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Exploring the Acquisition of American Sign Language by Deaf Kindergarten Children: Early Language Access and the Use of Appropriate Resources
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In: Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository (2020)
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Abstract:
This dissertation explores the accounts of educators and parents regarding the accessibility of American Sign Language (ASL) and its acquisition by deaf children in Ontario, Canada. It is generally known that deaf children’s ASL acquisition and proficiency is directly affected by their early exposure to the language; the earlier and greater the exposure, the greater the acquisition and proficiency, while later and inadequate exposure results in poorer acquisition and proficiency. In the face of societal and educational systems in Ontario, there have been some attempts to provide opportunities for deaf children and their families to develop and acquire ASL (Snoddon, 2008, 2014, 2016). At the same time, however, ASL-English bilingual programs have had an abundance of English resources while ASL resources remain markedly insufficient. Deaf children may experience difficulty in connecting with their families and educators—intellectually, emotionally, linguistically—due to the lack of access to ASL resources during their infancy and childhood years. Stemming from Cummins’ (1996, 2001) linguistic interdependence hypothesis and my own Master’s research (Rouse, 2016), this dissertation examines how insufficient training, limited options of resources and an apparent lack of knowledge of existing research on deaf children’s language learning negatively impacts their ASL acquisition and proficiency. These factors have significant implications for various educational programs and take root when minority languages, particularly in a bilingual education system, are neither fully acknowledged nor supported by policymakers. Systemic barriers continue to make ASL inaccessible for educators, children and their families which, in turn, results in poorer language outcomes for the children. The paper shares the findings about systemic attitudes, accessibility, preparations, and ASL resources and strategies concerning deaf children’s language development. The findings may validate and inspire the need for change in Ontario’s societal and educational systems by highlighting the benefits of ASL resources and their use. In addition, the findings reveal deaf children’s ways of “doing language,” and thereby can inform the ways in which researchers, educators, parents and policymakers think about the quality of ASL-English bilingual education, in community services, educational programs, and particularly within the everyday classroom.
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Keyword:
American Sign Language; and Cultures; and Multicultural Education; Bilingual; deaf; language acquisition; Multilingual; Ontario; Other Languages; resources; Societies; strategies
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URL: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7184
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9666&context=etd
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