Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1133

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Negotiating sign language-in-education policies: Determining educational contexts for deaf students in the US

Authors: Compton, Sarah Elaine
Submitted by: Compton, Sarah Elaine (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Understanding ways in which national language-in-education policies are appropriated within local contexts has garnered the attention of researchers within the field of applied linguistics (Johnson, 2009; Menken & Garcia, 2010). Similarly, US policymakers are keenly interested in the “complex interplay” among formal policies and actual practices on the ground (National Council on Disability, 2008). Contributing to this interplay are the diverse language ecologies that exist within schools and classrooms where language policies are negotiated (Hornberger & Hult, 2008).

In the case of deaf students, the US national language-in-education policy—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—sets forth a continuum of educational contexts. Teachers, administrators, and parents meet once a year to create individualized sign language goals for each deaf student and decide which educational environment supports the specific language goals. The language ecology of each context varies considerably. In a mainstream classroom, English is the language of instruction/communication; in a school for the deaf, sign language. There are hundreds of mainstream classrooms in the US. However, most states have only one school for the deaf (Moores, 2009).

This paper, then, aims to examine how the practice of creating sign language goals and determining educational placement is influenced by access to multilingual/multimodal educational contexts such as a school for the deaf. I do so by drawing on data from an ethnographic, discourse-analytic (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) study conducted in an urban school district located close to a school for the deaf on the eastern US coast. The data consist of transcripts from audio-recorded interviews with teachers, administrators and parents; students’ individualized language goals; and fieldnotes from observations of the team meetings where the language goals and placement decisions were determined.

Employing Nexus Analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) as a conceptual framework for examining social action, I analyze the discourses and processes that circulate through this practice whereby new, individualized language policies are created for deaf students. In particular, I examine the discursive links among IDEA, the sign language goals, and the language ecology of the educational contexts. In conclusion, I suggest ways in which this practice serves as language planning for deaf students’ daily sign language practices and similarly influences the language ecology of the city.

References

Hornberger, N. H., & Hult, F. M. (2008). Ecological language education policy. In B. Spolsky & F. M. Hult (Eds.), The handbook of educational linguistics. Blackwell.

Johnson, D. C. (2009). Implementational and ideological spaces in bilingual education language policy. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(1), 61-79.

Menken, K., and García, O. (Eds.) (2010). Negotiating Language Policies in Schools: Educators as Policymakers. Routledge.

Moores, D. (2009). Residential schools for the deaf and academic placement past, present, and future. American Annals of the Deaf, 154(1), 3-4.

National Council on Disability. (2008). The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: A progress report. Retrieved from http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2008/NoChildLeftBehind_IDEA_Progress_Report.html

Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2004). Nexus analysis: Discourse and the emerging internet. Routledge.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Negotiating sign language-in-education policies: Determining educational contexts for deaf students in the US