Eight studies demonstrate the diverse patterns by which deaf people around the world interact with their hearing societies, and document changing attitudes among the deaf about their role in society. The topics include a village in Indonesia with so many deaf people that hearing people are fluent in both sign and spoken languages; variation in signing among gays, lesbians, and bisexuals; bilingual deaf education in Venezuela; visually constructed dialogue with young students; the interrogative in Italian Sign Language; and American Sign Language as a truly foreign language no more difficult to learn than any other. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book provides an up-to-date overview of the main areas of the sociolinguistics of sign languages.

This edited book presents an detailed analysis of the experience of deaf people as a bilingual-bicultural minority group in America. An overview of mainstream research on bilingualism and biculturalism is followed by specific research and conceptual analyses which examine the impact of cultural and language diversity on the experiences of deaf people. The book ends with poignant personal reflections from deaf community members. The contributors include prominent deaf and hearing experts in bilingualism, ASL and Deaf culture, and deaf education.

Is perception reality? Editor Melanie Metzger investigates the cultural perceptions by and of deaf people around the world in Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities. "All sociocultural groups offer possible solutions to the dilemma that a deaf child presents to the larger group," write Claire Ramsey and Jose Antonio Noriega in their essay, "Ninos Milagrizados: Language Attitudes, Deaf Education, and Miracle Cures in Mexico." In this case, Ramsey and Noriega analyze cultural attempts to "unify" deaf children with the rest of the community. Other contributors report similar phenomena in deaf communities in New Zealand, Nicaragua, and Spain, paying particular attention to how society's view of deaf people affects how deaf people view themselves. A second theme pervasive in this collection, akin to the questions of perception and identity, is the impact of bilingualism in deaf communities. Peter C. Hauser offers a study of an American child proficient in both ASL and Cued English while Annica Detthow analyzes "transliteration" between Spoken Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. Like its predecessors, this sixth volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series distinguishes itself by the depth and diversity of its research, making it a welcome addition to any scholar's library.

This title is a major professional reference work in the field of deafness research. It covers all important aspects of deaf studies: language, social/psychological issues, neuropsychology, culture, technology, and education.

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