Through rigorous study of historical texts, field research in communities throughout France and the U.S., and in-depth analysis of the cultural groups responsible for the lexicon, authors Shaw and Delaporte present for the first time a compelling and detailed account of the origins of over 500 ASL signs, including regional variations. Organized alphabetically by equivalent English glosses, each sign is accompanied by a succinct description of its origin and an LSF sign where appropriate.

Reflecting the exponential growth of college courses offering American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language, high schools have followed suit with significant increases in ASL classes during the past two decades. Despite this trend, high school ASL teachers and program administrators possess no concrete information on why students take ASL for foreign language credit, how they learn new signs and grammar, and how different learning techniques determines their achievement in ASL. This new book addresses these issues to better prepare high schools in their recruitment and education of new ASL students. Author Russell S. Rosen begins with the history of ASL as a foreign language in high schools, including debates about the foreign language status of ASL, the situation of deaf and hard of hearing students in classes, and governmental recognition of ASL as a language. Based on his study of five high school ASL programs, he defines the factors that motivate students, including community and culture, and analyzes strategies for promoting language processing and learning. Learning American Sign Language in High School provides strategies for teaching ASL as a second language to students with learning disabilities as well. Its thorough approach ensures the best opportunity for high school students to attain high levels of achievement in learning ASL.

"The American Sign Language Handshape Puzzle Book" features 54 different puzzles to help students learn, review, and strengthen their signing vocabulary. Inspired by the bestselling dictionary, this unique workbook offers a variety of puzzles at three different levels -- easy, medium, and difficult. Author Linda Lascelle Hillebrand provides a concise explanation of the basic handshapes used in American Sign Language (ASL), then invites readers to have fun while solving all sorts of sign puzzles.
Users can practice sign identification with Crossword and Word Search puzzles that have signs as clues rather than words. Easy puzzles show as few as six signs while advanced puzzles contain as many as 30 signs each. Some of the crossword puzzles provide spaces both across and down for the multiple meanings that many signs can represent.
Handshape Order puzzles require users to identify the handshape of the sign in an illustration, then list the sign's meaning in English. Match puzzles also challenge readers to find corresponding signs for English glosses. Solutions to It Doesn't Belong and Sign Description puzzles depend upon knowing the parameters of ASL signs--handshape, orientation, location, and movement--to deduce which word in a list doesn't belong, and to write the English word for the described signs. "The American Sign Language Handshape Puzzle Book" is a new, different, and entertaining way to practice ASL that students of all ages are sure to enjoy.

Signs and Voices addresses the effects of a range of modern scientific and social developments - such as cochlear implants, genetic engineering, and educational mainstreaming - on deaf culture. The book is split into three sections, the first focusing on culture and identity, the second on language and literacy, and the third on American Sign Language in the arts. An excellent DVD supplements the text, providing footage of ASL performances of some of the poetry and dramatic works discussed in the arts section of the book.

In 1955 William C. Stokoe arrived at Gallaudet College (later Gallaudet University) to teach English where he was first exposed to deaf people signing. While most of his colleagues dismissed signing as mere mimicry of speech, Stokoe saw in it elements of a distinctive language all its own. Seeing Language in Sign traces the process that Stokoe followed to prove scientifically and unequivocally that American Sign Language (ASL) met the full criteria of linguistics--phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and use of language--to be classified a fully developed language. This perceptive account dramatically captures the struggle Stokoe faced in persuading the establishment of the truth of his discovery. Other faculty members ridiculed or reviled him, and many deaf members of the Gallaudet community laughed at his efforts. Seeing Language in Sign rewards the reader with a rich portrayal of an undaunted advocate who, like a latter-day Galileo, pursued his vision doggedly regardless of relentless antagonism. He established the Linguistics Research Laboratory, then founded the journal Sign Language Studies to sustain an unpopular dialogue until the tide changed. His ultimate vindication corresponded with the recognition of the glorious culture and community that revolves around Deaf people and their language, ASL.

"The Fifth Volume in the Studies in Interpretation Series"
In interpreting, professionals must be able to convey to their clients the rhythm, stress, and length of phrases used by the communicating parties to indicate their respective emotional states. Such subtleties, which can signal sarcasm and irony or whether a statement is a question or a command, are defined in linguistics as prosody. Brenda Nicodemus's new volume, the fifth in the Studies in Interpretation series, discusses the prosodic features of spoken and signed languages, and reports the findings of her groundbreaking research on prosodic markers in ASL interpretation.
In her study, Nicodemus videotaped five highly skilled interpreters as they interpreted a spoken English lecture into ASL. Fifty Deaf individuals viewed the videotaped interpretations and indicated perceived boundaries in the interpreted discourse. These identified points were then examined for the presence of prosodic markers that might be responsible for the perception of a boundary. "Prosodic Markers and Utterance Boundaries "reports on the characteristics of the ASL markers, including their frequency, number, duration, and timing. Among other findings, the results show that interpreters produce an average of seven prosodic markers at each boundary point. The markers are produced both sequentially and simultaneously and under conditions of highly precise timing. Further, the results suggest that the type of prosodic markers used by interpreters are both systematic and stylistic.

