Dr Wolfgang Mann
I got my Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of California,
Berkeley. My interest in sign languages originated in Germany where I studied
and worked at the Institute for German Sign Language and Communication of the
Deaf in Hamburg (IDGS). I then moved to the US to pursue a Master’s degree in
Special Education at San Francisco State University.
My interests include
language development in Deaf learners, the use of bilingual approaches to
instruct Deaf children, and ways to measure Deaf learners’ signed and written
language skills.
During my post-doc at DCAL, I led a project that looked at
phonological processing skills of young Deaf children, who use British Sign
Language (BSL). For this purpose, we developed a non-sign repetition test for
BSL, which enabled us to examine children's processing of single signs with
increasing phonological complexity. This project ended in August 2008 (more
information..).
In recognition of my work, I was awarded a research
fellowship from City University London to develop a web-based BSL Vocabulary
Test. This project, which ran from October 2008-May 2011, took place in close
collaboration with Deaf schools and service units for deaf children in the UK
(more
information..). The test is currently available upon request for teachers
and speech language therapists to use with their pupils.
I have also been
involved in a DCAL-based project on deaf children's development of cognitive
skills, led by Professor Gary Morgan (more
information..).
In summer 2011, I moved to the United States to lead a
new project on vocabulary development in sign language in which we use dynamic
assessment procedures to explore deaf children’s learning strategies in signed
and spoken language. This collaborative project with colleagues at the
University of Texas, Austin, is part of a Marie-Curie International Outgoing
Research Fellowship for Career Development.
You can access information on
some of my publications here.
E-mail: Wolfgang Mann
Page last modified on 07 feb 12 13:53
