AIMING FOR CONSISTENCY IN THE WAY TEACHERS SIGN

A four year study examined the effects of a sign communication intervention program designed to enhance teachers' ability to consistently code English into sign. The secondary goal of the project was to help teachers use American Sign Language as an intervention tool for enhancing students' comprehension of instructions. Starting with an initial sign to speech ratio of 59.8% and 66.2%, two teachers were able to improve their ratio to 98.9% and 89.7% respectively. The basic components of the intervention program are presented along with their rationale. A breakdown of the sign to speech ratio is provided in an examination of how effectively the teachers coded articles, pronouns, sign markers, and the verb ''to be.''