Content area
Lange (1988) has defined articulation as "the interrelationship and continuity of contents, curriculum, instruction, and evaluation with programs which focus on the progress of student in learning to both comprehend and communicate in a second language" (p. 16-17). It is the continuity of one course to the next without interruption and without redundancy for the purpose of student learning. Very little, if any, research has evaluated the articulation of ASL courses, although the lack of articulation has been blamed for the low enrollment in advanced foreign language courses in which only 12% of all ASL students were observed to study ASL beyond the first year in post-secondary institutions. For this study, ASL instructors and language program directors (LPDs) were asked to complete an electronic survey designed to examine the articulation of their ASL programs, the roles of their LPDs, and the desired roles of LPDs. Descriptive analyses indicated that, although ASL instructors and LPDs indicated that their programs had strong articulation, their LPDs either "always" or "never" did many of the outlined roles. In addition, they desired strong or stronger leadership from their LPDs in the articulation of ASL programs. However, respondents also expressed concerns about LPDs having "unilateral control" of ASL programs and academic freedom. One-way between-subjects Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) indicated significant differences between respondents who identified themselves as Deaf or hearing, from different types of institutions, whether or not they had LPDs, and the number of years the ASL program has had LPDs. Marginal differences were found in the desired roles of LPDs by respondents of varying levels of education, years of experience as ASL instructors, and sizes of ASL programs. And, finally, no significant differences were found by respondents of varying positions. The clarification of the roles of LPDs, as well as the interpretation of the program characteristics, was recommended for future research to further understand the roles of LPDs in the articulation of ASL foreign language programs.