This special issue, entitled “Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and Bilingual Education”, contains a selection of invited papers reflecting the importance of cultural and educational aspects of sign language research worldwide to highlight 20 years of Croatian Sign Language (HZJ) research. 
This important celebration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Zagreb

Hrastinski, Iva

Milković, Marina

English

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Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja 2022, Vol 58, (Special Issue) Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and Bilingual Education str. 1-51GUEST EDITORS’ PREFACEMarina Milković Iva HrastinskiThis special issue, entitled “Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and Bilingual Education”, con-tains a selection of invited papers reflecting the importance of cultural and educational aspects of sign language research worldwide to highlight 20 years of Croatian Sign Language (HZJ) research. This important celebration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Faculty of Education and Reha-bilitation Sciences at the University of Zagreb.HZJ research has been conducted by the Sign Language and Deaf Culture Research Laborato-ry (HZJ Lab) within the Department of Hearing Impairments at the Faculty of Education and Re-habilitation Sciences. As the only research and teaching institution in Croatia dealing with HZJ on a scientific level, the Department has been firmly committed to the promotion and affirma-tion of Croatian Sign Language and deaf bilingual education for almost 30 years.The HZJ Lab was established as a result of the bilateral U.S. - Croatian project (A Basic Gram-mar of Croatian Sign Language), awarded by the National Science Foundation and the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports to the principal investigators, prof. Ronnie B. Wilbur from Purdue University, and prof. Ljubica Prib-anić from University of Zagreb. The work of the HZJ Lab focuses primarily on the linguistics of Croatian Sign Language (HZJ). The description of its linguistic structure contrib-utes to the recognition of Croatian Sign Language as a full and natural language of the Deaf commu-nity in Croatia, as stated in the Recommendation and the Resolution of the Protection and Promotion of National Sign Languages in Europe by the Par-liamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It is imperative that the knowledge and findings from the research studies conducted in the HZJ Lab be incorporated into clinical practice and teaching through the development programmes directed at learning HZJ as a second language (L2), training of interpreters and teachers of the deaf, education of parents of deaf children to promote early com-munication, acquisition and raising awareness of HZJ as a first language (L1), and raising awareness of how HZJ can improve the educational and liter-acy outcomes in deaf children.With this in mind, this special issue has several goals. The first is to present linguistic analyses of various aspects of sign language structure compari-son, rather than the more typical comparison of sign languages with their surrounding spoken languages. The second goal is to provide sufficient information for the recognition of sign languages as distinct lan-guages with their own grammars. Although this is a well-known and widely accepted fact, there are still some persistent misconceptions that sign lan-guages are not true, natural human languages. The third goal is to demonstrate what the study of sign languages tells us about the overarching concept of “language”: that language is not speech, and that the brain is capable of transmitting information from one human mind to another, regardless of modality. Finally, the fourth goal is to make clear that natural sign languages have evolved to be pro-duced and perceived in the manual/visual modality as compared to spoken languages, and in contrast to artificially created signed systems of these spoken languages. Although such systems, known as si-multaneous communication (speaking and signing at the same time), are widely and often uncritically used, they are not natural sign languages.Papers in this volumeThe papers in this volume are a collection composed of papers divided into four sections: sign language early intervention and bimodal-bi-lingualism, sign language acquisition and assess-ment, sign language linguistic analysis, and deaf education and language policy.The collection begins with an overview by Chen Pichler (Challenging the oral-only narra-Marina Milković, Iva Hrastinski: Guest Editors’ Preface2tive: Enhancing early signed input for deaf chil-dren with hearing parents) of factors that both facilitate and inhibit the acquisition of at least one language (signed or spoken) among children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The paper sum-marizes previous research on early language de-velopment in hearing children so as to provide a framework for the prediction of aspects of sign language input that are most essential for early sign language development in deaf children with hearing parents. The following paper by Ivanova, Sverrisdót-tir, and Björk Þorvaldsdóttir (Raising Handshape Awareness: The Handshape Inventory for Icelan-dic Sign Language (ÍTM) in Early Intervention and Teaching of ÍTM) addresses a new and inter-esting topic, namely the use of rhymes in early language stimulation within the first years of sign language acquisition of deaf children.The next two papers discuss bimodal bilin-gualism. The paper by Wong, Tang, Yeung, and Yiu (Emerging Ecology of a Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment Classroom: A Qualitative Analysis) is a valuable contribution to bimod-al bilingual co-enrollment research. Examining the parameters of the Hong Kong program that support inclusive education can be beneficial for those considering implementing a co-enrollment program, those looking for ways to evaluate an existing program, and those training teachers of children with hearing loss.The first section concludes with an overview by Lillo-Martin, Gagne, and Chen Pichler (Lessons to be Learned from Bimodal Bilingualism) of issues related to the language experience of early bimodal bilinguals - two languages in two different modal-ities, typically spoken (or written) and signed. The authors emphasize the importance of considering children’s overall language experience, including the age(s) at which they are exposed to each of their languages, the richness of their language experi-ence, and the ways in which the language learning experience may contribute to the child’s linguistic and cognitive development.The second section contains two papers that focus on sign language acquisition and assess-ment. The first paper, by Herman and Rowley (Assessment of sign language development: new insights), addresses issues related to