Introduction
Language socialization in Deaf communities is unique in ways that are challenging for language socialization theory. Most members of the DEAF‐WORLD (Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan, 1996) have not followed a straightforward path to identification with and membership in a Deaf community. A small percentage of Deaf children are born into Deaf families where everyday interaction occurs within a visually based culture through a natural sign language. For these children, the process of language socialization is similar to that of most children; only the modality differs. But for the majority of Deaf children who are born to non‐Deaf parents who do not expect their child to be deaf (lower case denotes hearing status; upper case denotes identity status), early access to sign languages is absent. Since these children do not hear, they cannot fully participate in the spoken language socialization environment their parents naturally provide. And, because sign languages have been...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Agar, M.: 1994, Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation, Morrow, New York.
Bagga‐Gupta, S.: 1999–2000, ‘Visual language environments: Exploring everyday life and literacies in Swedish deaf bilingual schools’, Visual Anthropology Review 15, 95–120.
Bailes, C.: 2001, ‘Integrative ASL‐English language arts: Bridging paths to literacy’, Sign Language Studies 1(2), 147–174.
Baker, C. and Battison, R. (eds.): 1980, Sign Language and the Deaf Community: Essays in Honor of William C. Stokoe, National Association of the Deaf, Silver Spring, MD.
Blackburn, L.: 2000, ‘The development of sociolinguistic meanings: The worldview of a deaf child within his home environment’, in M. Metzger (ed.), Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC, 219–254.
Branson, J., Miller, D., and Marsaja, I.: 1996, ‘Everyone here speaks sign language, too: A deaf village in Bali, Indonesia’, in C. Lucas (ed.), Multicultural Aspects of Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC, 39–57.
Breivik, J.: 2005, Deaf Identities in the Making: Local Lives, Transnational Connections, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Chamberlain, C., Morford, J., and Mayberry, R.: 2000, Language Acquisition by Eye, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
Cicourel, A. and Boese, R.: 1972, ‘Sign language and the teaching of deaf children’, in C. Cazden, V. Johns, and D. Hymes (eds.), Functions of Language in the Classroom, Teachers College Press, New York, 32–62.
Erting, C.: 1982, Deafness, Communication, and Social Identity: An Anthropological Analysis of Interaction Among Parents, Teachers, and Deaf Children in a Preschool, Doctoral dissertation, American University, Washington, DC, Dissertation Abstracts International (43), 11, 3641. (UMI No. 8306972). Published in 1994 as Deafness, Communication, Social Identity: Ethnography in a Preschool for Deaf Children, Linstok Press, Burtonsville, MD.
Erting, C., Johnson, R., Smith, D., and Snider, B. (eds.): 1994, The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Erting, C., Prezioso, C., and Benedict, B.: 2000, ‘Bilingualism in a deaf family: Fingerspelling in early childhood’, in P. Spencer, C. Erting, and M. Marschark (eds.), The Deaf Child in the Family and at School, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 41–54.
Erting, L.: 2006, Beyond Strategies: Book Sharing the Deaf Way, DVD. Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC.
Evans, A. and Falk, W.: 1986, Learning to Be Deaf, Mouton de Gruyter, New York.
Garrett, P. and Baquedano‐Lopez, P.: 2002, ‘Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change’, Annual Review of Anthropology 31, 339–361.
Goodwyn, S. and Acredolo, L.: 1998, ‘Encouraging symbolic gestures: Effects on the relationship between gesture and speech’, in J. Iverson and S. Goldin‐Meadows (eds.), The Nature and Functions of Gesture in Children's Communication, Jossey‐Bass, San Francisco, 61–73.
Groce, N.: 1985, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Hall, S.: 1991, ‘Door into deaf culture: Folklore in an American deaf social club’, Sign Language Studies 73, 421–429.
Johnson, R.: 1991, ‘Sign language, culture, and community in a traditional Yucatec Maya village’, Sign Language Studies 73, 461–478.
Johnson, R.: 2006, ‘Cultural constructs that impede discussions about variability in speech‐based educational models for deaf children with cochlear implants’, Perspectiva, 24, n. Especial (July/December), Florianopolis, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, 29–80.
