Classroom Interpreting and Visual Information Processing in Mainstream Education for Deaf Students: Live or Memorex?

This study examined visual information processing and learning in classrooms including both deaf and hearing students. Of particular interest were the effects on deaf students’ learning of live (threedimensional) versus video-recorded (two-dimensional) sign language interpreting and the visual attention strategies of more and less experienced deaf signers exposed to simultaneous, multiple sources of visual information. Results from three experiments consistently indicated no differences in learning between three-dimensional and two-dimensional presentations among hearing or deaf students. Analyses of students’ allocation of visual attention and the influence of various demographic and experimental variables suggested considerable flexibility in deaf students’ receptive communication skills. Nevertheless, the findings also revealed a robust advantage in learning in favor of hearing students

Reception of game subtitles : an empirical study

Altres ajuts: European project Hbb4All from the FP7 CIP-ICTPSP.2013.5.1 # 621014.Over the last few years accessibility to the media has been gathering the attention of scholars, particularly subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) and audiodescription (AD) for the blind, due to the transition from analogue to digital TV that took place in Europe in 2012. There is a wide array of academic studies focussing on subtitling and SDH in different media, such as TV, cinema, and DVD. However, despite the fact that many video games contain cinematic scenes, which are subtitled intralingually, interlingually or both, subtitling practices in game localization remain unexplored, and the existing standards widely applied to subtitling for TV, DVD and cinema are not applied. There is a need for standardisation of game subtitling practices, which will ultimately lead to an enhanced gameplay experience for all users. This paper presents a small-scale exploratory study about the reception of subtitles in video games by means of user tests through a questionnaire and eye tracking technology in order to determine what kind of subtitles users prefer, focusing on parameters such as presentation, position, character identification, and depiction of sound effects. The final objective is to contribute to the development of best practices and standards in subtitling for this emerging digital medium, which will enhance game accessibility not only for deaf and hard of hearing players but also for all players

University American Sign Language Learners: Longitudinal Self- and Faculty Evaluation Ratings

Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) represent a small yet diverse population of students with individual needs who often receive educational services provided by sign language interpreters and teachers of the Deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH). Many interpreters and teachers appear unprepared to model fluent American Sign Language (ASL) skills when working with D/HH students who use sign language for communication and instruction. We investigated the ASL skills of 19 interpreting and Deaf education candidates within one university preparation program at two points in time: the end of ASL I class (Time 1) and a year later at the end of ASL IV (Time 2). We used video recordings of candidates’ signed renditions of a picture book, a rubric of 12 sign language indicators with five levels of proficiency across each indicator, and ratings conducted independently by the candidates and the five authors. Four of these authors were university professors in two different Deaf education/interpreting preparation programs and the fifth was a teacher at a residential school for the Deaf. Three have typical hearing and use ASL as a secondary language; two are Deaf and use ASL as their primary language. We compared candidates’ self-ratings to those of the five authors. We found that candidates tended to over-estimate their skills at T1; self-ratings and author ratings increased from T1 to T2, and candidates had higher agreement with most authors at T2 compared to T1. In addition, we found differences among ratings between the university faculty and the high school teacher. We discuss these differences in our findings and address implications for evaluating and improving university candidates’ ASL skills

Exploring the Work of K-12 Interpreters at One School for the Deaf

Emergent signers are Deaf students with a spoken language foundation who are learning within educational environments where ASL is the shared and dominant language. Emergent signers’ growing presence within Deaf school classrooms has created a new opportunity in educational interpreting research because they require spoken language interpreting services while learning within these settings. Interpreting is produced primarily from ASL to spoken English. This pilot case study illuminates the factors that influence interpreters’ decision-making in an ASL-dominant K-12 educational setting, at one school for the Deaf. Furthermore, the study documents strategies used by interpreters in response to those factors. This project’s methodology includes observations and field notes, video footage of interpreters at work, and filmed video elicitation interviews. Three interpreters participated, whose voices were prioritized in the quantitative data. Results are categorized with Smith’s (2013) three overarching aims of educational interpreters. Findings indicate that the highly visual nature of ASL-dominant classroom, particularly during ‘question and answer’ times generate unique factors that influence interpreters’ strategic decision-making. Implications of the study suggest that educational interpreters must be trained to evaluate and prioritize in their moment-to-moment decisions

There's more to the picture than meets the ear - Gaze behavior during communication in children with hearing impairment

Many children and adolescents with hearing impairment struggle to meet school demands. The difficulties can be traced to the characteristics of the hearing impairment, and to adverse consequences on language development, often overlooked in diagnostics and intervention. This thesis investigates the communicative ability of children and adolescents with bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment by studying verbal and nonverbal interactions with normal hearing peers. The study uses a referential communication task requiring the speaker to make relevant descriptions, and the listener to use verbal and nonverbal means to resolve uncertainties. Analyses focus on verbal questions and answers (paper 1), nonverbal gaze behavior in relation to the verbal production (paper 2 and 3), and the cognitive and linguistic factors influencing the gaze behavior (paper 4). The results yielded that: - The structured and predictive conversational setting enables speakers to include unrequested information without compromising the partner’s understanding (paper 1). - Gaze behavior is related to the production of verbal utterances, as shown by a higher probability of gaze to the conversational partner’s face when asking questions than making statements (paper 2). - Participants with hearing impairment consistently exhibit higher probability of gaze-to-partner than peers with normal hearing (paper 3). - Participants with hearing impairment and reduced phonological short term memory capacity show a doubled probability of gaze-to-partner, compared to peers with normal hearing (paper 4). The findings express the multimodality of communication, and the need for multidisciplinary assessment and therapy. Implications include pedagogical adaptations to an increased use of nonverbal cues in children and adolescents with hearing impairment. The results highlight areas of phonology and conversational strategies to target for speech-language services, and call for an evaluation of nonword repetition as a clinical marker allowing earlier identification of children with hearing impairment at risk for persistent language impairment

