jillio

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VOLUME 29 , NUMBER 4 -April 1998
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Sign language may help deaf children learn English
Research reveals some unexpected benefits of American Sign Language.
By Beth Azar
Monitor staff
Language learning in the deaf community is in critical condition.
Despite efforts to mainstream deaf children into public schools and to develop new techniques for teaching English to deaf children, the average deaf high school graduate reads and writes at the fourth-grade level, say deaf education experts.
Until recently ideas about how best to teach language to deaf children were based more on strong feelings than science. Some psychologists hope to change that. They?re stepping in to provide a scientific base to the long simmering debate: Should deaf children be taught American Sign Language (ASL) first and then be taught English?an option known as bilingual education? Or should they be taught English only?
English-only education provides either oral training, which concentrates on lip reading and written English, or 'total communication' training, which uses oral English as well as signed English. Signed English is simply English translated into signs, and linguists don?t consider it a language per se. In contrast, ASL is as different from English as any foreign language, with its own vocabulary and grammatical structure.
Oral-only and total communication training have dominated American education of deaf and hard of hearing children over the past 20 years. More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, many of whom want their children in English-only programs. They assume that learning ASL will impede learning English and that English-only programs will best facilitate it.
But recent research is beginning to gather evidence for the opposite: Learning ASL doesn?t appear to hurt subsequent English learning but appears to enhance it.
Apples and oranges
Signed English provides an inadequate base for learning any language, says educational psychologist Jenny Singleton, PhD, of the University of Illinois. As early as the 1970s Ursula Bellugi, PhD, and her colleagues found that signed English is visually cumbersome and that it takes speakers nearly twice the time to produce a sentence in signed English than in oral English or ASL. Signed English takes so long, in fact, that it?s feasible for a child to forget the beginning of a proposition before seeing the end.
Also, because signed English isn?t truly a language, it doesn?t mimic English grammar well, says University of Rochester psychologist Elissa Newport, PhD. For example, with grammatical constructions like 'he is walking,' English-based signers may leave off the 'ing' portion of the verb, producing 'he is walk.'
'It?s hard for children to deduce the grammar of English from seeing something that?s not grammatically like English,' says Singleton.
ASL is also nothing like English. But researchers believe it provides a solid language base on which to build a second language. And several studies support their claims.
For example, Michael Strong, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco, and Philip Prinz, PhD, of San Francisco State University found a strong relationship between ASL proficiency and English literacy in 140 students attending a residential school for the deaf. The students whose ASL proficiency improved over the three years of the study also showed significant improvements in English literacy.
In a recent study of 80 deaf children, Singleton and Sam Supalla, PhD, of the University of Arizona found similar results.
They evaluated the written English skills of children attending three types of schools:
? A bilingual school where educators use ASL as the primary instruction language and teach English as a second language.
? A traditional residential school for the deaf where teachers use oral and signed English. These children learn some ASL from peers who learned it at home.
? A public school where teachers and interpreters use English-based sign. These children have no exposure to ASL.
Children in the bilingual school were the most proficient in ASL, with some children in the residential school showing proficiency and none of the children in the public school, says Singleton. When the researchers examined writing samples from the children, they found a strong relationship between higher proficiency in ASL and better writing for children between ages 9 and 12. They didn?t find such a correlation for children under age 9, which isn?t surprising, says Singleton, since children at that age don?t tend to write much.
'Across several studies we?re seeing indications that exposure to ASL certainly isn?t hurting English proficiency and may be enhancing it,' says Singleton.
The finding is pretty robust, agrees sociolinguist Claire Ramsey, PhD, of the University of Nebraska. She and Carol Padden, PhD, of the University of California?San Diego have begun to examine the connection between ASL proficiency and English proficiency.
In a recent pilot study of 30 deaf students, Padden and Ramsey examined how specific aspects of ASL proficiency tracked to English. They found that finger spelling and knowledge of initialized signs?knowing that in ASL you can sometimes use the first letter of a word as a shorthand for that word?correlate with reading and writing ability in English. Padden is expanding on these findings to discover the mechanism responsible for this relationship.
A resource for learning
Of course, beyond a mechanism that helps children move from ASL to English, sign language is a useful resource for teaching children English, says anthropologist and educator Carol Erting, PhD, of Gallaudet University. She and her research team study language interactions between children and adults. In particular, they look at the interaction between deaf children and their deaf parents. They?re finding that deaf parents who are bilingual?speaking American Sign Language (ASL) and reading and writing English?spend a lot of time interacting with their children in both languages. They build bridges between ASL and English during everyday interactions by signing in ASL and pointing to English words in books or articulating words with their lips. In fact, she finds that these parents begin finger spelling and showing their children books when they are only a few months old. ASL gives children a language in which to think and process complex thought. Adults can then use their ASL proficiency to teach them English, says Erting.
Without such a base, children are at risk of never fully developing proficiency in any language, says Singleton. 'We now have this new generation of students [trained in signed English] who are not developing proficient English or ASL,' says Singleton. 'Do they even have a native language? They seem to have lots of nouns and verbs but they string them together without the grammar links necessary for understanding what they mean.'
Researchers are not finished with their studies, but some communities aren?t waiting for the results, says Singleton. A handful of ASL-based bilingual schools have cropped up around the country use ASL to teach the children about English.
'Some people think it?s tantamount to child abuse not to provide these children with ASL training,' says Singleton. 'Especially since the latest research suggests that an ASL-first approach can lead to better English learning outcomes.'
A special August issue of Topics in Language Disorders (Vol. 18, No. 4) will address ASL and English literacy development.
Cover Page for This Issue