Johnson, R. and Erting, C.: 1989, ‘Ethnicity and socialization in a classroom for deaf children’, in C. Lucas (ed.), The Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community, Academic Press, New York, 41–83
Johnston, T.: 2004, ‘W(h)ither the deaf community? Population, genetics, and the future of Australian sign language’, American Annals of the Deaf 148(5), 358–375.
Kantor, R.: 1982, ‘Communicative interaction: Mother modification and child acquisition of American sign language’, Sign Language Studies 36, 233–282.
Kuntze, M.: 2000, ‘Codeswitching in ASL and written‐English contact’, in K. Emmorey and H. Lane (eds.), Signed Language Research: An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 287–302.
Ladd, P.: 2003, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, Multilingual Matters, Buffalo, NY.
Lane, H., Hoffmeister, R., and Bahan, B.: 1996, A Journey into the DEAF‐WORLD, Dawn Sign Press, San Diego, CA.
Maestas y Moores, J.: 1980, ‘Early linguistic environment: Interactions of deaf parents with their infants’, Sign Language Studies 26, 1–13.
Markowicz, M. and Woodward, J.: 1978, ‘Language and the maintenance of ethnic boundaries in the deaf community’, in R. Wilbur (ed.), Sign Language Research, A Special Issue of Communication and Cognition, Volume 11, 29–38.
Maxwell, M.: 1984, ‘A deaf child's natural development of literacy’, Sign Language Studies 44, 191–224.
Meadow, K.: 1972, ‘Sociolinguistics, sign language, and the deaf subculture’, in T. O'Rourke (ed.), Psycholinguistics and Total Communication, American Annals of the Deaf, Washington, DC, 19–33.
Monaghan, L., Schmaling, C., Nakamura, K., and Turner, G. (eds.): 2003, Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Nash, J. and Nash, A.: 1981, Deafness in Society, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA.
Padden, C. and Humphries, T.: 1988, Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Padden, C. and Humphries, T.: 2005, Inside Deaf Culture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Parasnis, I. (ed.): 1996, Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Preisler, G.: 1983, Deaf Children in Communication: A Study of Communicative Strategies Used by Deaf Children in Social Interactions, Trydells Tryckeri, Laholm.
Preston, P.: 1994, Mother Father Deaf: Living Between Sound and Silence, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Ramsey, C.: 1997, Deaf Children in Public Schools: Placement, Context and Consequences, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Reilly, C. and Reilly, N.: 2005, The Rising of Lotus Flowers: Self‐Education by Deaf Children in Thai Boarding Schools, Gallaudet University Press, Washington, DC.
Senghas, R. and Monaghan, L.: 2002, ‘Signs of their times: Deaf communities and the culture of language’, Annual Review of Anthropology 31, 69–97.
Senghas, R., Senghas, A., and Pyers, J.: 2005, ‘The emergence of Nicaraguan sign language: Questions of development, acquisition and evolution’, in J. Langer, S. Parker, and C. Milbrath (eds.), Biology and Knowledge Revisited: From Neurogenesis to Psychogenesis, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 287–306.
Singleton, J. and Morgan, D.: 2006, ‘Natural signed language acquisition within the social context of the classroom’, in B. Schick, M. Marschark, and P. Spencer (eds.), Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children, Oxford University Press, New York, 344–375.
Spencer, P., Erting, C., and Marschark, M. (eds.): 2000, The Deaf Child in the Family and at School, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
Stokoe, W.: 1960, Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication System of the American Deaf in Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers 8, University of Buffalo, Buffalo. (Reprinted 1976, 1993 Linstok Press, Silver Spring, MD).
Tervoort, B.: 1961, ‘Esoteric symbolism in the communication behavior of young deaf children’, American Annals of the Deaf 106, 436–480.
Washabaugh, W.: 1981, ‘Sign language and its social context’, Annual Review of Anthropology 10, 237–252.
Williams, J.: 1976, ‘Bilingual experiences of a deaf child’, Sign Language Studies 10, 37–41.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Erting, C.J., Kuntze, M. (2008). Language Socialization in Deaf Communities. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_213
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_213
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-32875-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-30424-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law