National Adult Literacy Database

This report contains the findings and recommendations of a project aimed at identifying effective tools and approaches for teaching immigrant deaf and hard of hearing adults in bilingual, bicultural (American Sign Language (ASL) and English) literacy programs.

The projects included a literature review; selection of research design and procedure; development of interview and survey questions; data collection from practitioners and researchers through interviews and surveys; and identification and dissemination of results.

Researchers found an absence of strategies for deaf and non-deaf bicultural education; a lack of standardized ASL assessment tools; and gaps between literacy practitioners and researchers on strategies for ASL acquisition and ASL-English bilingual skills.

The project team recommended increasing communications between literacy practitioners and researchers to produce a deaf-centred, research-based body of evidence; increasing production of ASL-based tools; the implementation of a national deaf literacy consortium to provide opportunities for the development and standardization of ASL curricula and language assessments for deaf adult immigrants; and the development of systematic approaches for colleges and government to implement bilingual and bicultural education in deaf adult literacy programs.

For more information about the project’s funder, Calgary Learns, please click here: http://www.calgarylearns.com.