Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schembri, A.
Right arrow Articles by Barker, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schembri, A.
Right arrow Articles by Barker, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 7:1 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Empirical Article

Issues in Development of the Test Battery for Australian Sign Language Morphology and Syntax

Adam Schembri

University of Bristol

Gillian Wigglesworth

Macquarie University

Trevor Johnston, Greg Leigh and Robert Adam

Renwick College
Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children/
The University of Newcastle

Roz Barker

Macquarie University

In this article, we outline the initial stages in development of an assessment instrument for Australian Sign Language and explore issues involved in the development of such a test. We first briefly describe the instruments currently available for assessing grammatical skills in Australian Sign Language and discuss the need for a more objective measure. We then describe our adaptation of an existing American Sign Language test, the Test Battery for American Sign Language Morphology and Syntax. Finally, this article presents some of the data collected from a group of deaf native signers. These data are used to demonstrate the range of variability in key grammatical features of Australian Sign Language and to raise methodological issues associated with signed language test design.

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Small Grants Scheme through Macquarie University in 1997 and 1998 and by critical ongoing assistance from the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) in Sydney, Australia. It was conducted while the first author was at RIDBC. We thank the deaf people from around Australia who participated in this study and Colin Allen, Darlene Thornton, and Marcia Girke for assistance with refilming the test materials. We also thank Ted Supalla and Elissa Newport for agreeing to share the Test Battery for American Sign Language Morphology and Syntax manuscript and videotape with us, Jenny Singleton for e-mail discussions about the test, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

Correspondence should be sent to Adam Schembri, Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, United Kingdom (e-mail: adam.schembri{at}bristol.ac.uk).

Received October 16, 2000; revised April 12, 2001; accepted April 12, 2001


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Deaf Stud Deaf EducHome page
T. Haug and W. Mann
Adapting Tests of Sign Language Assessment for Other Sign Languages--A Review of Linguistic, Cultural, and Psychometric Problems
J. Deaf Stud. Deaf Educ., January 1, 2008; 13(1): 138 - 147.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J Deaf Stud Deaf EducHome page
A. Schembri, C. Jones, and D. Burnham
Comparing Action Gestures and Classifier Verbs of Motion: Evidence From Australian Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language, and Nonsigners' Gestures Without Speech
J. Deaf Stud. Deaf Educ., July 1, 2005; 10(3): 272 - 290.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.