the develop-ment and standardization of sign language tests, taking into account the size and nature of the pop-ulation of DHH signers.The next one, by Kolbe (Open science versus data protection - challenges and solutions in sign language acquisition studies) discusses a number of important issues and challenges related to the nature of sign language acquisition research. This article makes an important contribution to the dis-cussion of research ethics involving sign languag-es, Deaf communities, and the language acquisi-tion of Deaf children.The third section begins with an article by Grose (Gestures and Adaptive Niches: an Evolutionary Perspective on Co-Speech Gestures) that presents an evolutionary approach to the analysis of three types of gestures: symbolic emblems, indexical pointing gestures, and iconic representational ges-ticulations, as used in both spoken and signed dis-course. The paper offers new ways of approaching proposed linguistic universals and long-standing issues such as listability in sign languages, while providing a formal approach to gestures.The section continues with a review paper by Wilbur (Prosody in sign languages) describing the theoretical and methodological issues with cross-modal comparisons of prosody. It provides a detailed overview of the relevant research on stress and intonation in sign modality. The paper address-es the debate concerning the status of non-manual markers as prosodic or not by examining in detail how prosody is structured in speech and what po-tential equivalents might be in sign language.The next five papers deal with the linguistic analysis of sign languages. The first of them, by Pavlič (Selected topics in Slovenian Sign Language linguistics: from minimal pairs to question forma-tion), gives an overview of linguistic research in Slovenian Sign Language. This paper presents relevant background information that needs to be considered when conducting research on gram-mar, as well as the research topics in linguistics that have been addressed in the last decades.Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja 2022, Vol 58, (Special Issue) Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and Bilingual Education str. 1-53The work of Keleş and Gökgöz (Expression of Aboutness Subject Topic Constructions in Turkish Sign Language Narratives) contributes to a bet-ter knowledge of the marking and interpretation of information structure notions in Turkish Sign Language (TİD) as well as to a better understand-ing of the encoding of information structure no-tions in sign languages. A novel empirical study on information structure marking and accessibili-ty of referents in TİD narratives is presented.The work of Pendzich, Cramer, Finkbeiner, Herrmann, and Steinbach (How do signers mark conditional sentences in German Sign Language? Insights from a Sentence Reproduction Task fo-cusing on the use of non-manual and manual markers) describes previous work on this type of clause in German Sign Language (DGS) and extends knowledge on the topic by reporting the results of a new experimental task. The paper adds to the body of research using different methods to describe a phenomenon and contributes to the lin-guistic knowledge of sign languages and of con-ditional clauses.The following paper, by Bross (Fantastic ‘at leasts’ and how to sign them: epistemic, conces-sive, and qualifying readings of scalar modifiers of the ‘at least’ class in German Sign Language) provides new data and interesting insights into the manual and non-manual realization of scalar ex-pressions in German Sign Language (DGS), mak-ing an important new contribution to the study of modifications in sign languages.The fifth paper in this section by Krebs, Malaia, Wilbur, and Roehm (EEG analysis based on dynamic visual stimuli: best practices in sign language data analysis) reviews the best practices in experimental design and analysis for sign lan-guage research using neurophysiological methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and other methods with high temporal resolution. In addi-tion, methodological challenges in neurophysio-logical research on natural sign language process-ing are highlighted.The final section of this volume addresses deaf education and language policy. The first paper by Raičević and Nikolić (Are we reaching a turning point in Serbia with respect to deaf education in Serbian Sign Language?) provides an overview of the challenges facing deaf education in Serbia by examining key policies that have been intro-duced over the years. It provides a summary of Serbian Sign Language research and discusses the changes in educational policy.The second paper in this section and the last in the volume, by Rossi Stumpf and Mueller de Quadros (Beyond Language Policies: Deaf Pro-tagonism, Brazilian Sign Language, and Deaf Ed-ucation) presents the policies that have contrib-uted to the recognition of sign language and deaf education. Important concepts of language policy and Deaf rights such as “diversity” and “inclu-sion” are considered. This paper makes a strong case for the need to consider the voice of the Deaf members of the indigenous Libras sign commu-nity in Brazil in relation to the education of Deaf children.Taken together, these fifteen papers represent a unique and valuable contribution to this special is-sue. We hope that this volume will underscore the legitimacy of the study of natural sign languages, contribute to early intervention in pediatric hear-ing loss, and prove that natural sign languages are key to the education and academic success of deaf children. We would therefore like to thank all the authors for their significant contributions.The preparation of this special issue was great-ly supported by the editor of the Croatian Journal of Rehabilitation Research (Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja, HRRI), to whom we are truly grateful. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their invaluable help in improving the quality of this collection.In conclusion, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all members of the Deaf community in Croatia who have supported the HZJ linguistic research as participants. Without the tireless willingness of these native signers to donate their time and unique linguistic com-petence in Croatian Sign Language, it would be hardly possible to conduct any HZJ research. In a way, this special issue is dedicated to them.Marina Milković, Iva Hrastinski: Guest Editors’ Preface4BIBLIOGRAPHYAlibašić, T. (2003). Pronominal system in Croatian Sign Language [Unpublished MSc thesis]. Purdue University. Alibašić, T., Šarac, N. & Wilbur, R. B. (2004). Researching HZJ. In S. Bradarić-Jončić & V. Ivasović (Eds.). Sign Language, Deaf Culture & Bilingual Education (39-46). Zagreb: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences. Alibašić Ciciliani, T. & Wilbur, R. B. 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