Visuality without form: video-mediated communication and research practice across disciplinary contexts

Visuality is a concept that crosses boundaries of practice and meaning, making it an ideal subject for interdisciplinary research. In this article, we discuss visuality using a fragment from a video meeting of television producers at Swedish Television’s group for programming in Swedish Sign Language. This example argues for the importance of recognizing the diversity of analytical and practice-derived visualities and their effect on the ways in which we interpret cultures. These different visualities have consequences for the methods and means with which we present scholarly research. The role of methods, methodology, and analysis of visual practices in an organizational and bilingual setting are key. We explore the challenges of incorporating deaf visualities, hearing visualities, and different paradigms of interdisciplinary research as necessary when visibility, invisibility, and their materialities are of concern. We conclude that in certain contexts, breaking with disciplinary traditions makes visible that which is otherwise invisible

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Readers and Science Comics: A Mixed Methods Investigation on Process

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students bring diverse language and literacy backgrounds to the task of academic reading, which becomes increasingly complex and abstract in the upper grades. Teachers often differentiate their instruction by providing multimedia resources, of which students interact with verbal and pictorial information. A growing body of research supports multimedia learning; however, most of the studies have focused exclusively on learning outcomes, leaving teachers in the dark about the cognitive processes underlying these effects. This mixed methods study addresses this gap by using a nonfiction comic to investigate the reading processes of DHH 7th -12th grade students. Eye tracking and cued retrospective protocol were employed in a concurrent nested design to answer the question, how do DHH students read and learn from multimedia science texts? This study was guided by the cognitive theory of multimedia which states that reading comprehension is better supported when learning from words and pictures rather than words alone, especially when readers cognitively integrate the two representations to form a coherent mental model. Temporal and sequential eye tracking results revealed that readers’ transitions between related words and pictures were a statistically significant variable in explaining factual knowledge learning outcomes. These strategic shifts in attention were further explained by readers’ retrospective verbal reports of their thinking. Students’ descriptions of their vii reading processes were interpreted into the following themes: repairing, connecting representations, passive transitions, and connecting to self. The integration of quantitative and qualitative methods at the interpretation stage revealed that although the theme of repairing was equally distributed across all student reports, the theme of connecting representations was largely present in the reports from students who made high counts of integrative transitions. The major findings of this study align with the cognitive theory of multimedia, that students’ learning outcomes were significantly predicted by the deliberate strategies to cognitively integrate words and pictures to form and maintain a coherent mental model. The discussion includes ways in which teachers can capitalize on explicit modeling of these behaviors and employ students’ “think alouds” to better understand and support the development of effective multimedia reading processes

An evaluation of a communicative intervention programme for hearing caregivers and their deaf children in a developing context

Includes bibliographical references (p. 398-428).This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention programme, in a developing context within an ecological framework that involves parents througp parent training adopting a parent-child interaction approach to intervention. This short-term, group intervention programme was developed specifically for hearing primary caregivers of profo,undly deaf signing children from low socio-economic backgrounds. A naturalistic approach to .intervention that followed a conversational model was applied. The programme was deSigned to enhance dyadic communicative interaction and to empower the caregivers as effective change agents, primarily through the programme components of communication skills and sign language, information and knowledge, educational advocacy and support. A broader perspective was adopted through addressing socio-economic factors and adapting to cultural differences. A team of people was involved in programme development, implementation and evaluation and included professionals from a range of disciplines, Deaf signing adults, and an English-isiXhosa interpreter. A shortterm longitudinal, before-and-after group design was used in programme implementation and evaluation. This design encompassed constructivist-interpretive and positivist/post-positivist research paradigms. The group of sixteen caregiver-child dyads reported on in this study was its own control, constituting a quasi-experimental design. An estimate of the effect of the programme was determined by analysing pre-post-intervention comparisons of videotaped dyadic interactions during play and storytelling, and the post-intervention evaluation questionnaire and focus group interview data. A coding system was compiled for the investigation of communication and sign language parameters that were not part of an occurrence of communication breakdown. Investigation of breakdown and repair as well as aspects of caregiver sign production constituted a separate analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were Icarried out in the evaluation process and certain procedures were adopted to enhance the reliability and validity of the findings. It is believed that the aims I of this study and the specific goals/objectives of the programme were met. The analyses carried out indicated positive change and that this change was most likely due to the programme. In particular, it is believed that the style of caregiver-child interaction changed over the course of the intervention and so the programme was effective to the degree that it improved caregiver-child communicative interaction. More so, it is believed that the programme resulted in empowerment of the caregivers. Numerous aspects are believed to contribute towards the uniqueness of this study and of the communicative intervention programme. The numerous clinical and theoretical implications and implications for future research arising from this study are discussed in detail