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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on June 14, 2007
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2008 13(1):138-147; doi:10.1093/deafed/enm027
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Adapting Tests of Sign Language Assessment for Other Sign Languages—A Review of Linguistic, Cultural, and Psychometric Problems

Tobias Haug

University of Applied Sciences for Special Needs (HfH), Zurich, and Hamburg University

Wolfgang Mann

Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre and City University, London


  Abstract

Given the current lack of appropriate assessment tools for measuring deaf children's sign language skills, many test developers have used existing tests of other sign languages as templates to measure the sign language used by deaf people in their country. This article discusses factors that may influence the adaptation of assessment tests from one natural sign language to another. Two tests which have been adapted for several other sign languages are focused upon: the Test for American Sign Language and the British Sign Language Receptive Skills Test. A brief description is given of each test as well as insights from ongoing adaptations of these tests for other sign languages. The problems reported in these adaptations were found to be grounded in linguistic and cultural differences, which need to be considered for future test adaptations. Other reported shortcomings of test adaptation are related to the question of how well psychometric measures transfer from one instrument to another.

Correspondence should be sent to Tobias Haug, Sign Language Interpreter Training Program, University of Applied Sciences for Special Needs (HfH), Schaffhauserstrasse 239, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland (e-mail: tobias.haug{at}signlang-assessment.info).

Received April 3, 2007; revised April 15, 2007; accepted April 23, 2007


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