Summary: teacher evaluation protocols

[Christopher Miller]

Several weeks ago I posted a question to the list asking for information 
about evaluation protocols for sign language teachers. I got several 
interesting leads and would like to thank those who sent me this 
information. I asked for this information on behalf of a friend in France 
who is working on recognition of French Sign Language (LSF) in the 
national education system. He tells me that the meeting with 
representatives of the Education ministry on May 9th went well, and there 
is apparently a real desire on their part to recognise LSF and incorporate 
it as a language of instruction for deaf children in the schools.

Here is a summary of information I received:

An anonymous respondent (GISHS at wou.edu — thanks, whoever you are!) sent me 
the following message:

Thanks for your interest in Western Oregon University's ASL/English
Interpreting Program.  For more information, check out our website at
www.wou.edu/rrcd

 From Richard Meier in Texas, this interesting information:

The State of Texas has developed a certification exam for would-be 
teachers of ASL. Here's a web site that describes the test:

http://www.excet.nesinc.com/excetstudyguid/71%20American%20Sign%20Language%20(
ASL).html

I believe it is the case that this was the second such test that Texas 
developed for language teachers; the first was for Spanish. This is 
notable in  and of itself, I think.  There is now also a test for French, 
I believe.

 From Ben Karlin:

You might try getting in touch with Bob Clowes, Executive Director of the
European Society for Mental Health and Deafness, at <bob at esmhd.org>.  The
current president of ESMHD is in France, Dr Alexis Karakostas, and they are
in the thick of the efforts to get national and international recognition 
of
signed languages.  They are, I believe, involved in France and have
experience from pursuing this in other countries.

Here in Missouri (central U.S.) the senate just failed to pass a bill which
would have recognized ASL as the language of Deaf Missourians and granted
foreign language credit for coursework.  One senator said they're no 
experts
but the Deaf community has not expressed a preference for any one language.

Susan Fischer sent this very useful lead:

ASLTA (http://www.aslta.org/national/index.html) has a certification 
program
for ASL teachers.  This could surely be adapted to other sign languages 
such
as LSF.

Many thanks to all who sent me this information, which will definitely 
prove useful in France and, I hope, elsewhere as well. And as Ben Karlin 
notes, there is still work to be done in the US, despite the advances 
already made there.

Best regards to all,

Chris Miller

¶ Christopher Miller
¶ Professeur associé
¶ Département de linguistique et de didactique des langues
¶ Université du Québec à Montréal
¶ C.P. 8888, Succursale « Centre-Ville »
¶ Montréal QC H3C 3P8
¶ Canada
¶
¶ +1 514 495-3379
¶ miller.christopher at uqam.ca
¶ christophermiller at mac.com
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