Epilogue: Chinese Literacy From a Deaf Lens

Am Ann Deaf. 2021;166(4):573-578. doi: 10.1353/aad.2021.0043.

Abstract

To promote dialogue among literacy researchers from East and West along the "'Silk Road' to literacy" for Chinese d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students (Andrews et al., 2021), this epilogue to an American Annals of the Deaf special issue on language development and literacy learning of d/Dhh students in Chinese communities poses questions and provides reflections from the perspective of the Chinese Deaf lens on the ideas in the six articles that make up the special issue. This perspective reframes literacy instruction toward an asset-based model that emphasizes visual sensory strengths, sign-to-print mapping strategies, and Deaf cultural capital. This special issue includes a tribute (Q. Wang et al., 2021) to the authors' late colleague Dr. Ye (Angel) Wang, who encouraged collaborative work with deaf and hearing literacy researchers employing different paradigms of literacy instruction.

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Deafness*
  • Education of Hearing Disabled*
  • Humans
  • Literacy
  • Persons With Hearing Impairments*
  • Sign Language