FAMILY LANGUAGE POLICY IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND ENGLISH BILINGUAL FAMILIES by Bobbie Jo Kite A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Committee: ___________________________________________ Chair ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Education and Human Development Date: _____________________________________ Fall Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Family Language Policy in American Sign Language and English Bilingual Families A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Bobbie Jo Kite Master of Arts Gallaudet University, 2005 Bachelor of Arts Gallaudet University, 2004 Director: Julie Kidd, Professor College of Education and Human Development Fall Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2017 Bobbie Jo Kite All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to the love of my life, Blake, my voice of reason throughout this madness, and to my two pit bulls, Queen Kuma and Lord Rummy for they spent hours sitting at my feet. I am grateful to my family, who supported and inquired about my work constantly, pushing me forward daily. Thank you, Grandma Kite, for I know you are watching down on me, gently guiding me daily. Thank you, Grandpa Hotel, for keeping me in check. I would not be where I am today without my family, and your names deserve to be on this dissertation as much as mine. I dedicate this dissertation to you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Gratitude goes to my colleagues at the Department of Education at Gallaudet University for their continued support, especially Dr. Laurene Simms and Dr. Maribel Gárate. They are the reason this work was possible. They were there at every setback and victory, and continued to believe in me when I doubted myself. A huge thank you goes out to my wonderful committee, Dr. Julie Kidd, Dr. Rebecca Fox, Dr. Leslie LaCroix, and Dr. Julie Mitchiner. I cannot express what your commitment and expertise mean to me; each of your expertise has shaped my work. I look forward to making you all proud as I continue my work with deaf children and their families. My whole doctoral journey would have not been possible without my dedicated American Sign Language interpreters, Julie Mertz and Mollie Kropp. Deep gratitude also go to the brave and transparent families for sharing their beliefs and perspectives on family language policy for this study. There is no doubt that your stories will make a difference in the field of early childhood deaf education. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii Definition of Terms .......................................................................................................... viii List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ xii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xiii Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter Two ...................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter Three .................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter Four ..................................................................................................................... 97 Chapter Five .................................................................................................................... 190 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 224 Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 225 Appendix C ..................................................................................................................... 227 Appendix D ..................................................................................................................... 230 References ....................................................................................................................... 231 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1 Demographics of Participants ............................................................................. 86 Table 2 Second Level Category Development ................................................................ 92 Table 3 Child's Age of ASL being Introduced to the Family ………………………… 101 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1 Relationships between Families Attitudes/Beliefs and Children’s Language Development ............................................................................................................... 21 Figure 2 A model of community cultural wealth ........................................................40 Figure 3 The role of sign language .............................................................................61 vii DEFINITION OF TERMS In the interpretation of this study, the following definitions are used: 1. American Sign Language (ASL): A visual/gestural independent language that has its own grammar and syntax. Distinct from English, it is not a manual version of English (Nussbaum, 2015). 2. Bilingual: Development and use of more than one language. 3. Bimodal: Development and use of language in more than one modality (spoken and signed are the "modes" to which "bimodal" refers) (Nussbaum, Waddy-Smith, & Doyle, 2012). 4. Code-mixing: The practice of mixing two or more languages in a sentence or conversation. For example, a child may use elements from both ASL and spoken English together (Nussbaum, 2015). 5. Code-switching: The language practice of switching from one “code” or language to another within one sentence or conversation. For example, a child may use ASL with a deaf peer and then spoken English with a hearing peer (Nussbaum, 2015). 6. Communication: Expressing and receiving information through any means possible (crying, laughing, facial expressions, words, gestures, etc.). 7. Concurrent bilingual acquisition: A form of bilingualism that takes place when a child acquires two languages from birth (Nussbaum, 2015) viii 8. Critical period: An optimal period for learning during which stimulation produces a desired effect and after which stimulation no longer produces the same effect (Nussbaum, 2015). 9. D/deaf: There are two separate spellings of the word, “deaf.” “Deaf” (with a capitalized “D”) is used to signify identification with Deaf culture and possession of a strong deaf identity. The lowercase version (“deaf”) represents all deaf and hard-of- hearing people with or without cultural ties to the Deaf community. Generally, “deaf” people identify themselves with hearing people (Lane, 2005). 10. Expressive language (versus receptive language): Speaking and signing require the production of language. Using expressive language or having “active” command of the language is considered more challenging than using only receptive skills, as in the “passive” tasks of listening to spoken English and watching/attending to ASL (Nussbaum, 2015). 11. Family Language Policy: A policy that “provides an integrated overview of research on how languages are managed, learned, and negotiated within families” (King, Fogle, & Logan-Terry, 2008, p. 907). 12. Fingerspelling: The process of spelling out words by using handshapes that correspond to the letters of the word (Nussbaum, 2015). 13. Hard-of-Hearing: A person whose hearing loss ranges from mild to profound and whose usual means of communication is speech. 14. Language: A rule-governed set of arbitrary symbols that are socially shared ix among people within a culture or community (i.e. ASL, English, Spanish) (Nussbaum, 2015). 15. Language access: The child’s ability to “see” ASL and “hear” (if applicable) spoken English (Nussbaum, 2015). 16. Language acquisition: The process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words/signs to communicate (Nussbaum, 2015). 17. Lipreading/speechreading: The use of vision (paired with or without hearing) to watch the movements of the face, lips, tongue, and body and to use information provided by the situation/context and language (Nussbaum, 2015). 18. Listening: The use of hearing to understand spoken English (Nussbaum, 2015). 19. Manual babbling: A stage in child development and a state in language acquisition during which an infant appears to be experimenting with using handshapes, but is not yet producing any recognizable signs (Nussbaum, 2015). 20. Mouthing: The use of lips to mouth (i.e., without voicing) words and/or sentences to communicate in various situations and for various purposes (Nussbaum, 2015). 21. Sequential bilingual acquisition: A form of bilingualism that takes place when a child acquires one language and then another