Deborah Chen-Pichler (Gallaudet University): sign language as a first language
As a young child, Dr. Deborah Chen Pichler got interested in linguistics and bilingualism, when she grew up in a bilingual English-Taiwanese family. She's started working in the Linguistics department at Gallaudet University in 2002, where she teaches first and second language acquisition and generative syntax. Her research is focussed on the acquisition of ASL (American Sign Language) by deaf children with deaf parents (with and without a CI) and by hearing bilingual children (CODA's: children of deaf adults). She also researches the acquisition of ASL as a foreign language in adults. She is especially interested in the use of technology in education, particularly in deaf education.