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

The book's strenght is in its rigorous research standards. Strongly recommended. -- CHOICEA valuable resource and a rare, qualitative presentation. -- Academic Library Book ReviewThe first volume in the new Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series presents a rich collection of essays on fingerspelling in Langue des Signes Quebecoise (LSQ) in Quebec, Canada; language used by a Navajo family with deaf children; language, policy, classroom practice, and multiculturalism in deaf education; aspects of American Sign Language (ASL) and Filipino sign language discourse; and the role of rhetorical language in Deaf social movements. Contributors are Dominique Machabee, Arlene Blumenthal-Kelly, Jeffrey Davis, Melanie Met-ger, Samuel Supalla, Barbara Gerner de Garcia, Liza B. Martinez, Kathy Jankowski, and also Ceil Lucas. Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities affords an invaluable opportunity to assess up-to-date information on sign language linguistics worldwide and its impact on policy and planning in education, interaction with spoken languages, interpreting, and the issues of empowerment.

In developed nations around the world, residential schools for deaf students are giving way to the trend of inclusion in regular classrooms. Nonetheless, deaf education continues to lag as the students struggle to communicate. In the Bua School in Thailand, however, 400 residential deaf students ranging in age from 6 to 19 have met with great success in teaching each other Thai Sign Language (TSL) and a world of knowledge once thought to be lost to them. The Rising of Lotus Flowers: Self-Education by Deaf Children in Thai Boarding Schools reveals how their institutionalization allowed them to foster a unique incubator of communication and education. Charles B. Reilly, a teacher and community organizer in Thailand for eight years, and Nipapon Reilly, a Deaf Thai citizen, studied the students in the Bua School for 14 years, with periodic follow-ups thereafter. They found that the students learned little from their formal instructors, but that they were able to educate each other in time spent away from the classroom. Older students who had learned TSL in the dorms and on the playground successfully passed it on to six-year-olds who had virtually no language at all. The Reillys' study uncovers an elaborate hierarchy of education among these students, with each group using games and other activities to teach and bring other classmates up to their level. Named for the much admired aquatic plant that blooms in Thailand's bogs, the Bua School epitomizes the ideal of The Rising of Lotus Flowers, which also offers analytical evidence of the continuing value of residential schools in deaf education.

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

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 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.