Date of Award
5-5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Christopher Hayes
Second Advisor
Danielle Hunt
Third Advisor
Allison Gibbons
Abstract
The gap in performance between hearing students and their mainstreamed deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) peers who use ASL interpreters expands throughout various grade levels and is not a new issue, especially in mathematics. This delay in mathematical development has been prevalent for many decades, and it is still being determined at what level it begins and what the causes are. D/HH students' academic success is often connected to high-quality academic sign language interpreting (Jones, 2017). However, there are still many college-level American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting programs that are not focused on educational interpreting. This lack of focus highlights an issue of formal preparation in the educational setting (Bentley-Sassaman & Minor). As of 2017, 50 to 66% of employed educational interpreters were Interpreter Training Program (ITP) graduates. Even so, only 1.3 percent of ITPs have courses designed to teach interpreting in K-12 settings, leaving the interpreter to learn informally (Jones, 2017). This inconsistency creates a significant issue because working interpreters may be uncertain of the most suitable preparation materials before entering the classroom. While the purpose of this research project was to examine the type of preparation materials for interpreters unfamiliar with a selected mathematical concept that will more effectively improve student test scores, the math content significantly impacted the process. The following research questions guided this project: Research question 1: Does interpreter preparation affect Deaf students’ testing outcomes on mathematical learning? Research question 2: Is there a correlation between ASL interpreters using English or ASL preparation materials before interpreting in a mathematical setting and improving learning outcomes by the D/HH student? Four interpreters—two in Group A and two in Group B—each recorded two interpretations of the same lecture: one without preparation (cold) and one after studying prep materials. Group A used English prep materials, while Group B used ASL materials. A total of 21 Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing college-level students with similar math backgrounds were individually tested before and after watching one of the interpreted videos. Each student first took a math pre-test, watched a randomly assigned interpreted video, and then took a post-test with the same questions in a different order. Out of the 21 self-identified Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing participants, there was some improvement within the ASL test group scores. However, the foundations of polynomials were missing from prior learning in most students. Consequently, the students struggled with the topic of Polynomial Long Division, making it hard to test this theory. At the conclusion of this experiment, more data was needed to prove a correlation between interpreter preparation and student test scores.
Recommended Citation
Victor, Taylor, "Preparing to Bridge the Deaf Math Gap: Exploring Preparation Materials for ASL Interpreters in Math Education" (2025). Undergraduate University Honors Capstones. 134.
https://ida.gallaudet.edu/honors_capstones/134
Included in
American Sign Language Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons
