided into six major sections: 1. Sociolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism and Deafness 2. Linguistic Aspects of Bilingualism and Deafness 3. Psycholinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism and Deafness 4. Language Acquisition 5. Language Policy and Bilingual Education 6. Language Attitudes. Copyright@ 1987 by Linstok Press, Inc. See note inside Front cover. ISSN 0302-1475 SLS 55 Lucas et al. : 98 A distinction is drawn (Secs. 4 & 5) between descriptive studies in the area of language acquisition and studies in the area of language policy and bilingual education: some of the latter may have language acquisition components, but they focus mainly on policy development and implementation. I am certain that the bibliography is not exhaustive, and indeed, some of you who regularly read Sign Language Studies may find cause to exclaim over glaring omissions. It is our hope that you will simply make us aware of any such omissions so that we can amend the bibliography. No page references are given; when the document is smaller than book length it can easily be found in the volume noted. 1. Sociolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism & Deafness. Bernstein, M. et al. 1985. Bimodal or bilingual communication? Sign Language Studies 47. Focuses on the investigation of variation in manual communication. Deaf and hearing consultants fluent in American Sign Language and with good command of English provide a closer look at mode changing among signers, as opposed to discussion of variation as a pidgin on a diglossic continuum. Caccamise, F. & D. Hicks, eds. 1978. ASL in a Bilingual, Bicultural Context (Proceedings of 2nd NSSLRT). Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf. A comprehensive volume covering a wide range of topics, including linguistic descriptions of sign language, the acquisition of sign language, sign language instruction, and sign language use. Carmel, S. 1980. Aspects of sociolinguistic segmentation in American urban deaf communities. MA thesis. American University, Washington, DC. summer 1987 SLS 55 Lucas et al. : 99 Describes observations in three deaf social clubs in a large midwestern city to study boundary maintenance mechanisms and related sociocultural and linguistic variables. Finds that differing socioeconomic status, educational background, and sign language styles combine to establish and maintain social cleavages within a deaf community. Delgado, G. ed. 1984. The Hispanic Deaf: Issues & Challenges for Bimodal Special Education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. A comprehensive volume covering Hispanic deaf population, language dynamics, language choices, assessment, education programming, and teacher preparation. Kannapell, B. 1980. Personal awareness & advocacy in the Deaf community. In Sign Language & the Deaf Community, Baker & Battison eds. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf. Describes the author's personal experience of discovering her identity as a deaf person through understanding of her own language, American Sign Language. She explains how the study of language in its social context led her to support bilingual education, and discusses English and American Sign Language usage in relation to function, using Weinreich's terms "coordinate" and "compound" bilingual in application to the deaf community. Kannapell, B. 1985. Language choice reflects identity choice: A sociolinguistic study of deaf college students. Ph.D. dissertation. Georgetown University. Describes the demographic background of a representative sample of students and the linguistic/ communicative diversity underlying their attitudes toward American Sign Language and English and toward users of these. Shows the importance...