Date of Award

5-1-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ded)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. John W. Hill

Second Advisor

Dr. Kay A. Keiser

Third Advisor

Dr. Neal F. Grandgenett

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Ann Coyne

Abstract

Over the past 30-years linguists have been witnessing the birth and evolution of a language, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua, in Nicaragua, and have initiated and documented to date the syntax and grammar of this new language. The purpose of this naturalistic comparative exploratory field study was to evaluate preprimer and primer Dolch sight words and sign language frequency and phonology—location, handshape, and movement—used to support deaf/hard of hearing students’ literacy development in Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua compared to American Sign Language. The research focused on the word and sign frequency and phonology or individual components of a Nicaraguan sign that gives it meaning—handshape, location, and movement. Statistically significantly differences in the direction of greater sign to preprimer and primer Dolch Word chi-square frequency comparisons for American Sign Language and Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua were found. Furthermore, based on the moderate to substantial Pearson product-moment correlations and coefficient of determination areas of shared variance observed between Dolch preprimer American Sign Language signed phonemes for handshapes, locations, and movements and Dolch preprimer Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua signed phonemes for handshapes, locations, and movements it may be assumed that children using Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua have between 59% to 97% of the phonemic means of expressing themselves as do children using American Sign Language. For Dolch primer American Sign Language signed phonemes for handshapes, locations, and movements and Dolch primer Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua signed phonemes for handshapes, locations, and movements it may be assumed that children using Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua have between 60% to 94% of the phonemic means of expressing themselves as do children using American Sign Language.

Comments

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education. Copyright 2009 Julie A. Delkamiller

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