© PsycNET 2008 American Psychological Association

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Buffalo

Yaaaayyyy! Another score for ASL! Keep them coming in, Jillio! Thanks!!!

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It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.
- Gilbert Chesterton

jillio

YW. Just a little something to support our claims.

deafbajagal

Cheers!!!!

shel90

Right on Jillo!!!


Let's do away with the oral-only education programs!!!

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~Shel~

Cheri

There is no universal sign language, so I don't see why ASL has to be the only signs that deaf people should use? There is nothing wrong with Signed Exact English, I don't care how long it takes to finish a sentence. A sign language is a sign language nothing more nothing less.

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jillio

I agree that there is no "universal" sign language. In conversation, it really doesn't matter what language a person chooses to use, as long as they are able to make themselves understood and can understand others. But in an educational atmosphere, it is important that children receive instruction using proper models of language. Just as hearing children are taught proper English grammar, or if they are learning a different language such as Spanish, they are taught proper Spanish grammar.

Using SEE does not make a child bilingual. It makes them bimodal. The only language they are learning and using is English.

morbid-mongoose

I still don't understand why someone wouldn't want their kid to learn both ASL and English. It's so stupid. But kudos to the researchers.

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"If you can't dazzle the world with your knowledge, then baffle them with your bullsh*t."

Interpretrator

"Unexpected."

The rest of the world really needs to catch up.

Good article though.

jillio

I agree...the word "unexpected" is a bit behind the times.

deafskeptic

QFT. I wonder when they will stop discounting our experience?

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Left ear implanted with Med-El on April 24 2007.
Activated on May 9th.

Buffalo

I do care. I just don't want to fall asleep waiting for a friend to finish what s/he had to say. Maybe I am impatient or my brain is on high gear.

__________________

It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.
- Gilbert Chesterton

Cheri

Wow!! I didn't realized some deaf people were so judgmental, that gives me a reason to be more involve in the hearing world.

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jillio

Buffalo wasn't being judgemental. She was simply stating her preference. She did not say that people who use a signed form of English are bad...she just said she prefers ASL for her own communication.

Cheri

Oh Please, don't come off as defending Buffalo.
She speaking about a "friend" sure doesn't sound like she speaking about her own form of sign. I don't think I want to social with people who mocks at my signs either.

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jillio

But, Cheri, she didn't say her friend was a horrible person for signing English. She just said that the signed English caused her to loose attention to what her friend was saying. She was talking about the method of signing, not the person. She did say that this was a "friend". If she was being judgemental, this person would not be her friend. That is the difference. And I think that Buffalo was using "friend" in an abstract way, not speaking of a specific person.

Signed English provides an inadequate base for learning any language, says educational psychologist Jenny Singleton, PhD, of the University of Illinois. As early as the 1970s Ursula Bellugi, PhD, and her colleagues found that signed English is visually cumbersome and that it takes speakers nearly twice the time to produce a sentence in signed English than in oral English or ASL. Signed English takes so long, in fact, that it?s feasible for a child to forget the beginning of a proposition before seeing the end.

This is what Buffalo was agreeing with.

Cheri

Whatever, this gives me a reason to leave AllDeaf. I'm tired of this BS.

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Kalista

Would a Deaf person tolerant to visual English sign....

