Abstract
A contentious pedagogical issue in American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language is the use of spoken English as a medium in the teaching and learning of ASL vocabulary — in other words, whether or not teachers should use their voice while teaching ASL. A ‘voice-on’ approach entails the use of voicing and writing in learners’ native spoken English in addition to sign. In contrast, ‘voice-off’ instruction and learning entails the use of ASL signs and pictures and images but without the use of voicing and writing in spoken English. The issue is paralleled by debate over the use of native language (NL) or target language (TL) as a medium of instruction in foreign language classrooms (Turnbull & Arnett, 2002). The use of NL entails using the learners’ first language (L1), and the use of TL involves using the foreign (L2) language only. In the case of classrooms in ASL as a foreign language, NL refers to spoken and written English modalities and the TL is ASL. This chapter reports empirical studies of the use of NL and TL in the teaching and learning of vocabulary in ASL as a foreign language. The following section reviews relevant studies of spoken foreign language learning that provide context for the focus of the ASL studies.
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© 2014 Russell S. Rosen, Mary-Kate DeLouise, Amanda T. Boyle, and Kerry Daley
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Rosen, R.S., DeLouise, MK., Boyle, A.T., Daley, K. (2014). Native Language, Target Language, and the Teaching and Learning of American Sign Language Vocabulary. In: McKee, D., Rosen, R.S., McKee, R. (eds) Teaching and Learning Signed Languages. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312495_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312495_8
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