Language and the
Deaf Child
Jessica Scott
DE 576: Session 5, February 15, 2012
Boston University
Food for Thought
• “At some point, we have to stop and say,
There’s Marlee, not, There’s the deaf actress.”
• Marlee Matlin
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
Discussion!
Discussion Board
Interlude
ASL Orthography
• I am curious about the
ASL orthography by
McIntire et al (1987).
Could we see this? I
couldn't find the article
myself, but would love to
compare it with systems I
have seen.
• I couldn’t find the article,
but I could find
examples…
Bear
Discussion board
interlude
Mother
Father
These are from a
dissertation
• Which studied the effectiveness of sign writing
using McIntire’s system
• Students were more motivated to write using
sign writing, and to learn the system
• There is no data about whether students
became better writers – qualitative research
• By Cecelia Mary Flood in 2002, FYI
• What do you think about the possibility of
using a written form of ASL in the classroom?
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
Another word
association experiment
• Like we did with segregation…
• Go to the board and respond in any way to the
word “impaired”
Impairment
• “According to the alternative, cultural view,
deaf students are not impaired hearing
students any more than Hispanics and blacks
are impaired anglos.”
Impairment versus
Empowerment
Paolo Freire and the
Culture of Silence
• A strong advocate for teaching that empowers
minority groups
• Culture of silence: Minority group members so
oppressed by dominant culture that they lose
the ability to fight back against that culture
• The goal of education should be freedom and
valuing of all cultures, unity and cooperation
Thinking about these
issues
• In what way, historically, has Deaf Education
“disabled” Deaf students?
• How do you see this more modern concept of
empowerment in classrooms where you have
volunteered/worked?
• What more can we do to empower our students?
• How are Paola Freire’s big ideas important or
relevant to Deaf Education?
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
What’s wrong with
signed English?
• A “signed system,” not a signed language
• Implemented to “show English grammar on the
hands”
• Research has shown that adults have difficulty
understanding signed English (Johnson, Liddell &
Erting, 1989; Tevenal & Villanueva, 2009)
• Research also shows that Deaf children do not
internalize signed English quickly, and develop
limited competence (Bornstein, Saulnier &
Hamilton, 1980, 1981)
What ELSE is wrong with
signed English?
• Studies have shown that the spoken message
in simultaneous communication is never
distorted, but the manual message often is
(Whitehead, Schiavetti, MacKenzie & Metz,
2004)
• Although one study does show growth in
vocabulary in a classroom that uses primarily
(though not exclusively) signed English (Gioia,
2001)
Oh, signed English…
• While it was a step in the right direction to
include signs in the classroom once again,
research indicates that this method was not
successful in raising linguistic and literacy
knowledge among Deaf children
• Have any of you been in classrooms that used
signed English before? What were they like?
Wrongful use of ELL
theory
• Livingston also argues that ELL/bilingual
theories of education have been wrongfully
used in Deaf Education
• Goal of transition of instruction to English
• Classes often switch between languages
• Too much focus on grammar
What do you think?
• Are there lessons to be learned from bilingual
education?
• What, if anything, can be taken from bilingual
methods and applied to Deaf Education?
My problem with whole
language….
• Reading research has found that whole language
doesn’t really work (i.e., National Reading Panel,
2000)
• While teaching phonics and phonemic awareness
to Deaf children is not something that makes a lot
of sense…
• Assuming a “whole language” philosophy in
regards to English grammar may be problematic
• But this is a completely personal opinion of mine,
there is no research I know of one way or the other
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
CI Corner
• Expressive spoken language development in
deaf children with cochlear implants who are
beginning formal education
• By Inscoe, Odell, Archbold, Nikolopoulos
• Their backgrounds: Speech therapy, “The Ear
Foundation,” and an ENT surgeon… So, medical
model
• Published in Deafness and Education
International in 2009
The abstract is long…
• Here are the highlights (knowing that I am biased as I
pull from it).
• While just over half of the group had acquired spoken
language grammar skills equivalent to or above those
of a normally hearing three year old, there remains a
sizeable group who, after three years of cochlear
implant use, had not attained this level. Spoken
language grammar therefore remains an area of delay
for many of the children in this group. All the children
were attending school with hearing children whose
language skills are likely to be in the normal range for
four to six year olds.
CI Corner
• Participants: 45 children, all prelingually deaf
• 25 were completely oral, 20 used TC
• 30 in the mainstream, 15 in programs for the
deaf within a public school
• What did they do?
• Three years after implantation, they tested
spoken grammar skills
CI Corner
• So, only 58% had acquired 3 years worth of
spoken language and grammar after 3 years of
implantation
• That means almost half of the children were
delayed
• They note that the average implant age is 27
months, and so the children were already
delayed
• But we know they did not have to have a
language delay, if they’d been signed to….
CI Corner
• Despite the clear bias of the authors of this
study, the outcomes are still not great
• 42% of implanted children in this study were still
delayed three years later
• Although they do support earlier implantation,
they also say that the educational context must
take into account the needs of individual
children
• Any responses to this?
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
Break!
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
DC
• They shut down the program!!
• What did you think about this turn of events?
• What do you think it meant for the children?
DC
• Like everything in life, there were pros and
cons about this program
• Think, pair, share
• Think (silently!) for one minute about the pros
and cons of the program
• Share your thoughts with a neighbor
• Come to the board and write down what you
discussed in the appropriate spot
DC
• Closing thoughts?
Agenda
• Discussion: Tiffany
• Impairment versus Empowerment
• What’s wrong with signed English, and other lessons
from REDS
• CI Corner
• Break!
• Practice: Putting DC to bed
• Putting Deaf history, culture and experience in the
curriculum
Practice: Deaf culture in
the curriculum
• The article for this week strongly encouraged
teachers to include Deaf culture, history, and
community in the curriculum
• Today in groups you will think about how to
plan a lesson on such a subject
In trios…
• Pick:
• A grade level
• A Deaf cultural topic (think cultural practices,
language use, historical figures, and so on)
• Plan out a lesson (obviously a draft!)
•
•
•
•
What materials would you need?
How would you introduce the topic?
What would the students do?
What would you want them to take away from
the lesson?
Sharing
• What were your lesson ideas?
Wrapping it all up
• My major take-aways from today:
• What we do as teachers can impair or empower
our students – and we should empower them!
• Lessons from other minority groups in
education are not always easily applied to Deaf
students
• Deaf culture and history are an important part
of the curriculum
Reminder
• From this week, you have 10 weeks left to post
on the discussion board, which is exactly the
number of times required.
Housekeeping
• I will be out of town from tomorrow until
Sunday, so any response to e-mail may be
delayed –apologies!
• Next week (February 22) we will be talking
about building and using ASL skills to build a
language base
• Colleen will be our discussion leader!
Have a wonderful week!