This remarkable volume examines the process by which three deaf, French biographers from the 19th and 20th centuries attempted to cross the cultural divide between deaf and hearing worlds through their work. The very different approach taken by each writer sheds light on determining at what point an individual's assimilation into society endanger his or her sense of personal identity.
Author Hartig begins by assessing the publications of Jean-Ferdinand Berthier (1803-1886). Berthier wrote about Auguste Bebian, Abbe de l'Epee, and Abbe Sicard, all of whom taught at the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris. Although Berthier presented compelling portraits of their entire lives, he paid special attention to their political and social activism, his main interest.
Yvonne Pitrois (1880-1937) pursued her particular interest in the lives of deaf-blind people. Her biography of Helen Keller focused on her subject's destiny in conjunction with her unique relationship with Anne Sullivan. Corinne Rocheleau-Rouleau (1881-1963) recounted the historical circumstances that led French-Canadian pioneer women to leave France. The true value of her work resides in her portraits of these pioneer women: maternal women, warriors, religious women, with an emphasis on their lives and the choices they made.
"Crossing the Divide" reveals clearly the passion these biographers shared for narrating the lives of those they viewed as heroes of an emerging French deaf community. All three used the genre of biography not only as a means of external exploration but also as a way to plumb their innermost selves and to resolve ambivalence about their own deafness.

This new collection examines several facets of signed language interpreting. Claudia Angelelli's study confirms that conference, courtroom, and medical interpretation can no longer be seen as a two-party conversation with an "invisible" interpreter, but as a three-party conversation in which the interpreter plays an active role. Laura M. Sanheim defines different turn-taking elements in a medical setting as two overlapping conversations, one between the patient and the interpreter and the other between the interpreter and the medical professional. In her analysis of discourse at a Deaf revival service, Mary Ann Richey demonstrates how Deaf presenters and audiences interact even in formal settings, creating special challenges for interpreters. Jemina Napier shares her findings on the nature and occurrence of omissions by interpreters in Australian Sign Language and English exchanges. Elizabeth Winston and Christine Monikowski desire different strategies used by interpreters to indicate topic shifts when interpreting into American Sign Language and when transliterating. The study concludes with Bruce Sofinski's analysis of nonmanual elements used by interpreters in sign language transliteration.

From the authors of ?Baby?s First Signs? and ?More Baby?s first Signs? come two new brightly colored board books depicting the recognizable character with the hat signing all the primary and secondary colors and familiar animals and insects such as ?dog,? ?cat,? ?butterfly,? and ?squirrel.?

An essential accompaniment to the bestselling The American Sign Language Phrase Book, The American Sign Language Puzzle Book is an entertaining way for anyone learning to sign to test and build his or her knowledge. Featuring topics such as Everyday Expressions, Health, Clothing, Numbers, Time, and Money, The American Sign Language Puzzle Book incorporates an engaging variety of puzzle types, including scramble puzzles, word searches, matching puzzles, and crosswords, which are all complemented by exceptionally clear and helpful illustrations.

Armstrong's cogent, highly readable book explains the basic linguistic concepts and academic controversies in a way that makes for an excellent introduction to the study of language. But this is an introduction with an important difference. Unlike most authors, Armstrong includes gesture and signed language at every step, rather than teating the visual channel of language as an afterthought. He makes a strong case for the Whorfian, comparative, and relativist approach to languages as a necessary complement to the Chomskyan universalist perspective that has dominated the field in recent decades, and Armstrong's historical analysis illustrates how the politics of social attitude has influenced scientific views about such questions as whether or not a signed language can be a real language in its own right. His argument starts with the premise that both forms, signed and vocal, are kinds of language, and he examines the important differences as well as the similarities between them, providing insight into basic questions about the nature and evolution of language as a multimodal phenomenon--audio and visual in its essence.

A quick-reference dictionary to sign language for everyone who wants to communicate with someone who is deaf or hearing-impaired. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the Living Language video, Say It By Signing. 1,080 black-and-white illustrations.

In a book with far-reaching implications, Edward S. Klima and Ursula Bellugi present a full exploration of a language in another mode--a language of the hands and of the eyes. They discuss the origin and development of American Sign Language, the internal structure of its basic units, the grammatical processes it employs, and its heightened use in poetry and wit. The authors draw on research, much of it by and with deaf people, to answer the crucial question of what is fundamental to language as language and what is determined by the mode (vocal or gestural) in which a language is produced.

This illustrated text offers a unique approach to using American Sign Language (ASL) and English in a bilingual setting. Each of the 25 lessons involves sign language conversation using colloqualisms that are prevalent in informal conversations. Each lesson includes equivalent expressions in English, plus: glossed vocabulary review; translation exercises from ASL to English and to ASL; grammatical notes; substitution drills; and suggested activities. The text also includes practice tests and a glossed alphabetical index.