Friday, November 03, 2006
Signing, Writing, and Speaking
Linguists have verified that ASL is a full-fledged, full-valued language with its own grammatical structures, on a par in sophistication and complexity with any language including spoken English. For Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people in North America, ASL is a language that emerges spontaneously as a means of talking about what they know, so that they can attain social goals important to them, the same way as spoken English functions for hearing people.
It is common knowledge in the Deaf community that simultaneous communication and other artifical communication modes introduced into the education of the Deaf tend to be favored by hearing professionals. Such artifical communication modes serve the convenience of hearing educators because they bypass the intellectual effort involved in acquiring ASL, a difficult, unfamiliar language, in depth. Many hearing professionals who imagine that they are using simultaneous communication may make good sense in their spoken English while they garble their simultaneous signs to the point of gibberish.
A fair ability to use spoken English is nice--but learning to use voice to speak intelligibly requires years of the most intensive and arduous training, perhaps even a lifetime. And there is a little guarantee that Deaf people, including those who are hard-of-hearing or have cochlear implants, will ever manage to speak nearly as well as hearing people, if they have any success at all.
Consequently, it is fluency in ASL and reading/writing English at a high level of competence that is an absolute must. Learning to speak English is all right--if it comes easy enough to leave untouched the time needed for education and language learning.
Juan A. Vietorisz, Gally '90 & '91
It is common knowledge in the Deaf community that simultaneous communication and other artifical communication modes introduced into the education of the Deaf tend to be favored by hearing professionals. Such artifical communication modes serve the convenience of hearing educators because they bypass the intellectual effort involved in acquiring ASL, a difficult, unfamiliar language, in depth. Many hearing professionals who imagine that they are using simultaneous communication may make good sense in their spoken English while they garble their simultaneous signs to the point of gibberish.
A fair ability to use spoken English is nice--but learning to use voice to speak intelligibly requires years of the most intensive and arduous training, perhaps even a lifetime. And there is a little guarantee that Deaf people, including those who are hard-of-hearing or have cochlear implants, will ever manage to speak nearly as well as hearing people, if they have any success at all.
Consequently, it is fluency in ASL and reading/writing English at a high level of competence that is an absolute must. Learning to speak English is all right--if it comes easy enough to leave untouched the time needed for education and language learning.
Juan A. Vietorisz, Gally '90 & '91
# posted by Juan A. Vietorisz @ 9:12 AM 
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One important point to also be aware of is that at an early age, it is crucial that children acquire a solid language foundation--in any language. Children who are denied access to a full-fledged language during this crucial window of cognitive development often have a very difficult time achieving full literacy in ANY language, including English.
For a deaf child, English and other auditory languages very often are not accessible. Lipreading only gives very small bits and pieces, and as you described, simcom tends to be garbled. ASL and other natural sign languages are the only languages that can give full face-to-face access to a visual communicator.
If the deaf child has a solid language foundation in ASL or another natural sign language, he/she can then go on to more quickly and easily acquire reading and writing skills in other languages such as English.
Research has shown that deaf children of deaf parents who sign and deaf children of hearing parents who sign tend to achieve higher reading/writing literacy rates than deaf children who do not have signing parents.
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For a deaf child, English and other auditory languages very often are not accessible. Lipreading only gives very small bits and pieces, and as you described, simcom tends to be garbled. ASL and other natural sign languages are the only languages that can give full face-to-face access to a visual communicator.
If the deaf child has a solid language foundation in ASL or another natural sign language, he/she can then go on to more quickly and easily acquire reading and writing skills in other languages such as English.
Research has shown that deaf children of deaf parents who sign and deaf children of hearing parents who sign tend to achieve higher reading/writing literacy rates than deaf children who do not have signing parents.
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