Visual Attention Management During Book Reading Activities With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

• In Event: Research on the Education of Deaf Persons SIG (#95) Paper Session

Abstract

This study examines how teachers socialize student engagement and participation in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) classrooms. We compare teacher-student interactions during group book-sharing in ASL-signing classrooms and spoken English classrooms, describing teachers’ language use and visually anchored socializing practices. While total proportion of teacher talk was the same, ASL teachers had fewer turns that lasted longer than Sp-English teachers. ASL teachers used a variety of visually anchored practices (e.g., waving) and linguistically encoded cues to guide student attention; Sp-English teachers used a reduced set of visual practices but they were more frequent, as were linguistic cues to participation. Our findings consider the demands and affordances of book-sharing using a visual language and being a DHH learner in this instructional context.

Authors

• Laura Horton, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Amy R. Lederberg, Georgia State University

• Jenny Singleton