Skip Navigation



Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access published online on June 14, 2007
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, doi:10.1093/deafed/enm027
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
13/1/138    most recent
enm027v1
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 Haug, T.
Right arrow Articles by Mann, W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Haug, T.
Right arrow Articles by Mann, W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 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
Hamburg University

Wolfgang Mann

Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre
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


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




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.