Dr. Cynthia Plue

Dr Cynthia Plue is an Asian Deaf American, raised by biracial parents (an American born German father and a Chinese born immigrant mother) in America. Being educated in oral programs/hearing schools, Cynthia obtained her BA in Psychology and Communication Arts, a M.Ed. in Deaf Education with a Bilingual Bicultural emphasis (ASL and English), and an Ed.D. in Deaf Studies/Deaf Education with an emphasis in Multicultural Deaf Issues. Previously worked in the field of Deaf Education and Deaf Studies at Lamar University, Northern Illinois University, and Utah Valley University, she is an independent consultant in Deaf Education and Deaf Studies. Cynthia enjoys interacting with diverse cultural people and actively involved at local, statewide, regional, and national levels for more than 20 years.

Asian and Hispanic Adult Immigrants’ Language Experience: Exploration of ASL in the United States.

An in-depth discussion regarding the comparison of these two research studies involving  the ASL as a tool as part of the language-learning process. This includes the interview results of these Deaf Hispanic and Asian immigrant adults while assimilating into American Deaf culture during their early days of living in the United States.  Several key factors are identified, recognized, and redefine the strategies in teaching the students to become efficient literacy users in both languages: ASL and English. Observing how these adults acquired ASL during their early days was of singular interest to the researchers, because Drs. Lummer and Plue had observed in their work that after this group learned ASL, their lives appeared to improve and rapidly change that appeared to pivot around their burgeoning language development skills.