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Hayley Harkins
Chambers
AP Lit
8 September 2013
Signed Exact English
There are roughly twenty-one million people in the United States that are deaf or have
some form of hearing loss. Those twenty-one million people have many different ways of
communicating, different forms of sign language. According to the Signed Exact English center,
approximately 21 million people having hearing loss in the United States (SEE Parent Packet).
There is often debate over which form of sign language ought to be taught to children who are
hard of hearing or are born deaf. Although, American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign English,
and Oral Communication or speech reading are widely popular in the United States, Signed
Exact English, or SEE, is the better choice because of its use of English sentence structure.
Signed Exact English should be taught to deaf children initially because it teaches them proper
sentence structure where as other forms of deaf correspondence in the United States, such as
Pidgin Sign English, American Sign Language, and Oral Language, does not. Signed Exact
English will teach deaf children how to accurately write and decrease the illiteracy rate in the
United States.
Pidgin Sign English, or PSE, is a combination of American Sign Language and Signed
Exact English, but not all words in a sentence are signed, therefore children who sign in Pidgin
Sign English can become confused when reading or writing. The SEE Center packet describes,
“English idioms are signed according to ASL concepts; e.g. “cut it out” would be changed to
“stop” or “finish!”. This incomplete exposure to English may result in a restricted understanding
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of English vocabulary and grammar, leading to reading difficulties” (SEE Parent Packet). If a
deaf child who first learned Pidgin Sign English attempted to write or read, their vocabulary
would be very limited. In Signed Exact English, there is a sign for every word, which includes
signs for prefixes, suffixes, prepositions, and articles. The SEE Center says, “The vocabulary is
drawn from ASL but follows English word order. Words that do not carry information (e.g. to,
the, am, etc.) are often dropped, as are words with endings of English (e.g. –ed, -s, -ment, etc.)”
(ASL, SEE, Sign, & Signed English). Although, Pidgin Sign English is one of the most
commonly used forms of sign language in the United States, it lowers the literacy rate when
people of the deaf community write with a lessened vocabulary.
American Sign Language, or ASL, though most popular amongst the deaf community,
has its own form of grammar, thus lowering the literacy rate of deaf children and adults in the
United States. The SEE Center explains, “Because ASL does not follow English word order or
vocabulary, speech is not used with ASL” (SEE Parent Packet). While Signed Exact English
follows the same grammar rules and syntax as English, American Sign Language is a foreign
language all on its own. The sign for the word ‘car’ in American Sign Language is one’s hands
in the letter ‘a’ as if they were holding a steering wheel (American Sign Language “car”). This is
sign is also used for truck and other forms of ground transportation (American Sign Language
“truck”). In Signed Exact English, the words ‘truck’ and ‘car’ have different signs. The sign for
‘car’ in Signed Exact English is two hands in ‘c’ moving away from each other, while the sign
for ‘truck’ is two hands in ‘t’ moving away from each other. Gustason and Zawolkow say,
“Children who learn ASL as their native language from their parents have been shown to
develop better English skills than those who were not exposed to sign language; however
children of deaf parents who signed to them from infancy in English mastered English to an even
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greater degree” (Gustason and Zawolkow X). Signed Exact English should be instructed to
children because it will help them understand English on a greater level than those who are
initially taught American Sign Language.
Speech reading is a wonderful technique for deaf people to possess, but most of the time
one is not able to detect everything the speaking person is saying. The SEE Parent Packet says,
“The best speech[ ]readers often catch only 25% of what is said and use their knowledge of
English and of the topic to fill the gaps. Half of the sounds of English look like some other
sounds on the lips” (SEE Parent Packet). If one deaf person was conversing with a hearing
person and trying to speech read what the hearing person was saying, it could become
problematic. If the deaf person had initially learned American Sign Language, which has its own
grammar, then it would become incredibly difficult to understand what the hearing person was
saying. Although, if the deaf person had initially learned Signed Exact English, it could become
easier because the same grammar used in Signed Exact English and English. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention relate, “…some words can't be read. For example: ‘bop,’ ‘mop,’
and ‘pop,’ look exactly alike when spoken. (You can see this for yourself in a mirror). A good
speech reader might be able to see only 4 to 5 words in a 12-word sentence” (Learning
Language). It is incredibly hard for deaf people to try to understand what other people are saying
by reading lips because of the very fact that 75% of what is said is missed.
Signed Exact English should first be taught to deaf children over American Sign
Language, Oral Language, and Pidgin Sign English because it is the identical to spoken English.
Children who first learn American Sign Language or Pidgin Sign English have an arduous time
reading and writing because of the prefixes, suffixes, prepositions, vocabulary, and syntax used
in English. The SEE Parent Packet expresses “The ASL sign for the concept of “pretty, lovely,
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beauty, beautiful” and the synonyms is retained for beauty, initialized with P for pretty, L for
lovely, and the suffix –ful added for beautiful. The child thus has an opportunity to develop an
expanded vocabulary. The learning of this English based sign system may be more comfortable
for English-speaking parents”(SEE Parent Packet). It is better for deaf children, along with
hearing parents, to learn Signed Exact English when the first begin learning to communicate, and
then transition to Pidgin Sign English or American Sign Language, thus giving children the
ability to read and write in English as well as the ability to communicate with the greater deaf
population.
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Works Cited
"American Sign Language: "car"" "car" American Sign Language (ASL). N.p., n.d. Web. 08
Sept. 2013.
"American Sign Language: "truck"" "truck" American Sign Language (ASL). N.p., n.d. Web. 08
Sept. 2013.
"ASL, SEE Sign, & Signed English." ASL, SEE Sign, & Signed English. Listen Up, n.d. Web. 15
Aug. 2013.
Gustason, Gerilee, and Esther Zawolkow. Signing Exact English. Los Alamitos, CA: Modern
Signs, 1980. Print.
"Learning Language." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 16 July 2012. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
"Parent Packet." SEE Center. SEE Center, 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Aug. 2013.
Sephenson, Patrice, and Esther Zawolkow. "Communication Considerations: SIGNING EXACT
ENGLISH (SEE)." Hands & Voices. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Aug. 2013.