Paula E. Tucker, Education
 

Fingerspelling, the manual representation of the orthography of a language, has a long history of use among deaf individuals, both in social as well as educational settings. Even deaf adults who communicate with each other primarily through speech and lipreading often use fingerspelling to clarify the meaning of words that are difficult to understand through lipreading alone. Although the use of fingerspelling is well accepted in the American Deaf Community, there has been limited research on its application for use in educational settings.

Important issues related to the use of fingerspelling in the classroom have not adequately been studied. Although there is anecdotal evidence that many teachers intuitively pronounce the target word while fingerspelling (with or without voice), it is not clear if this addition indeed aids in the comprehension of the fingerspelled word. This study will investigate the effects of comprehension of fingerspelled words when combined with lipreading.  Knowing how experienced users of fingerspelling most accurately comprehend fingerspelled words may provide direction as to how classroom teachers can most effectively present fingerspelled words, both those that are being newly introduced as well as familiar words.