Article re: Sign Language vs Oralism

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Eriol

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seeking opinions for article

Hi

I am a profoundly deaf student who uses Oralism to communicate and I'm currently learning ASL. I study at Lester B. Pearson College, the UWC of the Pacific.

I am writing an article as part of my application for a writing internship, and my topic is 'To Speak or To Be Silent', regarding the debate about sign language vs. oralism. If you don't mind, could any of you take the time to express your thoughts on some of the following questions? I would be really grateful!


Sign Language vs Oralism

(If you could choose) would you choose to be completely Oral or completely SL?
or do you feel that it is best to know both?

if you were forced into learning SL/Oralism, do you regret being forced to learn it?
what are the advantages of SL, and/or the advantages of Oralism?
What are the disadvantages? are there advantages/disadvantages to being completely Oral/completely SL?

could you also say whether you are using SL, or Oralism, or both.

I will ask for full permission, personally, before using any of your replies in my article, and I would be completely willing to change screennames if necessary to protect your privacy.

Thank you in advance!
 
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My feeling is that both are very good skills. But this is my opinion. Sign Language is the language of the deaf and also helps a deaf person know EVERYTHING that is going on. Say for instance, a parent uses sign language on his/her kid the kid will know everything that is being said. The kid will get all of the information. But if another parent is strictly oral with his/her kid the kid will only catch 30 to 35 percent of what is being said. You see the difference?
 
(If you could choose) would you choose to be completely Oral or completely SL?
or do you feel that it is best to know both?I probably would use SL as my primary language while carrying the ability to lipread-- to be "oral" is ambivalent for me-- it may be useful to just speak to people to get what I need or want but I feel content by being able to lipread the hearing people and then writing down what I want to say to them if they have no knowledge of SL.

if you were forced into learning SL/Oralism, do you regret being forced to learn it? what are the advantages of SL, and/or the advantages of Oralism?
What are the disadvantages? are there advantages/disadvantages to being completely Oral/completely SL?

Personally I didn't feel I was forced to learn SL or anything (it is like saying that an American hearing child was FORCED to learn English) but I want to include my fiance here because he grew up orally by his choice (he did know ASL in elementary and found it embarassing) and then learned ASL again in highschool and now he felt that by growing up oral he lost a sense of identity and understanding. He remembered that he barely understood anybody (he is PROFOUNDLY deaf and he went through until 7th grade with NO interpreter!) and he felt very isolated. He said if he was to relive his childhood, he might would like to have SOMEbody who encourage and communcite with him via SL . Again, he chose oralism by his own will-- his parents didn't protest or anything. (They did take SL classes but if the kid doessn't want to use it, fine what can they do? They still heed to him so they can still communicate no matter what kind of method available to either party)
The con of being oral is that he fell through the cracks in education-- HE WENT ALL WAY TO 7th GRADE WITH NO IDEA WHAT HE HAD LEARNED. It was a miracle that he was able to bounce back and passed with flying colors in highschool and through college as well! Nobody acknowledged him as a deaf because he didn't use SL. No body is making sure he understood or anything. That is the disadvantage of oral-- everybody assumes if you can speak, you are FINE on your own. They dont understand that being oral doesn't change a deaf person to be a HEARING.

could you also say whether you are using SL, or Oralism, or both.
I am using SL and my fiance is using SL now. He only uses his voice with family or at shopping malls for merely questions or whatnot.
 
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