| Summary: | Thesis advisor: Susan Bruce === The acquisition of vocabulary is an important aspect of young children's development that may impact their later literacy skills (National Reading Panel, 2000; Cunningham and Stanovitch, 1997). Deaf children who are American Sign Language users, however, often have smaller vocabularies and lower literacy levels than their hearing peers (Lederberg and Prezbindowski, 2001; Schirmer and McGough, 2005). Despite the importance of teaching vocabulary for young deaf children, there are very few investigations on this important topic (Luckner and Cooke, 2010). This study examines the nature of vocabulary instruction by four early childhood teachers of deaf children (TODs) from two classrooms through a qualitative collective case study. Findings indicated that the Four-Part Vocabulary Program (Graves, 2006) could account for the nature of vocabulary in these classrooms; however, within this framework TODs used qualitatively different language strategies to address the unique aspects of teaching a visual language. Furthermore, there was interplay of teacher knowledge about learners, curricula, and pedagogy that informed their instructional planning and decision-making. Implications of this study include the varying roles of teacher knowledge, experience, and evidence in guiding ASL vocabulary instruction for TODs. === Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. === Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. === Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.
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