From the Hands into the Eyes: An Analysis of Children's American Sign Language Story Comprehension

This thesis provides an insight into how native ASL children are making meaning and drawing upon language cueing systems, and into the commonalities of eye behaviour demonstrated when they decipher/deconstruct ASL stories on video. Studies of ASL linguistics and ASL literature are critical, but historically neglected, components of bilingual ASL-English education. While teaching ASL as a language of study in my classroom, I observed how students comprehended ASL stories. In the absence of formal standardized ASL comprehension assessments for classroom teachers, I explored Kintsch's theory of comprehension and the use of language cueing systems as a way to conceptualize ASL story comprehension. Findings show that native ASL children have a higher rate of comprehension when they are drawing upon ASL language cueing systems when deciphering/deconstructing ASL stories. Children's use of the eyebrows and eye gaze seem to be a part of their deciphering/deconstructing behaviour, and need to be explored further.M.A