Gallaudet University announced it will receive a grant of $3.5 million over two years to establish the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), thanks to the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The center … will bring together deaf and hearing researchers and educators from a variety of disciplines to explore how deaf people acquire visual language and learn to read. Despite current theories of learning that assume a central role for speech and hearing for language acquisition and literacy development, deaf people effortlessly acquire visual (signed) languages and are able to learn how to read and write fluently. VL2 therefore challenges current theories and will contribute to the general knowledge of the science of learning. (Bold added.) This knowledge will benefit both deaf and hearing learners.
According to Dr. Thomas Allen, dean of the Graduate School and Professional Programs, VL2 (has) the potential to transform the science of learning (Bold added).
The purpose of VL2 is to increase understanding of the biological, cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural, and pedagogical conditions that influence the acquisition of language and knowledge through the visual modality.
VL2 will collaborate with researchers from Georgetown and Rutgers Universities, the Universities of California-Davis, New Mexico, and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Boston University.