Quote:
Originally Posted by Bear
my question is- in a ASL only enviroment, will they learn english or will they learn to write in ASL?
I believe adding spoken English, also helps to foster the written English.
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I would agree that exposure to both is beneficial, but I think in the case of a deaf child, exposure to the written form of English improves the spoken form rather than the other way around. But Bi-Bi idoes not promote an ASL only environment. Followers of this philosophy just keep the 2 languages separate, because of the differences in grammar and syntax. They don't try to change sign to fit English format, and they don't try to change English to fit ASL format. Each language is kept pure. A student in a Bi-Bi program learns to write in English grammar and syntax through the methods that have already been proven successful for teaching ESL.