Search

[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]

Educational sign language interpreting services (SLIS) are vital for ensuring equal access to classroom information for mainstreamed deaf students. This study conducted interviews with 12 stakeholders, including deaf students and their parents, sign language interpreters, and resource room teachers, to comprehensively explore the status of educational SLIS in Taiwan, utilising the ecological systems theory as the framework. The findings underscore the critical importance of deaf students' sign language proficiency in the personal system. Sign language interpreters play a crucial role in enhancing their skills through additional time and support, leading to improved learning, motivation, and attitudes. At the microsystem level, parents of deaf students are key persons in advocating for the SLIS of primary school, while resource room teachers assist at the university level during the application process. In the mesosystem, interpreter stability is crucial for parents and students. Close collaboration between sign language interpreters and teachers is essential for adjusting teaching methods and seating arrangements, and interpreters should possess qualities like enthusiasm, patience, and an understanding of students' psychological development. At the exosystem level, higher education institutions offer established systems for educational SLIS, but primary schools lack clear regulations. Budget constraints limit comprehensive provision, making it challenging to attract qualified professionals. Increased funding and improved incentives are necessary. In the macrosystem, deaf parents expect early intervention with sign language learning resources to create a conducive environment for early sign language acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part I, we underscore the issues surrounding young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) learners of literacy in Taiwan who use sign to support their learning of Chinese literacy. We also described the linguistic features of Chinese writing and the visual codes used by DHH children. In Part II, we describe the reading and writing practices used with Taiwanese DHH children. Teachers reported they taught Chinese literacy bridging meaning to print using pictures, speech, sign, visual and visual/gestural codes. Theoretical and practical implications of our descriptive study were given.

We describe the literacy issues facing young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) learners in Taiwan who are learning both a logographic and an alphabetic script. We describe the contextual factors that surround their reading and writing processes such as island demographics, reading achievement levels, and background language learning variables including deaf culture. We then describe and provide graphic illustrations and examples of the linguistic features of the written languages that DHH children are learning (Chinese and English) as well as the sign codes (Signed Chinese, Zhuyin finger alphabet, character signs, palm writing, and air writing) and the Zhuyin Fuhao written visual symbols. We suggest that contextual, cultural and linguistic factors need to be considered in the understanding of how DHH children learn to read and write as well as how they use their sign language and sign codes to build Chinese and English literacy skills.

The authors discuss Pinyin, a phonetic system based on the Latin alphabet, as an auxiliary pedagogical tool in literacy instruction in China. They provide a brief history of Pinyin and its educational purposes, then describe how it is used in its spoken/auditory, written, and signed forms by teachers with students who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). Classroom transcripts demonstrate how Pinyin is taught via visual and tactile/kinesthetic tools such as pictures, sign language, and the Chinese Manual Alphabet for purposes of making the phonological information visible to DHH learners. The authors further discuss the different functions of Pinyin for students who are hearing versus students who are DHH and present new insights that may lead to future empirical studies on Pinyin use in early literacy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the literacy issues facing young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) learners in Taiwan who are learning both a logographic and an alphabetic script. We describe the contextual factors that surround their reading and writing processes such as island demographics, reading achievement levels, and background language learning variables including deaf culture. We then describe and provide graphic illustrations and examples of the linguistic features of the written languages that DHH children are learning (Chinese and English) as well as the sign codes (Signed Chinese, Zhuyin finger alphabet, character signs, palm writing, and air writing) and the Zhuyin Fuhao written visual symbols. We suggest that contextual, cultural and linguistic factors need to be considered in the understanding of how DHH children learn to read and write as well as how they use their sign language and sign codes to build Chinese and English literacy skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-eight deaf and hard of hearing Chinese-speaking public school children in Taiwan were tested on literacy achievement tasks at the end of kindergarten (T1), first grade (T2), and second grade (T3) over 2 years. After nonverbal IQ and hearing threshold were controlled for, the results revealed that early oral vocabulary and print awareness tested in kindergarten were related to word recognition in first grade. Moreover, receptive oral vocabulary (T1) was related to reading achievement in first and second grade. Phoneme (onset-rime) blending (T1) was associated with reading achievement in first grade, but not second grade. While onset-rime blending made more unique contributions to picture-book reading comprehension (T2), oral receptive vocabulary contributed uniquely to reading comprehension in T3 more than onset-rime blending. The time (in minutes) per week parents spent in shared book reading with their child was moderately related to reading comprehension at T3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]