Language and the

Deaf ChildJessica Scott

DE 576: Session 5, February 15, 2012Boston 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 use 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• Recommended book: Pedagogy of the

Oppressed

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?

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 by more than two years

• 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!