" I will go to the store to buy a milk for my mother tonight after work."

ASL= Zoom store buy milk after work.

Which is better for you to comprehensive in communication effectively English and ASL ? Straight English using alot of verbs, it will make me fell asleep as boring conversation... ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Do not mean to offense to the oral people, just want to tell the truth. ASL is more effectively for the Deaf people's quickly conversation.

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Enjoy the Autumn time as much as we can. The foliage are such beautiful in Vermont and New Hampshire.

jillio

Why would you want to leave? No one wants you to leave. No one is trying to upset you. Just because another person says that they would prefer ASL as their communication is no reason to leave. These posts have nothing tod o with which language a person was taught. If they are critical of anything it is the educational system, not deaf people who were taught SEE.

Kalista

Cheri - Please do not leave AllDeaf, we all of us want to educational you. From my understanding that you raise in oral method. ASL is more popular nowadays, if you socialize more with Deaf people to pick up their language and culture. You will understand better. One of my friend who struggle to understand what is ASL within 38 years. He finally understand with his master degree, he realizes what he have so so much miss in Deaf language and culture. Now, he admires into Deaf Education and School, currently a teacher for the Deaf children. He is realistically into Deaf world now...

Give you more time to learn from us. Our education would NEVER end, we learn everyday until we die. Please do not blame yourself ! Your parents think, what is the best for you. Obviously, they have not look into other side Deaf School when you were little kid.

My parents put me into horrible horrible Deaf school during my childhood, I miss so so much academic because I was in speech therapist 75% and classroom 25%. That is why, I am still struggle in writing English structure. I am still learning until I die. No one is perfect, it is our Parents, Teachers and Audiologist put us in wrong method during our childhood.

Please do not discourage yourself. Blame the society cause many Parents are confused what is the best for their Deaf children. I was suffered due to physical and verbal abuse for years at Deaf School. I need to move on with my life. Thanks God, I have a good career and raise wonderful sons. Looking into positive and bright side of our life!

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Enjoy the Autumn time as much as we can. The foliage are such beautiful in Vermont and New Hampshire.

DreamDeaf

Actually, I was raised oral - grew up in a hearing family with no ASL skills - and went to an oral school for the deaf after being removed from several schools for the deaf that were ASL based in classrooms.

It wasn't until later that I was mainstreamed into regular elementary classes in my school district when the real reason came out. I was so far advanced in academics than other students my age, as I grew up with a grandmother who was a teacher, and later, with my mother, who was a teacher herself before becoming a high school counselor. Being in classes with my deaf peers had me so frustrated with them, as it was constant repetition in so many subjects - I got bored easily as I learned the subject matter faster than most of them, even in classes with other children at least two to three years older than I was. I got so frustrated, I deliberately flunked out the last year I was in that school so I could leave.

I was tested the summer before I was mainstreamed, and while my score results ranked higher than those for the grade level for my age, it was allowed that I should be placed in the grade where children my age were in, in order to allow me to learn how to socialize with people my age and to be able toget used to the faster pace they were accustomed to.

I did not interact with many deaf people during my mainstreamed school years, except for a club for the mainstreamed deaf students in high school.

I graduated 7th in a class of 54 students, with honors in mathematics, history and english. Yes, English.

I did not learn sign language until I was 28 years old, despite knowing other deaf people that were proficient in ASL since high school. My friends were patient with me, knowing that I was just not ready. I already had some home signs with them, and they were able to understand me most of the time. When I was ready, they were very happy to teach me all they knew - and more.

To me, sign language has no barriers, no limit. I have friends who grew up using SEE, I have a cousin that uses cued speech, I grew up oral with many hearing friends. I have seen many different versions of sign language - and I think it's a beautiful language, no matter what form it takes.

To me, deaf IS deaf. Cochlear implants, Behind the Ear, hard of hearing, no matter - we are all deaf, period. I am able to embrace the concept of deafness, in any form.

Communication is the key- period. It should not matter how we communicate - what should matter is that we are understood, and able to get our point across.

To see our community fractured, over something so simple as being understood - it's sad.

jillio

I couldn't agree with you more, Dream Deaf. It does not matter how a deaf child communictes, but that they are able to communicate.

You have achieved wonderful accomplishments, both personally and educationally. My concern is that all deaf children be given the opportunity to achieve the same.

Angel

!!

flip

DreamDeaf, well written post! Somehow this made me think of the term deafhood.

Bear