Robert J. Hoffmeister

Associate Professor of Education
BS, University of Connecticut; MEd, University of Arizona; PhD, University of Minnesota

Director of the Center for the Study of Communication & Deafness, Dr. Hoffmeister has focused his research on five principal areas: the acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) by Deaf children; Deaf people as a bilingual/bicultural minority group; problems in the education of the Deaf; the effects of implementing public laws on Deaf children; and the improvement of interactions between Hearing parents and their Deaf children. He has coauthored A Journey into the Deaf World with Harlan Lane and Ben Bahan. Dr. Hoffmeister is currently working on four projects. In its fifth year, the first project examines the role of American Sign Language in the thinking of Deaf children. The next project studies the learning of ASL as a second language in Hearing persons, assessing different levels of ASL skill as a result of classroom instruction and determining the most difficult areas of learning ASL as a second language. The ASL Assessment Instrument (ASLAI), begun in 1988, evaluates different levels of sign skills in Deaf children. The fourth project focuses on the relationship between the knowledge of ASL and the learning of English in Deaf children. The Deaf Studies Program is unique in that it employs Deaf faculty and promotes a bilingual/bicultural (ASL/English) philosophy: Deaf persons are viewed as a minority group, with their own language and culture.