One of our projects, the English/ASL Language Lab, in collaboration with ISSIS Roma, allows us to research strategies for teaching foreign languages to deaf students using sign language (ASL and LIS) and other visual communication methods. Our objective is to see the difference in using sign language and visual communication strategies to teach foreign languages to deaf students as opposed to using the written language to teach a foreign language.

The results of this project, now in the second year, so far have shown:

1) Deaf students benefit from direct instruction from a signing tutor - they are able to attain full access to English instruction using LIS and other visual communication strategies
2) The deaf students actively take part in metalinguistic discussions about different languages, comparing other languages with their own - LIS and Italian - in such a way that they actually improve their first languages while improving their knowledge of English and ASL
3) The regular English teacher benefits from the support of the hearing and deaf tutors as well as support from a teacher who specializes in English instruction to students who are deaf and hard of hearing
4) Our visual communication strategies can be applied to any level of language instruction, including first language learning
5) An unexpected and pleasant result of this project was that the deaf students gained confidence in their ability to learn a foreign language and were motivated to continue learning English!