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[Development of the National Languages Act [of Taiwan]. (2019, January 9). Ministry of Culture. ] incorporating Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) evolved from Taiwan's historical linguistic ecology and intertwined with the linguistic ecology of Taiwan's Deaf community. Utilising a qualitative document analysis incorporating a language planning and policy framework [Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge University Press; Reagan, T. (2022). Language planning and language policies for sign languages: an emerging civil rights movement. Sociolinguistica, 36(1-2), 169–182], we analyze how this law fits into Taiwan's multicultural milieu. Specifically, we analyze the transmission, revival, and development of TSL by legislating status, acquisition, corpus, and prestige planning for teaching TSL to hearing learners. Secondly, gaps are identified, such as establishing early TSL access to the birth to age five deaf learners and their caregivers, promoting Chinese literacy with TSL strategies, and hiring native Deaf signing teachers. Limitations and future directions for research and practice are then outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An exploratory study was implemented with bilingual deaf children using a quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design with a 10-week American Sign Language (ASL) and English bilingual Shared Book Reading intervention. Standardized and research-made instruments were used to evaluate ASL and English skills. Intervention effects showed improvements in Receptive ASL skills, Book Reading, and the ability to draw and describe drawings in both languages. Growth in visual phonology was evident in the drawings, and no relationship between auditory phonology and English word identification was found. The results provide implications for early literacy instruction with suggestions for future research.

This article examines in detail the exchange of letters between Ruy López de Villalobos, captain general of a significant Spanish fleet, which landed on the island of Mindanao in February 1543, and the captain of the Portuguese fort on the Malukan island of Ternate, Jorge de Castro. In his letters and formal injunctions, Castro warns Villalobos not to enter the Maluku islands as these are under Portuguese jurisdiction while Villalobos attempts various arguments to justify his movements between the future Philippine islands of Mindanao, Samar and Leyte, and the northern Malukus. The exchange ceases with Castro's rotation from his post on Ternate in the late Spring of 1544 and in effect only covers the first year of Villalobos' presence in the Philippine and Malukan archipelagos. Nevertheless, the letters provide an interesting insight into how an experienced Portuguese governor dealt with a neophyte Spanish naval expeditionary at a turning point in the balance between Spanish and Portuguese power in these islands. The letters, while mediated by the intervention of legal clerks, copyists and advisors, provide a flavour of each man as an individual, palpable in the language and tone they struck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]